This is the year I have the unfortunate task of killing Santa for my 7 year old daughter. My wife and I accepted Christ a couple years ago and prior to conversion we indulged our daughter's belief in Santa, and actually encouraged it. I feel like I've now waited too long and should've ripped off the bandage right away so to speak. My concern is this: My daughter accepted Christ on August 12th (praise God) and I'm concerned that if not handled properly that telling her Santa doesn't exist will also shake her faith in Christ because she believes in Him too, but will she wonder if He's fake now too? I also plan on limiting our giving within our family and giving to the needy by either sponsoring a family or volunteering at a shelter.
Has anyone had this experience as a newer believer with kids? I would love some advice on how to handle this properly.
Dunno about the 'new believer with kids', but I fail to see why you should simply tell her that Santa doesn't exist. St. Nick was a real historical figure, so rather than saying Santa doesn't exist, tell her Santa is based on something from history, similar to the Easter bunny, though I wouldn't advise anything about the EB unless she asks. Kids are very literal-minded at 7, so she'll probably figure it out.
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Don't mess with Yoda!
"There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done.""
-C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (emphasis mine)
"You must be imaginative, strong-hearted. You must try things that may not work, and you must not let anyone define your limits because of where you come from. Your only limit is your soul."
-Chef at the beginning of Ratatouille
__________________ For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries. (Robert Jastrow, God and the Astronomers, W.W. Norton, New York, 1978, p. 116)
This is the year I have the unfortunate task of killing Santa for my 7 year old daughter. My wife and I accepted Christ a couple years ago and prior to conversion we indulged our daughter's belief in Santa, and actually encouraged it. I feel like I've now waited too long and should've ripped off the bandage right away so to speak. My concern is this: My daughter accepted Christ on August 12th (praise God) and I'm concerned that if not handled properly that telling her Santa doesn't exist will also shake her faith in Christ because she believes in Him too, but will she wonder if He's fake now too? I also plan on limiting our giving within our family and giving to the needy by either sponsoring a family or volunteering at a shelter.
Has anyone had this experience as a newer believer with kids? I would love some advice on how to handle this properly.
Why would you want to take Santa away from a kid who still beleives? Soon enough she won't - that magic will be gone, she'll find out at school, or from a friend while playing. And like the rest of us she'll realize that it's our parents who love us so much that they give us these gifts and give us this amazing day. That is such a magnificent realization. It makes us realize how much we are loved. It most certainly does not turn us away from Christ.
Leave her with her beliefs, let her be a child a little bit longer.
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Last edited by Avatar; 28th October 2009 at 04:18 PM.
This is the year I have the unfortunate task of killing Santa for my 7 year old daughter. My wife and I accepted Christ a couple years ago and prior to conversion we indulged our daughter's belief in Santa, and actually encouraged it. I feel like I've now waited too long and should've ripped off the bandage right away so to speak. My concern is this: My daughter accepted Christ on August 12th (praise God) and I'm concerned that if not handled properly that telling her Santa doesn't exist will also shake her faith in Christ because she believes in Him too, but will she wonder if He's fake now too? I also plan on limiting our giving within our family and giving to the needy by either sponsoring a family or volunteering at a shelter.
Has anyone had this experience as a newer believer with kids? I would love some advice on how to handle this properly.
Ain't it interesting the webs of deception we weave around ourselves - then become trapped by them.
How did you explain Halloween? How did you explain the 'tooth fairy'? How do you explain Goldilocks and the Three Bears?
How do you explain Christianity in the 21st century?
So, do you need to kill off everything your kid might believe in?
__________________ Not all those who wander are lost
I agree - let her believe a little longer, but do introduce the story of Saint Nicholas.
In our home is was never a big deal - Santa only fills the stockings. All the other gifts come from family.
__________________ "If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other." Galations 5:15
"...a vice does not lose its nature, though it becomes ever so fashionable" -John Wesley
"To study too much in retreat can become an inexcusable indulgence. It behooves us to share what we have learned, to practice in administering to others what we have gathered from our experience with books" -the Brother Superior of the Glauxian Brothers of the Northern Kingdoms
I agree with rest of you let her believe. I grew up in a Christian home but we believed in Santa. I had no trouble keeping my faith and believing in Santa too. I raised my daughter the same way. There is nothing like getting woke up on Christmas morning by a child wanting you to see what Santa has brought them. The joy in their faces brings joy to your heart. There will be a time soon that the realization of where the gifts come from. Christ’s birth on Christmas day was also a time for rejoicing in our family. But both can be realized and enjoyed at the same time.
I would let it be. This is most likely her last year in that belief.
I myself do not believe or celebrate christmas, as I see it as a roman-pagan holiday honoring sol invictus
or the sun.
But I do not ruin it for others, I just go along with the program.
__________________ Mark 15:38 Enter into the Temple it is now open
to all.
Last edited by GaryP; 29th October 2009 at 07:23 PM.
Every time I see threads like this I keep thinking of this picture.
Yeah, that's not photoshopped at all...
Oh, and Vista IS a bad word next to Windows 7.
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To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Don't mess with Yoda!
"There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done.""
-C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (emphasis mine)
"You must be imaginative, strong-hearted. You must try things that may not work, and you must not let anyone define your limits because of where you come from. Your only limit is your soul."
-Chef at the beginning of Ratatouille
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