Why Christians Should Not Teach Their Children the Santa Myth.
When Children realize we lied to them about Santa it is only a matter of time before they wonder what else we lied to them about.
Also, the Santa story is antithetical to the gospel and antithetical to the character of ST. Nicholas
Around this time of year there is always a lot of talk about whether or not Christians should teach their children the Santa Clause myth, especially in regards to keeping Christ in Christmas, which, in reality, are two separate issues, as I will explain. As for Jesus being the reason for the season, based on clues from the Bible, it is extremely unlikely that Jesus was born anywhere near the winter solstice and the reasons his birth is celebrated in December at all is because the Church, under the leadership of Pope Julius I, wanted to celebrate the birth of the Savior but did not want to celebrate it close to Easter, the celebration of his Resurrection, and since the pagans already had a lot of celebrations around the winter solstice and the Church was looking to convert the pagans to Christianity it made since to incorporate aspects of Christianity in the already existing pagan feasts and celebrations such as Saturnalia, Yule and the celebration of winter solstice, if for no other reason than to make the assimilation into Christianity easier.
Early Americans, especially the puritans, pointed out that the Bible does not support the birth of the savior being in winter and they viewed Christmas as nothing more than a rebranded Pagan celebration , and therefore a sin. In some settlements in Early America it was even even illegal to celebrate it Christmas, probably at least partially because many of the Christmas celebrations in Europe turned into drunken brawls full of debauchery and lasciviousness akin to today’s Mardi Gras celebration and the early Americans wanted no part in any of that (1). I am not going to spend a lot of time on the Christmas holiday itself, and I personally like a lot of the holiday traditions and think they are wholesome, and if done correctly, can be done to the glory of God. The Bible says that whatever we do should be done to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31), which brings us to the main topic of this discussion, Santa Clause. As for whether or not we should teach the Santa myth to children as truth, I think it is an unequivocal no, and I will explain and defend that position. There are precious few times in the scriptures where lying was looked upon favorably, such as when Rahab, in order to save their lives, lied about the spies Joshua sent into Jericho (Joshua 2-6), but in general, the Bible, and therefore God, is against lying, and telling children that an omnipotent and immortal magical fat man is always watching them and will only give them gifts if they behave in am ill conceived attempt to reign in your children and get them to behave is not an something the Bible approves.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that we should not celebrate Christmas, and as I said before, I think many aspects of the holiday are wholesome and worthy. I am not even saying that it is wrong to put up Santa decorations or to tell the story of Santa for what it is, a story, like Cinderella or Pinocchio, but if we are going to tell children about Saint Nicholas, why not tell them who he really was and what he really did? What I am saying is that as parents and role models, and especially as Christians, we should be intentional about what we teach our children, and while it is sometimes acceptable to withhold information from children that is not yet age appropriate, we should never lie to them, and everything we tell them should be based on truth, especially the truth of the gospel.
While Nicholas was, in fact, a real man, he was almost nothing like the myth, and he certainly isn’t an immortal godlike figure since we know when, where and how he died, and even where he is buried. I think it would be a fair statement to say that the majority of the world, including those who teach the Santa story to their children as truth, know little or nothing about the actual Saint Nicholas, so before I get into the particulars of why we should not teach the Santa myth as truth I will give a brief history of the man it was based on. Some of the people who teach the Santa myth as truth have never even stopped to consider whether or not it was based upon a real person, which makes it even more baffling to me that they would teach it as truth, and many of those who do know about the man the myth was based on intentionally leave out the fact that the good deeds he did in his life were a direct result of his faith in Jesus Christ. This, however, is not uncommon and many of those in today’s society who praise the contributions to society and the kind and noble acts of the likes of Dr. Martin Luther King, Mr. Rogers, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Corrie Ten Boom intentionally ignore and refuse to mention the fact that the only reason they were the kind of people they were was because of their Christian faith, not in spite of it, but it should be no surprise when sinful and fallen world tries to deny God the glory that is rightfully his.
What we know about history is only from what was recorded by those who experienced it or witnessed it, and as it is with most characters from history, there is little known about Saint Nicholas’ upbringing as history tends to record notable events and most people’s childhoods are not what those recording current events write about and it is only after the fact that anyone cares about who the person was as a child, and by that time most, if not all, of the people who have any knowledge of it are long since gone. What little we do know about the early life of St. Nicholas is that he was born in Circa 280 in Patara, Turkey to wealthy family and that his parents died when he was young, though probably not a child, and the inheritance they left made the young Nicholas a wealthy man, and instead of living a lavish lifestyle he used his sizeable inheritance to help those in need. Some of the things Nicholas reportedly did with his money was to save three men who were falsely imprisoned and sentenced to death and to pay the dowry for three sisters to get married to save them from their father selling them into prostitution (2). I know this is not the point of this post and that I am reacting based on limited information, but what kind of a sick man would decide the only two options were to have his daughters get married right away or to sell them into prostitution? Surely there were other options, at least temporary options better than prostitution until something else could be figured out. Also, I can’t help but think if the girls would have been desirable as prostitutes than at least one guy would have been willing to marry them without a dowry.
I was unable to discover what St. Nicholas’ first name was as anything about him that was worthy of note happened after he was bishop and therefore his first name was omitted in deference to his title. St. Nicholas was a devout Christian and spent his entire life in the service of God and after he gave all of his money away he decided to become a monk, but felt God had a higher call for him and began studying to become a priest and was later ordained as the priest of a local perish (3). Nicholas lived in Myra and the bishop died, leaving a vacancy that needed to be filled, and the other bishops decided to make the first priest who entered the church the next morning for early morning prayer the next bishop, and since Nicholas was the first priest to enter that morning to pray he was chosen and ordained as the bishop of Myra (4).
One of the lesser stories known about Nicholas is that when he was a bishop he was part of the council of Nicaea 325 AD and physically assaulted another bishop for teaching blasphemy and heresy, namely that Jesus was not God in the flesh. The story goes that Arius, the bishop of Egypt, taught that was not co-equal to God the Father, but was created by him and was not God in the flesh. Apparently there was only so much blasphemy that Nicholas could stand so he crossed the room and slapped or punched Arius, but since it has been reported as both we can’t be sure what type of assault it was, just that it happened (5). I don’t see why we don’t teach children this part of the story and teach them to stand up for Christianity, and no, I am not suggesting that we teach children to be violent, just that they stand up for what it right, regardless of the cost.
It is recorded that as a result of the assault, Nicholas was stripped of his title and robes, put in chains, and thrown into prison because it was not legal for him to strike another bishop. After the prison guard found Nicholas miraculously out of his chains the next morning Emperor Constantine fully restored him to his position as Bishop of Myra, and the council ultimately decided that the Bible supported a triune God and not what Arius taught (6).
It is believed that St. Nicholas was imprisoned a second time for standing up for what he believed during a time of intense Christian persecution from the Roman empire. St. Nicholas died December 6th, 343 in Myra and was later venerated as a saint and the Catholic Church and Orthodox Churches honor him as the patron saint of children, sailors and prostitutes.
Now that I have given a brief history of St. Nicholas, I want to go straight into why we should not teach the Santa myth as truth. As mentioned earlier, there are only a few rare examples where lying could be considered a righteous act, and teaching that Santa comes down the chimney to reward good children with good gifts and punish bad children with bad gifts is not one of them. The word of God teaches us that we should not lie and that we should not bear false witness, and by teaching the Santa story as truth we are doing both; lying because there is, obviously, not jolly fat man flying around the world and going down the chimneys to give gifts and therefore the story is a blatantly obvious lie, and bearing false witness because in spreading false stories about Nicholas we are bearing false witness against him. Based on what we know about his life, I don’t think Nicholas would be pleased with the myth about him, especially since he lived his entire life to bring glory to God and the Santa myth takes away from the glory of God, in many a myriad of ways. If St. Nicholas punched a guy out for teaching that Jesus was not equal to the Father, what do you think he would do to people who supplant Jesus altogether with a bastardized version of St. Nicholas himself? Besides, why anyone would think it is a good idea to teach demonstrably false things to their children when doing so can possibly destroy the child’s faith in anything the parents tell them, even the Gospel? I personally know a number of people whose loss of faith can be directly traced back to their parents lying to them about Santa.
I don’t think my parents ever told me that Santa was real, but there was a short window in time when I believed he was real because of what other children, and some adults, told me about him, and it never seemed to make sense to me that somehow all children from wealthy homes were better behaved than the children from poor homes and therefore got better gifts, and that is one of the many things wrong with the Santa tradition, that it teaches children that their worth and virtue can be determined by what type of gifts they get in comparison with the gifts given to others. Because the Santa story teaches the false gospel of works instead of the true gospel of grace, it is not only antithetical to the gospel but also antithetical to the character of St. Nicholas who gave gifts to those who needed it, not to those who deserved it. God, who is much better than St. Nicholas or any human can ever hope to be, gives us the ultimate gift, forgiveness and salvation through his son Jesus the Christ, and not a one of us deserves it, and none of us deserves it more or less than another, it is a free gift from God based on his righteousness and not ours. The Santa story teaches that if we are deserving than we will get love, and if not we will be punished, in essence saying that we have to earn the love of God, and nothing could be farther from the truth. Humans are born into a sinful and depraved world and all have fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:8) and it is only through the grace of God that any of us can be saved and it is not of works, least any of us should boast (Ephesians 2:9). The Santa story is teaches children that the reason they did not get a good gift is because they are not a good person, and that leads to a poor self-esteem and a perverted view of the gospel, as well as the view that because their parents can’t afford expensive gifts that they are defective and are not loved by Santa, their parents, and even God.
One of the things that has always bothered me about the classic Christmas cartoon, Rudolf the Red nosed Reindeer is that the orphans were always thought of last, and sometimes forgotten, and when they finally were visited they were not considered worthy of high quality toys but rather misfit toys that no one else wanted, and the toys themselves who were, for some reason sentient, were not worthy of being given to proper children and were only fit to be given to misfit or defective children that no one wanted. As a child from a poor family that did not celebrate Christmas (more on that later) I internalized the message that only good children get good gifts, and since I got no gifts I assumed I was a bad child. Contrast that with the ministry and life of Jesus who spent a large majority of his time with people who were the outcasts and downtrodden among society, people who were full of sin and racked with guilt, and he did not offer them some sort of misfit gospel but rather offered them the same grace and eternal life that he offered to everyone else. God does not offer the gospel to those who deserve it, and indeed, none of us does or can deserve it, but grace is offered as a free gift to us while we are still enemies to God (Romans 5:8).
I remember my father teaching me that the Santa story was of the devil and that it was a sin to celebrate Christmas, however, I don’t think he actually believed the celebration was a sin but just wanted an excuse to never do anything charitable for his family. At any rate, my family did not celebrate holidays, or even birthdays, when I was growing up and did not start celebrating them until my father was no longer in the picture. My father always said that Christmas was a pagan holiday and that it was a sin to celebrate it, and that indeed all celebrations were sinful, however, the Bible says that we should do all things to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31) so if a celebration can be done to the glory of God than it is a good celebration, and even though Jesus was not actually born on December 25th, it brings glory to God if we celebrate Jesus on that day, if that is what we are actually doing. There are people who only think about Christ on Christmas, which is far better than never thinking of him at all, but it would be far better to give glory to God and to be grateful for Jesus all year and not just in December.
Another aspect of the Santa story that is contrary to the gospel, and also a little creepy, are the godlike powers that Santa has such as immortality and omnipotence, and the stories don’t even give God the credit for that but instead attribute it to elf magic. The Santa story has Santa either watching us as if he were a god, or else sending his elves to spy on us and report back, and judging us accordingly. Santa gives gifts based on behavior and grace never enters into the equation, which is completely contrary to the type of giving St. Nicholas actually did, but that is because the traditional Santa story is a way to manipulate children into behaving and the real St. Nicholas was motivated by the love of God, and he did it to give glory to God and tried to do it without being discovered because he wanted God to get the glory and not himself.
When we lie to children, especially if it is to manipulate them and control their behavior, not only does it teach them a false gospel, but it teaches them that we can’t be trusted. Any child with half a brain, when they learn that Santa is not real, starts to wonder what else we have been lying to them about, and if they follow the thought through to its logical conclusion, they will believe that we also lied to them about God in order to control their behavior and make them act in a certain way. Once trust is damaged it can be difficult, if not impossible to restore. Children may be somewhat simple in their thinking, but when something is important and directly impacts them they never forget it.
A few days after my seventh birthday my father, who up to that point I wanted to be just like when I grew up, told me that he never loved me and that I always had and always would be a disappointment to him and that he wished I had never been born. I have never and will never forget that day, where we were at and what brought on the conversation, and most importantly, I will I forget how it made me feel. After that, no matter what my father said or did, he could never convince me that he loved me and my blinders came off and I became aware of all of the horrendous things he did and no longer excused them. Love can cover a multitude of sin, but when you remove the love the ugly truth is revealed, and from that day never looked at my father the same and I exerted every effort to be nothing like him. Even into my early adulthood, whenever I would do something like my father would have done it, even if it were not bad, I hated myself for it and thought I had failed in life. When I was married, my wife knew what a sensitive subject it was and how deeply it would hurt me, so one day when she was mad at me she told me that I was worse than my father ever was. When my wife said that it hurt me so bad that I considered ending my life, both because I knew that if she would say that to me she did not love me, but also because if there was any chance that it was true than I was a complete and utter failure.
In the years sandwiched in between the day my father told me he didn’t love me to the day my father died, he occasionally told me he loved me, mostly when he needed something from me, and since I knew that it was a lie, I assumed that everything else he said was a lie as well. I am sure my father occasionally told me the truth, when it benefited him, but since I knew he would lie to me about something so important as loving me, I felt it was the safe bet to assume that he was always lying to me. My point in bringing up that story is to say, don’t lie to children, they will never forget that you did, and you may never recover the trust you loose when they realize you have been lying to them. There are no real benefits to teaching the Santa myth as truth, and there are a lot of reasons we should not teach it.
https://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmas
https://www.piercedhearts.org/theology_heart/life_saints/nicholas.html
http://www.stnicholasil.org/the-life-of-st-nicholas/
https://www.stnicholascenter.org/who-is-st-nicholas/stories-legends/traditional-stories/life-of-nicholas/how-nicholas-became-a-bishop
https://christiantoday.com/article/when-santa-punched-a-heretic-who-was-saint-nicholas/109386.htm
https://www.stnicholascenter.org/who-is-st-nicholas/stories-legends/traditional-stories/life-of-nicholas/bishop-nicholas-loses-his-cool