I know many Christian families don’t celebrate Christmas with Santa.
They have great reason for this. They want the focus to be on Jesus, rather than on an old pudgy man who rides on flying reindeer.
They also don’t agree with the commercialization of Christmas. How what should be about the simple birth of Jesus is now about spending hundreds of dollars and building credit card debt.
Some don’t celebrate because of the historical association of Santa with the pagan event of Yule.
And honestly, I’ve struggled with all of these issues.
If your family has decided not to celebrate Christmas with Santa, I applaud you. Stand by your decision. There is absolutely nothing wrong with leaving Santa out of Christmas.
On the other hand, if your family has decided to include him, that’s okay too. This is where we have landed. And here’s why…
Santa is a generous character, and including him in our Christmas can help teach our kids about generosity. We talk to our kids about how Santa loved to give gifts to people. He knew it was more blessed to give than to receive (sound familiar?).
Yes, the focus on Santa has the potential to take away the focus on Jesus. But it doesn’t have to.
Talk about Jesus more than you talk about Santa, and your kids will recognize him as the reason for the season. And when you do talk about Santa, don’t fixate on what we can get from him. Instead, talk about how he loves to give. And how we can give too.
The reason for the season is Jesus…but Santa (I think) can have a place in the celebration too.
As we include him in our celebrations, here are 3 things we tell our kids:
1. Santa loved to give.
It’s so easy to focus on getting during Christmas. Our kids tell us over and over again, “I want…” Even as adults, it’s tempting to think about what we might get from someone else. Getting presents can be a lot of fun, but giving presents is even better.
2. Santa gave gifts, just like the magi did.
In our home, we explain to our kids that Santa gave gifts, just like the men who visited Jesus did. We take it a step further and tell them that the reason we give gifts to other people is to remember the ultimate gift God gave when he sent his Son to earth.
3. Jesus is the reason for the season.
Visiting Santa, participating in Elf on the Shelf adventures, and looking at Christmas lights are all wonderful things to do. But they aren’t the reason we celebrate. We celebrate because of Jesus. These fun things are just the icing on the top of an already amazing gift.
Let’s talk: Do you celebrate with Santa? (Please keep all comments respectful since this is a sensitive topic.)
We keep Santa in the celebration of Christmas 🙂 I love this article very nicely said!
We went back and forth for a while, trying to decide what we would do about Santa. My husband was raised believing in him; I was not.
Eventually, we decided not to teach our children that Santa is real- but to teach them of the tradition of Santa and the truth of St. Nicholas. It was for the reasons you listed, but more importantly to us, because we feel that telling our children that Santa is real is simply untrue- and we value the integrity of our word as parents. We feel that it is a lie- even if it’s a white lie, or a lie with good intentions- it is still a lie.
And how are we to explain to our children in ten years or so that, yes, we told them that Santa is real, and yes, we said that Jesus is real, but that Santa is not and Jesus still is?
As a Christian, I think I run the risk of instilling doubt in my children by meshing those two together.
I think it’s perfectly okay to involve Santa in Christmas! Our children will know all of the stories about Santa and the traditions involved with him, but they will also know that it is “pretend.” That’s how my parents raised is- and I am grateful for it. Santa is still very fun as a child, even if you know it’s all make-believe! Children have wonderful imaginations. 🙂
Hi Jessica,
You bring up a really great point. Is it lying to our kids to tell them Santa is real when he’s not? This is certainly something we have to be very careful about. One thing we have done is to ask them…”What do you think?” when they ask about Santa. Very good comments. Thanks for taking time to help me sort through all this:)
Hey Lindsey! Our kids are grown now, but when they were small Santa brought the presents for Jesus’ birthday party. Before we did anything on Christmas morning we lit the candles on a coffee cake or cinnamon buns and sang happy birthday to Jesus. This brings back such fond memories.
I love that idea of having Santa bring the presents:) What a fun way to get the point across!
I can’t imagine it being said any better than how you said it Lindsey! It shouldn’t be one of those points that we battle over. As a family, either do it the right way (as you so very well put it) or stand against it. Each family should be able to have the traditions and celebrations they see fit. Thank you so much for amazing insight on this topic.
Thanks so much for the encouraging words! I appreciate it so much.