I’ve realized recently that I am a rare entity and becoming more rare each year.  I’m on the endangered species list.  I am one of few Christian parents that still believes in Santa.  I would not be surprised if we start seeing Santa clauses (not Claus, but clause) in church doctrinal statements saying something like the following:

Article 3b -  We believe in not believing in Santa.  Believing in Santa is detrimental to the emotional and spiritual health of our youth.  We believe that Santa is a spawn of Satan, or possibly even Satan himself in disguise.  And it is our mission to make sure children know the truth about Santa.

Maybe not those exact words, but something very similar.  One of my friends that has gone over to the dark side sent me this list of reasons why Christians should hate Santa.

  1. If you take the “n” in the middle of “Santa” and move it to the end of the word, you have “Satan.”
  2. Satan has always been trying to take the glory from God and His Son, Jesus, just as Santa does today at Christmas time which is supposed to be a celebration of the birth of Christ.
  3. Santa is given attributes that only belong to God.  In the song, “Santa Claus is Coming To Town”, Santa is described as one who “sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake; he knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake”
  4. Related to the above, like God, Santa judges people based on whether they are good or bad–of course God allows believers into heaven, but unbelievers are judged based on their deeds
  5. Santa, like Satan, is attracted to hot places–he likes to enter houses through chimneys
  6. Santa, like Satan, hangs out with little beings with pointy ears (elves/demons, respectively)
  7. Most depictions of Satan are reddish in color, and Santa always wears red
  8. Satan is called the Prince of the Power of the Air, and everyone knows that Santa has power over the air as he flies about on Christmas night delivering presents.
  9. In the Polar Express, the only ones who could see Santa and hear the sound of the jingle bells on his reindeer, were those who “believed.”  Again, Satan (oops, I mean Santa) is counterfeiting an important Biblical doctrine that is supposed to be directed at God–faith.
  10. Santa lives at the North Pole in extremely “cold” temperatures.  But this is just to throw everyone off and keep them from associating Santa with Satan who lives in extremely “hot” temperatures in hell.
  11. Where God the Father is truly the “Father of Christ”, Santa is called “Father Christmas”–again, an attempt to usurp God’s attributes and titles.
  12. And of course, to a little kid, when Christmas is approaching, Santa is probably more important than God because of all the wonderful toys he will bring them on Christmas morning.  When one day Santa (the gift giver) is discovered to be a fake, non-existent, figment of the imagination, why would the kid continue to believe in God, the ultimate “Gift-giver” who gave His Son so that all who believe and trust in Him might receive the “gift” of eternal life.

There you have it.  Maybe they should just put that in the church doctrinal statement.  But I can’t end with that.  That would be only one side of the coin.  I have another very wise friend that wrote a rebuttal.  I know you find that hard to believe… that I have two friends.  But just go with it for now.  Here’s his response, edited slightly from its original format to fit your TV screen.

We do the whole Santa thing and have fun with it.  We very much emphasize Jesus’ birth throughout the season.  My 9 year old figured it out a long time ago.  My 7 year old still has an amazing imagination (you might could convince him Star Wars is real) but I think he gets it.  My 6 and 3 year old daughters still think he is real.  We enjoy the innocence of it.  I also believe it is personal conviction of how you handle it as parents and don’t fault either way as long as the major emphasis is on Jesus and the Santa stuff is left behind with the opening of presents.  By the time presents are opened for us Santa is forgotten and Jesus is the focus of the day.

I have seen the argument about them associating fantasy of Santa with Jesus.  I would tell the parents in that situation if you are not living your relationship with Jesus in a real enough way for your kids to tell the difference between that and how you live in relation to Santa, that is on you, not Santa.  My kids see their parents live their faith out daily and we talk about Jesus daily.  Santa gets a little time for about four weeks at best (if it was up to Wal-Mart it would be about 6 months). And he is not talked about every day even during that time.  We don’t go somewhere weekly and sing songs to him about how we love him and worship him and want our lives to reflect him.  We don’t confess to him our sins and so on and so on.  There is a VERY clear picture presented to our children of the truth of Jesus by how we live and talk.

As a youth minister I am much more concerned about parents whose relationship to Jesus and His bride seem more like a fantasy because of how they live and prioritize than I am about what they do with Santa.  With high percentages, I can predict who will stay and who will leave their faith by knowing and watching their parents.  Not a 100 percent science but pretty accurate.  And I can tell you, no student has ever come back later and told me they left the church and their faith because of Santa.  It almost always comes back to parents whose faith was convenient.

And to those who crow about the fantasy stuff hurting their kids and stuff…living through your 6 year olds’ athletic career does a whole lot more damage…not to mention reliving glory days on the softball field as if you are playing baseball again…geesh could there be a bigger fantasy world  :))

Oh and as long as my kids are around we are leaving cookies and milk for Santa…I ain’t giving up that tradition….mmmmm…cookies..

Trey Bledsoe

Bravo Mr. Bledsoe!  We can only hope that you do not charge for your awesomeness.