Santa Claus Ain't Coming to Town

“You better watch out, you better not cry. You better not pout—I’m telling you why: Santa Claus is coming to town. He’s making a list and checking it twice. He’s gonna find out who’s naughty and nice... he sees you when you’re sleeping. He knows when you’re awake. He knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness’ sake!”

Okay, now that your kids are thoroughly creeped out that an old man is watching them while they’re sleeping...

December rolls around and parents start using Santa Claus and the promise of gifts as a motivator for good behavior. "Be good, so Santa will bring you what you want this year!" In other words, do good things (or at least make sure Santa doesn't find out about those temper tantrums), so that you can get all your materialistic little heart desires.

I don't know about you, but to me, this parenting strategy seems a little counterproductive in a home that seeks to honor Christ as Lord.

At best (which is still pretty bad), we're equating Santa with God. Our children write letters listing toys they want to an omniscient person whose only job is to make them happy (as long as they've been nice to their little brother). How many adults treat God the same way? I too have been guilty of praying as if God were a genie to grant my every desire, rather than the sovereign King who has a plan of His own (which is always much better than mine).

Underneath all the sugarplums and sweet little dollies, perpetuating the Santa delusion teaches straight-up heresy.

We intend to teach our children these principles:

God created us, loves us, and knows what is best for us.

→ Therefore, we try to obey God, because we can trust Him.

→ However, even when we make mistakes (sin) and disobey God, He still loves us.

The best thing we can hope for is to have a loving relationship with God, where He satisfies our longing hearts (Psalm 107:9).

→ Only faith in Jesus—rather than any of our actions—can bring us to that fulfilling, loving relationship with God (Ephesians 2:8-9). 

The Santa-Claus-is-watching-so-be-good-so-he-will-bring-you-presents routine blatantly contradicts this truth about reality.

Maybe our kids will come to view God the way we've taught them to view Santa. If we are good enough, he will give us what we want.

Worse—once they find out that Santa is a myth, will they cease to believe in the God they have painted to look just like St. Nick?

We want our kids to love God and want Him for His own sake—not for the things He can give them (if they are good enough).

That said, apologies in advance if our kids end up being the ones to tell yours that Santa isn't real—but something more important than fairy tales is at stake.

Now, we have no intention of completely forsaking the subject of Santa Claus. For one, Santa Claus imagery is prolific at Christmastime. We have a proactive (rather than reactive) parenting strategy—we want our children to learn from us rather than make their own assumptions about reality from the upside-down culture around us.

But instead of jumping on the lying-to-your-children train and insisting that Santa will personally bring gifts to our kids, we spend intentional time teaching our children about the historical Saint Nicholas, a kind, brave, generous man who loved both God and people.* Frankly, we think that this is a much better way to honor him, rather than portraying him as a pudgy, legalistic cookie-fiend who watches children while they sleep.

Photo by Mario Amaral on Unsplash

---

*Click here for one kids' book that helped us introduce this idea, and check out Veggie Tales' silly retelling of the story of St. Nicholas!

Featured Photo by Caleb Woods on Unsplash