The Santa Dilemma (Reject, Receive or Redeem?)

This may offend some people, and I am willing to take that risk for speaking out about what I think to be “The Santa Dilemma”.

I've been seeing a lot of blogs recently that squabble over details like: "Jesus wasn't really born in a stable" or "The Wisemen weren't there when Christ was born". These are details that I think are important to address, but ultimately aren't fighting the right battles. There are issues surrounding Christmas that I think are far more important to deal with and wrestle with than the minor details of the nativity sets.

One of those main issues? SANTA. Santa has been a hallmark of Christmas for some time now and I think that we have 3 choices when it comes to Santa: reject him, receive him or redeem him.

I think our culture has grown to love Santa to the deep level of not fully being able to reject Santa. Santa does have Christian roots. His is the story of a man who loved Jesus and loved the poor. His name was Nicolaus and due to his piety and love was sainted by the church. Due to the love for both the poor and for Christ, St. Nicolaus took some of his earthly wealth and during the year St. Nick gave presents to children who otherwise would have had nothing. St. Nick didn’t spoil the kids with junk and expensive toys, nor did he know with magical powers who was naughty or nice. Neither could he fly or appear to the whole world in one night…those were the add-ons that should be rejected, but St. Nick himself shouldn’t be rejected, his story, legacy, and passion for the Lord should be redeemed and remembered!

As I said earlier, there are areas of the story of Santa that must be rejected. I’ve wrestled with this long and hard because I now have three children who will soon start (and have started) believing in such things. I think there are areas of the story of Santa that actually hinder children from having a deep, rich faith in Christ.

One area the story of Santa that hinders kids faith is the works based reception of gifts. Santa has a list of who is naughty and a list of who is nice. Where a kid lands determines the amount or "type" of gift one gets. I get the idea behind this...to get kids to behave, however when we depict Santa as an all powerful, all knowing being who then decides what blessing to give, based off of merit, how can they think differently about God? Many may be thinking I am taking this analogy too far or "too deep", but I do not think so. Many people to this day struggle with a God who can love them for who they are, and where they are, no matter what they've done. Why create a mythological being who has similar attributes to God and confuse them more with such works based blessings?


Another area that hinders the faith of children is the act of deception. Do I want to lie to my children about an omnipotent, omniscient being who is fat, jolly and gives out tons and tons of toys, only to have them one day find out the truth and be crushed? I have to answer no. I don’t mind having my son sitting on Santa’s lap, or talking to him about the legend of Santa, or explaining how some of what Santa “does” is a myth, I just can’t pass those things off as truth. I just can’t. If I am going to tell my son about Santa Claus and explain how he has similar powers to God and then later my son finds out that Santa is a fake, why would he then believe me when I talk about God?  I lose my credibility with my children in many ways after this.

I actually had an atheist teen in my Youth Group ask me once: “God sounds like Santa.  Santa isn’t real and that's easy to prove, so why should I believe God is real?”  That got me to think about this Santa Dilemma pretty deeply and caused me to shape then (before children) how I would approach this subject.

Aside from the lying…I don’t want to set my kids up for getting crushed emotionally. One day they will find out there is no Santa and it would crush my kids emotionally when they find out the truth, I just don’t desire to be the one responsible for that kind of pain. Knowing that I for 4 or 5 years had lied to my son to only wait for the inevitable blow, and have the lights click on that Daddy had lied to him is too much for me to deal with.  It's also hypocritical. If I do not desire my kid to lie to me, why would I lie to them? This sets up all kinds of lost trust and I am not willing to sacrifice my children’s trust over a myth.

When I share this with my people, I hear: "What about the wonder of Christmas?" I usually say: "If  God becoming a baby isn't 'Wonder' enough, nothing will ever be 'wonderful enough'". Taking time to dsicuss the generosity of a loving God and the sheer beauty of the incarnation should be enough to enrapture any person.

With all of that said, I fully believe that Santa can be redeemed; I think we must redeem St. Nick’s story from the clutches of consumerism! He, like I said, believed in Jesus, lived a life of charity for those in need and those are Christian attributes to be encouraged in our children. Christmas is about Jesus and St. Nick would be appalled at what we have done to take the focus off of Jesus in his name. I am not talking about “taking away Christmas Spirit”; I’m talking about infusing the True Christmas spirit into the Season that is the Spirit of God.

A few years ago, I read this on my friend; Mike Alex’s Facebook wall: “Why do those in the Church feed their children a Santa who gives gifts only if they are good when we have a savior who is alive and gave His life because He was good and perfect and His children were evil? Why don’t we captivate our children with the Gospel?”

St. Nick’s story, the real one could, in fact, captivate our children with the Gospel.  The current narrative is literally one of control and consumerism, while the true story is one of generosity and love. With the current cultural narrative of Santa, one only receives gifts because of how they act…and sadly this has infused our Christian culture (especially in the west) where we expect God to do good and nice things for us because of what we do.  Yet the Gospel says He does them because of his generous and loving heart!

Lastly, I desire to teach my children proper gratitude. If I get a gift for my child, I want them to know it was me who got it for them. I desire to be a good gift-giver to my kids so that I can the reflect how good our Father in Heaven is at giving gifts. If I say that Santa was the one who made and got these things for them, I have stripped them of proper gratitude because they will be thanking the air instead of their Father and Mother.

It pains me that many Christians put more emphasis on Santa than Jesus and many may think my view to be a “Scrooge’s Stance” but   Christmas is about the Advent of Christ, realizing His gift to me was His life and resurrection and at his birth, that chain of events started. Christmas isn’t about what I get, it’s about what I already HAVE…Jesus.

I personally don’t understand why anyone knowing both the Gospel and the real story of St. Nick would choose to willingly craft a lie for their children, a lie that is both manipulative and antithetical to the Gospel.  I do not judge you if you do, nor am I thinking I am better than you if you do share the story of ‘Santa’ the way the culture does, I just don’t see why.  I know my stance on this is strong and I've held to it for many years.