Santa... why do so many Christians lie to their children about Santa?

[Aryeh]

You keep saying that children who are continually lied to about Santa Claus feel a breach of trust- I am saying that for the vast majority of people, this just isn't true. Most people (even as kids when they figure out the truth about Santa) don't feel betrayed by their parents. If that were the case, millions of people would be in therapy for being betrayed by their parents with the Santa delusion- unable to trust another living soul.

I know lying is a sin, and one to be avoided, but most people have enough common sense to be able to discern the motive behind a lie. If it were borne of love and not self serving, people can feel like their trust is not breached at all.

Does it make it, then, OK to lie - and continue to lie - because you see little harm in it?

 

[Galatea]

Does it make it, then, OK to lie - and continue to lie - because you see little harm in it?

Lying is a sin- and should be avoided. I posted that already.

My point is lying about the existence of Santa Claus usually does not have this traumatizing effect on people as you have suggested. And, this is a lie borne of love- not self-serving.

My great aunt and her husband had dementia. They believed that people were stealing their things (that were actually misplaced). At first, we tried to reason and tell them the truth. The truth bothered them, made them upset- because we were challenging their delusion. You see, it was more comforting for them to believe people were stealing their things than to believe they were losing their memories.

So, to keep them not frustrated and irritated, we perpetually lied in the sense of not arguing with them and insisting on the truth. We would say "That's awful that they are coming in to steal your ironing board." And then go find said ironing board. My aunt one time said that the people brought it back because they knew they would be in trouble.

We "lied" in order to preserve their delusion that they were perfectly sane and not losing their wits. Was it morally wrong? Yes. Was it borne of love? Yes. What were the effects? They were able to live a little longer at home before he died and she went into a nursing home. And, they had an outer pretend enemy rather than the inner enemy of losing their minds.

 

[Aryeh]

But, it doesn't matter why you lie - that is a morality issue of qualification of "wrong."

What you are doing is justifying it. I have been saying it doesn't matter if the children perceive the reality of anything told to them. The action of telling a falsehood is a lie. I am not arguing how people justify it; that is a personal issue.

 

[JesusLover666]

Santa is real. I live in Jerusalem and santa lives next to my papa. But if santa ain't real nether is god. Oh my am I gonna go to hell?

 

[1John2:4]

I have children and they know Santa is a fake and we are from the camp that Christmas is made up too. I understand that as a parent it is my job to sew truth onto my children not sew lies and fantasy. The world does enough of that already. It is my job to tell them about God, the Bible and Jesus. Why that is not enough for some parents I don't know, why do folks have spread the lie of Santa over and over. It is obvious that it has implications on people's faith. Why would you want another man to stumble? Especially a child? The OP was caused to stumble and it cost Him/Her faith. I don't see that at all as being a harmful little fun white lie. Come on folks we are Christians we are supposed to worship in spirit and in truth. Santa is NOT truth and who really knows what spirit he is from.

 

[GodB4S]

Jesus told of 10 virgins that represented the Kingdom of God...5 virgins made it but 5 did not...only the wise made it!

I was atheist also and painted windows for Christmas...but when I came to the Lord, I was painting this 10 foot window with a face of Santa on it...as I painted the scripture spoke to me: "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death."...it was the last Santa I painted and as I checked out Christmas, it was the last Christmas I celebrated. I did not want to lie about it. I do not wish to be part of something that the LORD is not. A tradition of man that God never made. Yes Jesus was born of a virgin but not in December...Mary went to see Elisabeth in her sixth month when Zacharias was executing the priest's office to burn incense...burning of incense was during the time of the paschal lamb being slaughtered...Abib (lunar calendar)... April or May (solar calendar)...six months pregnant was Elisabeth when Mary just conceived...9 months later is not December 25...God gave 3 holidays to be remembered forever, why do we not keep them instead? Passover, Pentecost, and Feast of the Tabernacles...we rather make up our own holidays and forget what God gave us to help us for all eternity.

 

[Blade]

Ok some man that had a name Nicholas.. is not "Santa and his sleigh and reindeer" so lets not get silly here.

If someone tells their kid about Santa and is thinking about st Nicholas.. some man.. its a lie. Because he is NEVER coming he is dead (home wth Chrsi) gone.. cant be reached talked to.. no mail is EVER going to him. He will not bring anyone anything. I only say this because his name was used more than once. And for me to tie the two together is not respecting a man of God.

Anyway.. I dont know any believers that do this. I do agree we should never lie period. But we will be here for many many months talking about things believers say do that we should NEVER do PRAISE GOD GLORY TO JESUS!

 

[ViaCrucis]

I am a Christian now, in fact I am a rather 'fundi' Christian, but I used to be an athiest. I became atheistic and extremely skeptical of the Bible and religion at an early age... mostly because I felt I could not believe my parents nor the Church. I grew up attending a very liberal church, Methodist in denomination. They taught me that the scriptures were really a collection of early myths but taught moral truth.
I was always interested in science... I knew what a paleontologists was before the 2nd grade. Science contradicted the Bible, or at least certainly seemed to. Somewhere around then you learn that Santa is not real... he is a story, a myth... Santa is an impossible being in the real world yet carries a LOT of the same attributes of God... he knows if you (and every other kid in the world) have been bad or good, something that only God knows... we call it the attribute of Omniscience.
So, even a kid can start thinking logically as he gets to be a teenager. if Santa is a fraud, and the Bible is just a bunch of legends, and your own parents lied to you... and the Bible is just a bunch of stories, and you run across Bible skeptics and atheists... you can easily see the logical conclusion.
Getting back to the question, however, is how do so many Christian parents justify lying to their kids about Santa? I personally despise Santa. I can accept a lot of other things which are unbiblical about the way we celebrate Christmas because I don't want to be too legalistic about the date, the decorations, etc. We celebrate Christ's birthday in spirit. I just can't stomach Santa, probably from my own experiences.

I agree that it's probably not a very good idea to tell your children that the jolly elf from the north pole is an actual real person. I was never raised believing in Santa. But that also gave me another perspective; rather than believing that Santa was real, I was raised to appreciate what Santa Claus represents as a symbol of the Christmas season. This appreciation is amplified by my learning about the real, historic St. Nicholas of Myra upon whom the Santa Claus symbol is based.

St. Nicholas was the 4th century bishop of Myra, a town located in what is modern day Turkey. He came from a wealthy background, but was more than generous with his family wealth. Stories abound of St. Nicholas distributing his wealth to the poor, especially to help children; one particularly famous story that I recall is the story where Nicholas became aware of a poor family where the father was unable to come up with the money to make a dowry to marry his daughter off, and was afraid he would have to put her into servitude--slavery; Nicholas unbeknownst to anyone and under the cover of night, left a sack of coins for the family in order that the daughter could be married (different times, different culture). Eventually people did find out Nicholas was doing these things, for which he became highly celebrated and admired.

It is this tradition of St. Nicholas immense generosity that was cherished and remembered throughout the Christian world, and as such in certain places--such as the Netherlands--the Feast Day of St. Nicholas (December 6th) became a day of gift-giving. One particular Dutch tradition was for children to leave their shoes on the front porch the night before St. Nicholas Day, and in the morning their would be a coin in their shoe: this gave way to the practice of hanging of stockings. Such Dutch traditions were preserved in the New York region in the US (what had before been New Amsterdam), these along with English Christmas traditions came to be blended together as a distinctly American cultural tradition reaching popularity in the 19th and early 20th centuries--and from there gained further popularity elsewhere in the world.

All things considered, I don't want to do away with Santa Claus, I think there are plenty of opportunities to for teaching: 1) As a way of introducing others to the real life story of St. Nicholas, and 2) as a symbol of Christian generosity in reflection of the gracious and kind God who bestowed upon us, and the whole world, the great gift of His eternal and only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[ViaCrucis]

why do we not keep them instead? Passover, Pentecost, and Feast of the Tabernacles.

Because we aren't Jews, our religion is Christianity, not Judaism. Those feasts were given to the Jewish people as part of the unique covenant God made with them at Sinai. We don't keep those feasts for the same reason we don't offer sacrifices at a temple, follow dietary restrictions, fix a mezuzah to our door post or wear tzitzit. It's simply not relevant to us who are in Christ and under the covenant Christ established by His death and resurrection.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[dqhall]

I find it a specious argument to say that believing in Santa Claus as a child may cause a person to become an atheist. Christianity is not that weak.

I am wondering where these hordes of people traumatized by believing in Santa Claus are. I have never personally met anyone traumatized by finding out that Santa was not real, or the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy.

Christians are supposed to be credible witnesses and not testify falsely. There are enough fake news sites, false reports, memory errors and distorted perceptions in the world. For children to learn their parents love them and provide good gifts for them should be sufficient. To play tricks on them or subject them to hoaxes is a shame.

There is something from the Sermon on the Mount about not letting your left hand know that your right hand is giving charity/alms to the poor. The teaching does not go so far as to recommend we create false stories to hide who is giving the gifts.

One should have a sense of humor and not attack people who tell false Santa stories. A word to the wise is sufficient. A fool will not be corrected by a healthy rebuke.

 

[GodB4S]

Because we aren't Jews, our religion is Christianity, not Judaism. Those feasts were given to the Jewish people as part of the unique covenant God made with them at Sinai. We don't keep those feasts for the same reason we don't offer sacrifices at a temple, follow dietary restrictions, fix a mezuzah to our door post or wear tzitzit. It's simply not relevant to us who are in Christ and under the covenant Christ established by His death and resurrection.

-CryptoLutheran

The laws of the Jew will not pass till all be fulfilled...we are a wild olive tree grafted into the olive tree which is the Jew...Jesus has not come back and we have not gone to New Jerusalem yet so all has not been fulfilled. When he comes back, we have 1000 years to reign with him...Zechariah 14:16-17 tells me we need to keep the Feast of tabernacles every year to worship the King...that includes my family and yours if we are going to reign with Christ. We too, have a unique covenant with God...keep his commandments if we love him. Jesus took the law and fulfilled the law and showed us hate is the same as kill and to lust is the same as adultery...God looks at our heart. What is in our heart with the holidays? Are holidays more important that God's? Or our holidays his?

 

[ViaCrucis]

The laws of the Jew will not pass till all be fulfilled...we are a wild olive tree grafted into the olive tree which is the Jew...Jesus has not come back and we have not gone to New Jerusalem yet so all has not been fulfilled. When he comes back, we have 1000 years to reign with him...Zechariah 14:16-17 tells me we need to keep the Feast of tabernacles every year to worship the King...that includes my family and yours if we are going to reign with Christ. We too, have a unique covenant with God...keep his commandments if we love him. Jesus took the law and fulfilled the law and showed us hate is the same as kill and to lust is the same as adultery...God looks at our heart. What is in our heart with the holidays? Are holidays more important that God's? Or our holidays his?

Acts 15
Colossians 2
Galatians 3

Really, the entire New Testament. I'm quite certain that you might have a valid point if it weren't for the 27 books which make up the New Testament.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[GodB4S]

Acts 15
Colossians 2
Galatians 3

Really, the entire New Testament. I'm quite certain that you might have a valid point if it weren't for the 27 books which make up the New Testament.

-CryptoLutheran

I thank you ViaCrusic for the scriptures. I have noticed many scriptures that show the law gone...changed: Circumcision laws...but we are circumcised in the heart or we are not changed...Sacrificial laws...but Jesus fulfilled them with one sacrifice at Calvary...Levitical laws...our priesthood is under the Melchisedec priesthood through Jesus Christ and his laws of the Spirit...Sabbath laws...not man's but what God put in our hearts...Eye for eye...mercy is more important...Swearing...Jesus said to let your yea be yea and nay be nay anything more than this is evil...Good thief...a thief that is good is when Jesus said Today you will be with me in paradise...Woman at the well...Jesus said 5 husbands you have and the one you are with is not your husband, if you divorce and remarry you commit adultery...Taking part with Gentiles...if God blesses how can we say it is unclean..Lunar calendar...we all use solar calendars, Jesus did also...Baptize...not even a law but is now... What does it mean not a jot or tittle of the law will be changed then?

We are in the flesh or the spirit, but there is law of the flesh and the law of the spirit...a war that goes on. If we walk in the spirit we are not under the law of the flesh, but if we walk in the flesh we are bound to keep all the law which will condemn us...God is holy and there are laws we are to keep (in the Spirit) as sons of God and joint heirs of Christ. Jesus came and fulfilled the laws. He came under the priesthood of Melchizedek. We are to keep his commandments if we love him.

For the 1000 year reign and for all eternity we will be doing what the LORD tells us for we are his workmanship...by his spirit we are called to do good works. I was just thinking of eternity and what will the laws of God be governing us then and what are we doing here to help us there?

He paid a precious price for us, now what do we do? Do we do as always or did we change? Do we do our will or the will of the Father?

 

[cre8id]

LOL I'm not a liberal. I have very conservative moral values and I believe every word of the Nicene Creed.

Sorry if I may have misrepresented you, Open Heart. I meant no sleight. Just trying to ascertain your position. Thanks for setting me straight.

 

[cre8id]

A myth targeted at children to get them to believe the lie's of it.

If you don't tell your children it is a myth up front and immediately, and tell them it is all not true - Santa, the reindeer, evles, etc. - then you are deceiving your child.

Plain and simple.

Call it myth, magic, pretend, whatever. If you don't make it clear to your children that EVERYTHING about it is false and not true, then you are lying.


For example, calling it a myth but spending $100s or $1000s of dollars on decorations, presents, adornment, food, shows, etc. perpetuating the validity of those false parts - while never making it crystal clear to children that it is not real - is still a lie.

I absolutely agree, Aryeh! Well said!

 

[zippy2006]

I am a Christian now, in fact I am a rather 'fundi' Christian, but I used to be an athiest. I became atheistic and extremely skeptical of the Bible and religion at an early age... mostly because I felt I could not believe my parents nor the Church. I grew up attending a very liberal church, Methodist in denomination. They taught me that the scriptures were really a collection of early myths but taught moral truth.
I was always interested in science... I knew what a paleontologists was before the 2nd grade. Science contradicted the Bible, or at least certainly seemed to. Somewhere around then you learn that Santa is not real... he is a story, a myth... Santa is an impossible being in the real world yet carries a LOT of the same attributes of God... he knows if you (and every other kid in the world) have been bad or good, something that only God knows... we call it the attribute of Omniscience.
So, even a kid can start thinking logically as he gets to be a teenager. if Santa is a fraud, and the Bible is just a bunch of legends, and your own parents lied to you... and the Bible is just a bunch of stories, and you run across Bible skeptics and atheists... you can easily see the logical conclusion.
Getting back to the question, however, is how do so many Christian parents justify lying to their kids about Santa? I personally despise Santa. I can accept a lot of other things which are unbiblical about the way we celebrate Christmas because I don't want to be too legalistic about the date, the decorations, etc. We celebrate Christ's birthday in spirit. I just can't stomach Santa, probably from my own experiences.

I tend to agree with you. Here is a good post by Edward Feser on the topic. Excerpt:

They shouldn’t. These are lies. Parents who do this certainly mean well, but they do not do well, because lying is always wrong. Not always gravely wrong, to be sure, but still wrong. That is bad enough. But there is also the bad lesson that children are apt to derive from this practice, even if the parents do not intend to teach it – namely, the immoral principle that lying is acceptable if it leads to good consequences. There is also the damage done to a child’s trust in his parents’ word. “What else might they be lying about? What about all this religion stuff?”

 

[cre8id]

I tend to agree with you. Here is a good post by Edward Feser on the topic. Excerpt:

Thanks for the reply, zippy. Also, thanks for the article link you provided... it was pretty god.

 

[cre8id]

I just ran across one of the best videos about the controversies of Christmas I have ever seen... I hope it comes across OK. The video is a little over 30 minutes long and is well made. It is not a legalistic thrashing of Christmas. The subject of what to tell children about Santa is near the end. I think most will enjoy it.