Your children and Santa Claus

We have never done Santa except as a part of our Christmas decoration.

"He" is nothing more than that. Our children have never believed in Santa.

 

I may get pounced upon here but I take a slightly different approach to the "Santa" issue. My wife and I try to use Santa as a demonstration of someone who gives generously 'like God does'. We are careful not mix the stories up, but we point out to our 3 (soon to be FOUR) kids that Santa gives all these toys because that's what God told him to do and he is obeying God.

I hadn't thought about putting "From: Jesus" on the presents; I may well start doing that!

 

We have never taught our children anything about Santa except he is a fairy tale.

 

We always presented Santa as fairy tale. The fun part was trying to explain to our children that while we knew that Santa was a fairy tale, some children actually believe he's real, and it was important for them not to spoil it for them. As far as I know, our kids never spilled the beans to any of their friends.

 

We don't even use the fairy tale. He is just a part of the Christmas fun.

Saves having to explain things when they find out the truth.

The situation with other kids can be difficult.

 

Have you noticed what has happened to the first grade teacher in Texas. The media is having a hay-day. "Can you imagine a teacher telling her students the truth." The shame of it all. We are a country that worships Santa. He is the god that brings love and joy. He is the god who is omnipresent (in all chimneys all in one night) and who is omniscient (he even knows a childs heart...if they have been naughty or nice).

Many blow it off as pure innoscence and just "fun". What did God think of the Israelites who thought it was just innoscence and fun to build themselves a golden calf?

 

Anyone remember the "church lady" skit about Santa? Just an easy two-letter rearrangement from "satan!" Anyway, it was funny.

 

We also have only treated Santa as if he were a cartoon character.....I worded that funny.....he IS only a cartoon character.

They have never believed he was real, and they've all got quite active imaginations and they all love Christmas time. But they talk alot about Jesus' birth, instead of the whole Santa thing.

Don't forget le bel, the "magical" part of Christmas is truly the wondrous thing that we are celebrating.....Jesus' miraculous birth, the angels coming to declare Him, the star over the place where He was.
This idea that Santa is the magical, wondrous part is purely secular, and it points to how much the world has crept in to Christian's thinking. We get these influences without even realizing they are there.

 

Since we have a pretty active children's ministry and the kids see us as authoritative we always face the problem of kids asking us if Santa is real.

 

My kids have no idea who he is. My two year old son saw a Santa decoration in some ones yard and he said "look daddy, Noah!"

 

C4K,

what do you do? We work in the Reformers Unanimous Kids Program, which means we have visitors from all sorts of places, and many are not from Christian families.

I still don't know what to say, except to avoid the issue as much as I can.....

 

We try to avoid it .

When we have to we say something like - "This is something that every family has to decide. You need to talk to your mom and dad about it listen to what they say."

 

LOL 4H_g!

Now for a liberal point of view!

T and I have always loved Christmas, from the Jesus' birth all the way to the fairy tale Santa the media brings to us. So when our kids were very little we told them the fairy tale. No different than Snow White. We had ulterior motives for this. If the presents didn't appear until Christmas Eve, then we didn't have to worry about unwrapped or broken presents(not necessarily the kids but the animals and lack of space).

As they got old enough to realize that not all stories were fairy tales, we taught them about Jesus.(about age two) But we kept this totally separate from Santa because young children have a difficult time discerning between reality and fantasy. "Santa" continued putting the presents out on Christmas Eve.

Somewhere along about 1st grade for each of them, they began realizing that we had two story lines going on. By this time however they knew that anything that came from the Bible was truth. So now, knowing that Santa wasn't in the Bible, they began to ask questions. So who is Santa. We answered them honestly with the story of St. Nicholas. They said, he can't still be alive.(smart kids huh?) Again we told them the truth, that because it was fun we continued St. Nicholas' idea of leaving presents on Christmas Eve. Then we asked the kids, why did they think that St. Nicholas would have left gifts on Christmas Eve? They very quickly made the correlation to the wise men bringing presents to the new born Christ child.

As for how we kept the older smarter one(s) from telling the younger ones, they agreed that it was fun to play the fairy tale. They then became Santa too, because they knew the "secret".

This year, they are all old enough to all know the "secret". Hehe, that means they are also old enough to buy/make presents for each other. They decided that their gifts were going under the tree now! But the stuff we give them waits till Christmas Eve. (back to ulterior motives, but I can't tell why. Son is looking over my shoulder. )

 

Jimmy and I don't have children yet but we just had the discussion the other day as to whether or not we would ever do "Santa" when we have them. It was quickly agreed that there would be no Santa...ONLY JESUS!

 

I couldn't agree more with that statment. (Someone with actual brains on this board) Satan Clause is a tool of the devil that draws children away from Christ. Did you know the name "Kris Kringle" in German is translated into "Christ Child" .....interesting

 

Santa's not omnipresent haven't you ever seen the movie "The Santa Clause"? He uses Santa magic to get down all those chimneys in one night.

He's also not omniscient. He only knows whether a child is naughty or nice. He has no idea what made them that way.

 

And he has to depend on a list delivered by FedEx to find out who is naughty and nice .

 

Oh man...you guys need to chill out and relax.

Maybe move to a cave somewhere just with the Bible and out of city limits.

My kids love Santa Clause and it is harmless and fun. Gosh...