Belief in Santa a Salvation Issue?

I think the choice of when to tell should be left within the home of the ones who allow Santa. There is a readiness for children who are still not able to discern the difference between fantasy and reality, and the parent, not another well meaning adult, will and should be responsible for it.

Other children have said things to my children for years to negate the myth, but my children did not care. My oldest asked for the truth and was told the whole truth and our reason for perpetuating the story. That Christmas, was more fun for her because she got to watch the eyes of her siblings and be a part of our secret
giving.

My second child is not mature. She is sweet and very innocent and naive. Even at 9, Santa added a sparkle to her holidays. A woman from our church decided this Summer that it was for her own good that she be told the truth. She told her that her parents lied to her, that there was no Santa Claus, that we snuck presents out. What is a 9 yr old supposed to do with that news? It crushed her, and for months she cried often, and does not want presents. Now when she sees his picture or hears a song when he is mentioned, she cries unconsoleably. She was not ready or prepared for that.

Someone reading this may think it is our fault for not telling her the truth from the very start. That is fine if you want to blame me. As a parent, I thought I had some leeway and responsibility for what my children believe and how to lead them gently into all truth. To have that stripped away by someone, even with the best of intentions, is highly irresponsible, and damaging. If you are considering confronting the truth in the life of a child, without consulting their parents first, then be aware that the consequences for such negligence are equally worthy of a millstone about the neck, for causing a young one to stumble. Let the parents parent their child in the area of Santa.

I had someone tell me that we could have glossed over the event, and helped her to believe again. She asked us to tell her the whole truth. We did, just as we had for the oldest child. The notion that this woman told our daughter that we had been lying to her hurt more than the shattering of her myth. When asked, we do share the whole truth with them as they are able to receive it, unless we are forced to speed up the clock. When they ask where babies come from, we share with them as we feel they can handle the candid information, not sooner. It's our prerogative, just as I thought it was our time and ways concerning Santa.

Yes, I am a bit angry still about it. Please pray that I might forgive this person, and help my daughter enjoy the deeper and more lasting truths about Christmas

David

 

I'm not sure I've ever heard of anyone looking to go to heaven becasue they did something santa for christmas. So all in all I believe this to be pretty silly.

 

Pete quotes himself from elsewhere on the board:

If the "Santa Claus" as presented today is real, he is an incredibly unfair critter. The song says he makes a list of who is naughty or nice, the list would be more like how much the child's parents make.

If Nicholas of Myra (the man the Santa Claus stories grew from) was alive today I am sure he would sue all "Santa Claus" promoters for slander. Or at least slap them as he allegedly did Arius at Nicea.

Last year at Christmas time I told the Sunday school children the truth about Nicholas at the start of the lesson for the day, then said something along the lines of "Nicholas would want us to concentrate on Jesus and not him..." and explained a couple of carols line by line.

Nicholas would want kids to be happy, but not at the expense of truth. The baby in the manger sure wasn't Santa.

I thank God that my parents always told me the truth.

Pete

 

Gee, when I was a kid, I saw 'getting presents' as GRACE!

 

Belief in Santa is NOT a salvation issue. The issue is "Is it acceptable within christianity to teach our young that Santa is REAL?" This has nothing to do with the imagination or creativity. It is an issue of truth. When in the scripture is it ever taught that it is ok to teach fable or popular myth as fact. Is it alright to go along with this in the name of "harmless fun"? Are we undermining Parental Authority if we tell children that are not our own that Santa is a myth? What if the children come to us believing some other lie, such as "The Great Pumpkin" or any other thing that comes to mind? Where does it end? Pretty soon we are in the position that whatever you believe is ok, just believe something!
I have been called an extremist because I will not go along with this popular myth of Santa. What is extreme about standing for truth?

 

No, of course not. Just a part of childhood.

 

Dear Mr. Tuor,
You are an extremist fanatic. You put Parental Authority above truth. You are an extremist. You would have what you deem "love" take precedence over truth and the holiness of God. You do not understand that love without truth is not love at all.

 

What a cruel post ... What did Santa ever do to you? ... Next thing you will be telling us is there is no Easter Bunny!... Brother Glen

 

I think you'd see a problem underminding parental authority if it were your children someone were going outside your authority on. Each family of parents are to teach their own children, you can not teach them something outside of what the parents allow, no matter what you think is right for them to know or believe.
In other words, mind your own business, and someone elses children are not your business.

 

Other people's children are my business. I teach in a christian school - Not a secular institution. We have a mandate to teach the truth. We teach with love but we do not shy away from the truth. When a child asks us a question that has only one answer we do not deflect that question away with the possibility that it may never be answered with the truth. Just because Satan has developed a popular myth does not mean that we are to be detered in our stand for the truth. No matter how hard you work it, Santa is not real. Santa is not real. Santa is not real. Ask whomever you will, Santa is not real. Just because it is a popular lie does not give it any more credibility than any other lie.
We also do not support any other fables as truth. Blacks did not evolve from apes. Evolution is poorly contrived science. The Holocaust did happen. Etc., Etc., Etc.
You draw your line in the sand where you want, we will stick with the truth.

 

So, if a white couple dropped off a black kid, and you found out that the couple had adopted (unknown to the kid), you'd tell the kid the truth, right? That the people he thinks are his parents aren't related to him?

 

Blacks did not evolve from apes. Evolution is poorly contrived science.

Of course, you'd present these as educational opinions, not factual, since you can't "prove" these viewpoints as factual.

 

Do some adults really take their kids to Disneyland and tell them "That's not really Mickey Mouse, it's some guy in college wearing a costume".??

I hope these same adults also make sure to tell their kids that there's no such thing as witches on broomsticks at holloween.

[ December 17, 2002, 05:17 PM: Message edited by: Johnv ]

 

It's not a bunny. It's a full grown rabbit!!!

 

Well excuse me!... This post was much to do about nothing... but if you really want to get into it... We can discuss the paganism of Christmas and Santa... And take the Easter Rabbit and the egg issue and disect all these things to death on another thread?

As far as the original question the answer is NO! ... Brother Glen Of The Primitive Baptist Brethren

 

Thats what we call a noseybody, someone who thinks everyone elses business is their business. Telling a child to ask their parents is much better then telling a child your parents are liars. And it is in no way lying. Interferring in the parent child relationship and in the God given roll of those parents is none of your business, if my kids were in your school and you did this to them, they'd be out of there the next day. What you have is a good(in your own opinion) to meddel in someone elses parenting. How does it make a child feel to be told their parents are liars. If the parents have choosen to do something santa it is none of your business.

 

As a matter of fact if my child came home and told me the school I was paying was meddeling in my business as a paretn in the parent child relationship that they have no legal right too, I'd sue.