OPINION:
Dear Mama Bears: I keep hearing people say that we shouldn’t do Santa Claus anymore. I grew up on Santa and had so much fun with it! Why are some Christians so against it now? Is there something I’m missing? – SANTA INQUIRER FROM NEW YORK
Dear Santa Inquirer: Yes, sadly this is a common question these days.
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Throughout most of our history, children have believed in magic and then grown out of it as they matured. Unfortunately, this was before the internet. Post-internet, kids will stumble across all sorts of online trolls comparing Jesus to Santa Claus. And just like that, we can’t have nice things anymore.
As children grow up, they create a category in their heads titled “things I was taught as a kid that turned out to not be real.” Unfortunately, since the whole Jesus/Santa thing gets wrapped into one indistinguishable blob during Christmas, there is the risk that kids will start to associate them. This is where the danger is: They begin to think that “Jesus is basically Santa Claus for adults.”
That’s when things get weird.
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As mature Christians, we should be aware that there are mountains of evidence for God, Jesus, the resurrection, and the Bible. We should also make it a habit to teach our kids about these evidences.
Naturally, kids are oblivious to what is evidentially supported and what isn’t and they have no way of distinguishing between historically accurate narratives and made up stories.
God can quickly become mocked as an invisible and unprovable old man, with a white beard, who knows everything you have ever done and keeps a giant book called The Lambs Book of Life which decides who gets rewarded and who gets punished. Sounds familiar? It should. To kids (and many adults) it sounds like the naughty and nice list, Jesus style.
And atheists have jumped alllll over these similarities.
In a recent article, “Rejecting a Rembrandt,” veteran debater Dr. John D. Ferrer wrote that atheists “reveal the shallow depths of their disbelief by the speed at which they mention Santa Claus.” After almost two decades of formal debates, Ferrer notes that, without fail, atheists use the Santa Claus analogy to undermine the reality of God: “Your parents lied to you about Santa just like they lied to you about Jesus.”
So what’s a Christian parent to do?
First, let me clarify what we’re not saying. We’re not saying that if parents play Santa with their kids that their kids will became an atheist. We’re also not saying that playing make believe games like Santa is necessarily “unChristian.” I know many God-honoring, strong Christian, apologist mamas who do Santa with their kids. So, please, don’t hear what we’re not saying.
What I am saying is that it is important for parents to understand the cultural moment that we live in and how that is shaping our kids.
Are you aware of any of the popular atheist arguments? You don’t have to know how to refute them all, but it’s important to at least be aware of what is being argued. Understanding basic atheist arguments can help us not step onto a landmine that we can’t undo — and Santa Claus for some kids (not for all) can be that landmine.
As I mentioned before, Jesus and Santa have become a little too enmeshed during the Christmas season. So when a child learns that one of these (Santa) is just a story, it is natural for them to start wondering if the other one (Jesus) is also just a story. And if they have no more evidence to believe in Jesus than they did with Santa (i.e. stories their parents, pastors, and media told them), then we have unwittingly planted a major seed of confusion which could have been avoided.
All this to say: If you choose to play Santa with your kids, do it knowing that you need to be overly zealous in presenting evidence for Jesus so that kids know that there is a difference between the two.
Or, there’s another option where you can keep the fun of Santa without taking on all the baggage: Teach about Saint Nicholas the historical person first and then talk about all the stories and legends that came after.
Be sure to distinguish between the historical aspects of Saint Nicholas and the fantasy aspects of Santa Claus. This will give your children the foundation to understand the difference between history and legend, real versus magic.
Make sure your kids know that there is no distinction like this with Jesus. The historical narrative is the same narrative which we teach today. There was no “lengend-izing” of Jesus. (We have a whole section on this in the Mama Bear Apologetics Guide To Christmas, available for free on our resource page.)
After kids understand the history versus myth andlegend, then you can “play Santa” together! If we know nothing about kids, it’s that they are pros at enjoying make-believe games, even when they know they are make-believe. A kid doesn’t have to literally believe in Santa to have fun playing the Santa game.
But one word of caution: If you choose to go this route make absolutely, doubly, triply, quadruply sure that your kids know that this is your family’s “secret game.” You don’t want them spilling the beans to some other kid on the playground. That is not the way to make friends with the other parents.
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Hillary Morgan Ferrer is Founder and President of Mama Bear Apologetics and coauthor if the bestselling books “Mama Bear Apologetics: Empowering Your Kids to Challenge Cultural Lies” and “Mama Bear Apologetics’ Guide to Sexuality.” She has degrees in both film and biology and spends her time as an author, speaker, teacher, and apologist encouraging others to discern culture from a biblical worldview
Portions of this post were taken from the Mama Bear Apologetics’ Guide To Christmas free resource.
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