Why Skip Santa? 6 Reasons to Consider Shifting Your Focus this Christmas
Many Christian parents spend time in discussion and prayer over the topic of Santa.
I grew up with Santa, but I was told the truth at the ripe age of 6, after my mom was saved. My husband, on the other hand, never experienced Santa, and despite what many might think, he had a great childhood, and some of the most joyous Christmases.
While we were dating and engaged, we talked about different issues that might pertain to parenthood, including Santa. I was glad to hear that we were on the same page – that the modern-day Santa and Elves bit wasn’t going to cut it.
Christian parents can go either way on this, but to my toddler, Santa is a fun character a lot like Lightning McQueen, or the talking vegetables telling Bible stories on a kitchen counter.
Here’s 5 reasons why Santa can’t be the central part of our Christmas celebration.
1. Santa’s message doesn’t jive with Christ’s
Santa promises gifts and prizes to children who behave in the right way. If you want your name on the good list, then you have to act right.
Santa says if you do good things, you’re put on the nice list.
Jesus says if you believe in Him, your name will be added to the Lamb’s book of life.
Nothing to do with our own doing, but He did the work for us, through His obedience to the Father.
This is antithetical to the glorious gospel of Christ’s love and forgiveness.
See also: Here’s What you Need to Do To Become a Christian
As Christians, we don’t need to behave the right way to earn our salvation, or even have perfect behavior to maintain our citizenship to the Lamb’s book of Life.
2. Santa promises big, but delivers nothing.
Santa claims to be able to deliver gifts to millions of children all in one 24 hour period, defying the laws of nature.
That’s omnipresence, a quality that exclusively belongs to God.
God the Father sits on His holy Throne 24/7 and yet He is also everywhere else, at the same time. Jesus Christ, in His oneness, is also omnipresent. The Holy Spirit is living and active in each Christian.
Santa claims to be all-knowing. He claims he can even see the actions you do in private. “He sees you when you’re sleeping!”
That’s a claim for God, and God alone. Only God can know us, and He doesn’t need a mythical character to help report to Him.
Santa claims to be omnipotent… some super-human creature. The myths about him entail power that isn’t humanly possible… flying through the sky on a magical sled, making all of the toys in the world through magical creature labor in a jolly factory in the North Pole?
No other mythical character claims to have all of these qualities. I don’t know of any parent that has ever told their child for weeks (or months) before Easter that the Easter Bunny can read their thoughts.
3. You can only have one center.
Most children spend the entire Christmas season preparing for Santa. Some households even have a spy living in their home, the Elf on the Shelf, who will go and give reports to Santa. Many children write Santa letters, requesting various gifts.
What if we as parents could spend that time preparing for Christ? What if we could replace letters to Santa requesting gifts with letters to the Father thanking Him for the gifts we already have? Or maybe writing letters to family members and friends in the church encouraging them in this Christmas season?
What if the energy that parents spend in elaborate planning for the false arrival of Santa could instead be spent on the true and definite return of Christ?
See also: 9 Lies Satan Whispers To You About Your Motherhood
4.In the realm of Christian history, Santa is new, but his roots are worth sharing.
Most of what we know about Santa is really pretty new… your grandparents might even remember a time before Santa was like he is now. The myth has grown significantly in the last 100 years, especially. He wasn’t red until 1931, when Coca-Cola illustrated him for advertising purposes.
But instead, we can share the truth about a Christian man, who lived in what is now Turkey. He grew up in a Christian home, born in 270 AD. His parents passed away and he came into an inheritance. He used it all on others, mostly children. He reportedly saved young girls from a possibility of prostitution by providing their destitute father with a dowry so that each girl could get married. Some think he was at the Council of Nicea, and if that were true, he would even be classified as a church father.
The story of St. Nicolas of Myra has morphed into the modern-day Santa claus because he was a man who was committed to building a kingdom in Heaven, not on earth. He gave away all of his money and looked at others in need as Christ does.
If St. Nicolas could speak to you today, he would probably ask you to focus on Christ. He would probably ask you to use Christmas as a tool to teach your kids how to give sacrificially, love fully, and share the gospel.
5. Belief is the key
Belief seems like such a trivial thing… but belief and faith are synonymous.
What your child believes is what will most impact their eternity. I’m not saying that if your child believes in Santa, they won’t believe in God, because I know from personal experience that is not true.
What I’m saying is, why mess with the one thing that God requires from us? When we believe that we are sinful and that our sin separates us totally from God, we realize we have a problem that isn’t easily fixed. When we believe in Christ and His work on the cross, that problem is fixed! We are restored into a relationship with God.
If the one thing that God requires of my child is belief, I want to protect that as much as possible, and guide my child to the beautiful truth of redemption.
See also: 12 Ways to Show Christ to my Children Every Day
6. The Christmas story is miraculous enough without Santa.
Christmas is not fake magic, full of tricks, lies, or smoke and mirrors.
Christmas is miraculous without lies.
It’s a blast to see my toddler walk through a Christmas toyland set up at the department store. He even sat on Santa’s lap for a picture. He would never guess that man would slide down our (non-existent) chimney and bring him presents unless we told him.
And he has a blast at Christmas without that lie.
Besides, isn’t Christmas beautiful enough without the Santa lie?
Christmas is the meeting of God and humankind in one beautiful night, around 2000 years ago.
The birth of Christ was the culmination of a rich history of prophecies, all coming together on one perfect night, to result in God the Son taking on flesh in order to become our ransom. Can you imagine something better to celebrate than that?
As Matthew 1:23 says: “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ (which means ‘God with us’)”.
God is with us. Let’s use our breath to share that news.
This is the central message of Christmas: God is with us. He came to this earth as a child, who became a man, who died and rose again. He did this because through His sacrifice, we can choose to have His presence in our lives.
His presence is worth sharing. It’s worth teaching to our kids. To everyone we can.
Christmas is the beautiful news that God is with us. Let’s focus on the beauty and truth of His presence today.
See also: How To Make Your Christmas More Christ-Centered – 8 Ideas
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