How does your family deal with the Santa Claus myth?
When my oldest daughter, Gina, was 4, she asked her mother about Santa Claus, who she had wondered about suspiciously for some time.
She said, "Mom, will you tell me the truth?"
"Yes, dear," said Becki.
"Will you ALWAYS tell me the truth?"
"Yes, dear."
"Is Santa Claus real?" Gina asked pointedly.
Long, long pause. "No, honey. Santa Claus isn't real," said her mother, having been cornered by her very smart and perceptive daughter. She didn't want her to look back on this time and lose faith in her mother.
"What about the Easter Bunny?" asked Gina, who had wondered about this as well.
Another pause. "No, honey" said Becki with a sign.
"The tooth fairy?"
This time the answer came more quickly, as Becki had given up her daughter believing in any childhood myth. "No, honey."
"Jesus--is JESUS real?" asked Gina, now wondering if everything that she had believed in was false.
"Yes, honey, Jesus is real," said Becki reassuringly with an uneasy chuckle. She not only felt cornered by her lawyerly daughter in giving up any playful teasing about Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the tooth fairy, but she wondered if her daughter's faith in Jesus was shaken as well. But Gina appeared satisfied by the answer, and quite proud of herself for smoking out her mother for the hoaxes that she had suspected since she was three . . . .
How does your family deal with the Santa Claus myth?
Comment
I think that would be a very good tradition James.
Damien, great points here. Rejecting something on the basis of origins that no one remembers or recognizes today seems pointless. I like your pointing to St. Nick and the good example that he had of giving gifts to the poor.
Most of our kids are not poor. So, instead of our kids receiving gifts at Christmas, what if we instead had them give gifts to poor children? Would not that be a better tradition?
Hi Ryan. Thanks for contributing! Growing up, my parents never told me that Santa Claus was real. They would play around with it and ask, what do you think? I am glad that they never did more than this, as I think that I would have been bothered tremendously by this "lie." My parents have never been deliberately dishonest once that I know of.
So, we took the same approach with our kids. I think that it is a good approach.
The origin of Santa Claus is actually St. Nickolas a 4th century "saint" who would give gifts to poor children, so it does have a Christian origin and it is based on a real person; however, yes other cultural elements have creeped into the lore, including Pagan elements... but the same can be said with our Christian worship services today; does that mean we necessarily need to abandon all of the Pagan influences such as our liturgy, our church buildings, etc? Even Christmas itself is based off of the Wiccan holiday of Yule, which celebrates the winter solstice (Christmas was began as a holiday to replace Yule for those who had come from the Pagan background). I don't necessarily think that we need to get too caught up in discussions about the origin of things because really to us today these things are completely separate and apart from their origins.
The biggest problem I see with the myth is, as mentioned above, the possibility of our children questioning if Jesus and God are real because we also told them Santa, the tooth fairy, and the Easter Bunny are real and they found out they weren't. Now with Santa I feel a little more comfortable because he is based off a real person and I can explain that and the origin and that the spirit of St. Nicholas is kept alive in Santa today, but this has still led me to tread with caution.
They way we have handled the SC myth is to basically pay lip-service to it and allow those around us to somewhat perpetuate it while we really don't do much to confirm or deny his existence besides have gifts "from Santa" and talk a little about Santa coming with gifts (all things we can when the question comes up point to the spirit of St. Nick being upheld today in the form of the Santa Claus tradition). And if our children ever ask us if Santa is real, then we will be quick to say, "No, but he is based off of a real person who gave gifts to the poor children of his community and today we should follow in his example and help those who are less fortunate, especially around Christmastime" (or something like that).
Sorry that was really long, but this is something I have given a lot of thought to and have not shared much with people.
i would like to hear responses on this question from more parents that have been through this. i think Christmas, santa, Christmas trees, the easter bunny and the tooth fairy are dangerous in the minds of our kids. every one of these come from pagan and druid worship at their roots and glorifies our enemy, not God. i dont have any children and ive wrestled with putting pagan myth in their minds and its a lie anyway. that just doesnt make sense to do that to any child much less my own child. im not a parent yet so i really dont know what i would do. this post is very thought provocative and i appreciate it. any other feedback out there from parents that have been through this? james, do you have any other thoughts on it?
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