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Santa Claus is a classic part of childhood. Likewise, being old enough not to believe in him is a mark of maturity. However, as parents, we should always consider what we teach our children. And for me, there are a few reasons why the fun of Santa Claus isn’t worth the problems he can create. I hope my four reasons will encourage you to evaluate your beliefs about whether a Christian parent should teach their child that Santa is real.
They must one day “grow up” and stop believing in a benevolent, supernatural being they accepted by faith
Santa and God have a lot in common. They are both givers of gifts, give us motivation for good behavior, and both defy human capability. Although kids can at least see versions of Santa at the mall, the reality is that most of what kids believe about Santa’s supernatural abilities is taken by faith.
Kids in Christian families grow up believing in a person who always watches their behavior, waiting to reward or punish them when a certain time comes. This person can be in all places at once, with the power to do things no mere human could possibly do. There is no limit to the gifts they can give, and kids are regularly told to bring their requests before this person and trust that they can be fulfilled.
Santa? God? In the growing mind of a child, the two lines easily blur. But what’s most important to remember is that we tell our children that Santa is something they should truly believe about the world. Even if they can’t see them working supernaturally, and even if someone tells them they aren’t real, we tell them to keep believing.
Yet as they grow older, there is a definite expectation for kids to grow out of such silly beliefs. As their critical thinking develops, we want them to realize that belief in Santa is incompatible with their increasing maturity. At some unspoken time, our kids and their friends must accept that something they believed in so fiercely and loved so dearly was simply a fabrication from their parents.
Although I teach my kids that belief in God doesn’t require blind faith or purposely ignoring facts, I also realize that they are still trying to understand how the world works. If a sign of maturity is to stop believing in invisible beings with impossible powers, why stop at Santa? This is especially true as they grow up in a world where belief in anything supernatural is seen as ignorant, superstitious, and childish.
Get equipped to discuss God’s existence with your family: Arguments For (and Against) God’s Existence
Understand the role of faith: Biblical Faith vs. Modern Faith
Harmless fun teaches a legalistic worldview and the Prosperity Gospel heresy
By all standards, Santa is a great tool to remind kids to behave. “You’d better be nice or Santa will give you coal this year!” are some of the sweetest words an exhausted parent can utter. However, if we believe God has given us these children to grow into adults who are not only functional but also love the things of God, then we must always consider what we’re teaching them about the world.
Although belief in Santa Claus can help children modify their behavior, it does so purely out of self-interest. We teach them that they only get good things if they earn them, and often this takes on a “balancing scales” method of self-righteousness where, at the end of the day, children have to hope that the weight of good deeds is at least 1% heavier than their bad deeds. Kids in Christian homes are notorious for believing in works-based righteousness, and Santa Claus will easily reinforce that.
Another problematic worldview is that Santa is loved purely because of the gifts he gives. Like the crowds following Christ for His miracles, children are taught that Santa is exciting because he meets their worldly desires. Put simply, loving Santa and his gifts are concretely rooted in a heart of greed.
This “Santa Claus worldview” is clearly seen in Christianity today, especially through the Prosperity Gospel. People love God because they’re “#blessed,” often praising Him because of what He gives or how He makes them feel. Little of God’s worship today is rooted in awe at His majesty and a humble knowledge that we are so unworthy of His grace in our lives. Instead, we love God for the same reason children love Santa Claus – because He benefits us.
Think more about how you shape your child’s worldview: The Most Important Parenting Question I Ask Myself
It compromises my word to them
It’s important that my children grow up to love and pursue truth. As their father, I want them to know that I’m a source they can turn to when they don’t understand how the world works. Spending eight years telling them something is true, only to eventually tell them “It’s time to grow up and stop believing what I told you” is a betrayal of the trust they’ve given me. No matter how good my intentions would be, lying is lying.
Don’t get me wrong, I have no qualms about stealing their noses or convincing my son his head has been replaced with a T-rex’s head (a story my family will tell forever). My kids even know I purposely set out to lie to them, but they also know why I do it. If I intentionally tell them something false, I challenge them to think critically. I never want my kids to blindly trust everything I say simply because Dad says it.
Instead, I want them to test the truth and logic of what I say so that they don’t learn to simply hear something and accept it as fact without assessing it themselves. I’ll do this with anything from magic tricks to the existence of God. As I said above, everything we teach them, whether directly or indirectly, forms what they believe about the world. I will trick them for a brief moment of fun or I’ll “lie” to them to make them evaluate what they believe is true.
However, they also know that they will quickly learn the truth of what I say after they’ve challenged or accepted it. Because I value truth, they know I will never leave them with a lie for more than a few minutes. I don’t want them to base their beliefs purely on “because my dad told me so,” but I also want them to trust that if I tell them something is truly true, they can believe it until they find a sound reason to disagree.
Understanding that, it’s clear how Santa Claus completely compromises the reliability of my word. I never want them to reach a point where they realize I told them something I knew was untrue without revealing the truth shortly afterward. This world is too full of people trying to deceive them for me to be just another untrustworthy person who may have an agenda behind what I say.
Read more about building trust with your kids: Why My Family Doesn’t Make Promises
Santa sets a poor precedent for whom Christmas is about
Of course, Santa Claus isn’t the only thing to devalue the “reason for the season.” Even by not marking gifts from a fictional character, there’s still the fact that kids are often more excited about gifts than Jesus Christ.
However, the problem with Santa is that he personifies Christmas. Gifts are certainly exciting, but we also want to put a face to anything we’re doing. Thus when Santa is brought into the picture, he will naturally battle Jesus Christ for prominence in a child’s mind. And as most parents know, Christmas easily becomes about Santa and everything he represents.
Instead, my family doesn’t mix gift-giving with Jesus Christ. We don’t try to harmonize or justify why we open gifts and talk about the birth of our glorious Savior on the same day. We don’t try to override their greed with a reverence for the Lord.
Instead, we completely separate the two – we open gifts because it’s fun to have a holiday that encourages us to buy fun things for them while encouraging them to buy things for others. As followers of Christ, we also want to focus on the fact that God Himself entered the world with the express purpose of being slaughtered and facing the Father’s wrath in our place. These are two good things, but they don’t need to be related.
The importance of thinking through our traditions
For Christians, something as innocent as Santa Claus creates more problems than we first realize. The issue isn’t necessarily Santa himself but the effects we have on our children’s understanding of mature thinking, our trustworthiness, the motivation for doing good, the role of tradition, and even God’s very existence. It may be a fun thing, but we must question whether it’s the best thing.
My wife and I don’t reject Santa to be different, contrarian, or even because we think the tradition is inherently evil. We do it because we’re convinced it’s the wise way to grow and nurture the lives God has put under our care. Likewise, I want to encourage parents to evaluate their current traditions with a desire to glorify God above all else.
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6)
Proverbs 22:6 reminds us that what we teach our children today will set the course for their future. We often rely on this verse as a promise. However, we should also see the warning behind it. Whatever worldview we build for them is the one that will propel them into adulthood. So with Christmas and everything else we do, what “way” are we instructing them to follow?
Both Christian and non-Christian parents will sign Santa’s name on gifts this year. But as parents who focus on more than just the immediate impact of our choices, it’s important to evaluate the Santa Claus tradition honestly. Are we setting our kids up to grow into mature believers who can trust us to guide them well, or are we preparing them for a future of doubt and confusion?
Whatever decisions we make as parents, whether during Christmas or throughout the year, may they be out of love and reverence for Jesus Christ above all else.
[Originally published in December, 2019]
