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Christmas Priorities

 


One of the most jarring moments as child is learning at Santa Claus, the mystical and magical man who is suppose to bring you presents is not real. For each child the discovery is at a different age, some its sooner, others later. The problem, and I have said it before, is that the Santa Hoax, specifically the Santa Claus that is perpetuated by parents to their children, not St. Nicholas who did exist, has a detrimental effect on trust between parents and children. If you lie about Santa, they can extrapolate that the Savior is also a fiction, and this imperils their souls! You wanting them to be part of the Santa fun are setting them up to distrust you and by extension the truth of the Gospel later, especially when they go to schools that throw doubt at validity of our faith. 


Should we not do the Santa Claus thing? Should we ban the hoax? Well there is a middle ground you could take, which explain truthfully that Santa was a real person named St. Nicholas, but he has gone to be with Jesus who is real, and that to honor his memory you pretend at Christmas he visits houses. In this way you are making a clear distinction as you would with any pretending, that Santa isn’t real, that is the one that watches kids and delivers gifts, but Jesus Christ is real and if he Gift of God to mankind. This fine line then when they get older will be a feather in your cap, because when they accuse you in teenage rebellion of being liars, you can say, “No I told you Santa wasn’t real, it was make believe, but that Jesus is Real and you need to believe in Him.” You will have established to the children that you are honest about fictions and Truth, that Santa is just a fun thing, but Christ is Truth, and is as real as we are. This will instill confidence, as they are in college they can say, “well my parents were honest, they said Santa was not real, but they also said Jesus is real,” and that maybe a seed that helps them keep Christ when so many fall away in academia. 


Children do just fine when it is established this is pretend and make believe. So saying Santa is make believe, and playing the whole he comes down the chimney, and etc will do no harm, nor diminish their fun. If anythng, telling them Santa is real when he is not and they don’t recieve that present they believed he would bring does more damage and trauma, then to just say Santa is not real, and its fun to make wishes to him like a well with coins. But encourage kids to pray to Jesus for stuff, because I have seen God in my life time bring a dog into a kid’s life when they prayed for one, and the family could not afford one. Help them to start putting trust in the True One who “knows who is naughty or nice,” and “Sees them when they are sleeping, and knows when they are awake,” Jesus Christ our Lord! Amen. 

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