I was reading Washington’s farewell address today.  Every now and then, I get into a founding father’s craze and start reading their writings and speeches.  I was reading it in the midst of a lot of white noise.  This quote stuck out as I read it:

“Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”

Wow.

MikeT and I were discussing the concept of Santa over dinner last night.  If I have any say, and MikeT and I agree on this, our children will NOT believe in Santa.  I have come up with my top list of reasons for this stance.  Feel free to bark at me, if you disagree with me.

1)  It is a lie:  Being a believer, I cannot even begin to see how any fellow believers could think that lying to their children is a good thing.  It is breaking one of the 10 commandments, which we all have broken at some point, and I am not standing here saying that I am better than anyone else, but I think there is something sick about blatantly/deliberately living this lie every year.

2)  Clouding the true meaning:  Christmas is time when we, as believers, celebrate the Father’s incredible love for us that He would send His own son as a sacrifice for our sins.  We mark it as a day that Christ was born.  Now, I know that this is not the actual day Christ was born and the day we celebrate it is actually a pagan holiday about winter solstice, but that is a discussion for another time.  To believers, this is the day we mark as the birth of Christ; the greatest gift mankind will ever receive.  Why would you ever want to bring some creepy, old, fat dude who breaks into your house, eats your food, and leaves coal or goodies, depending on your behavior into the mix?  Santa is now replacing the Father’s gift of Christ.  The day is about the ultimate gift for anyone willing to accept, whether naughty or nice, it doesn’t matter.  Mixing Santa in there confuses what is really being celebrated and distorts the true meaning of Christmas.  Santa supposedly gives presents based on behavior, which is works based, which is anti-grace.  Now, faith without works is a problem, but that is also a discussion for another time.

3)  Breaking trust:  Not only is lying a sin, but it also does something else.  Trust is easily broken, but extremely hard to restore.   Children at about the age they go off to school are extremely impressionable.  They are meeting a bunch of other kids who are going to start telling them things that are not true, or something that is true:  Santa isn’t real.  How is a child going to feel when they find out something that their parents have told them about is all a lie?  Trust with the parents will be broken, the parents lied, and the kid sitting in the classroom was honest… Red Alert!!!  This is not where parents want their children’s trust to be.  Now, not every child will drop their trust in their parents because of Santa, but it is one more tear in that thin, frail fabric, which can only withstand so much, why would a parent ever want to take a chance?  I have no idea.  I just don’t get it.

4)  Works-based gifts:  The Father gave grace as a gift, to anyone willing to accept it.  It had nothing to do with if you were worthy enough.  Santa is about being worthy enough, which ironically, none of us are.  If my behavior reflected my amount of gifts, I wouldn’t get any.  Christmas would then become the most depressing time of the year.  Another issue is then, to throw the child, who believes in Santa, back into school to hear that Tommy, the classroom bad boy/bully, got an XBOX and a dirt bike because he was -so- deserving, will just mess with a kid’s mind.

That is my top four list.  I have more, but I think those four are the most important and are worth me writing about.  I listened to someone at my office tell everyone that her niece didn’t believe in Santa and it was unthinkable.  She said it was “ruining” her childhood.  I did not believe in Santa, and my childhood was awesome!  I think believing in Santa, and it being ruined would have left more of a mark than just understanding the gifts were from my parents.  This leads me to something else.  There are Christians that do not believe in giving gifts.  I don’t agree with this either.  Christ/salvation/grace was the ultimate gift.  At Christmas, we celebrate the Father’s ultimate gift, and giving and receiving is all apart of grace.  It also teaches kids to be thankful, to say thank you, to be grateful, etc.  I personally do not think giving gifts is an issue, but if it is -really- threatening your child’s salvation, then maybe you should reconsider.  I think that, like everything, a believer needs to examine what is being uplifted and what the focus of something is, and if it is not where it should be, then changes need to be made.  If the lie of Santa bringing gifts is the thing being uplifted and Christ is taking a backseat, there is something very wrong with that.  If the focus is to give your kids more than the neighbor kids are getting, there is something very wrong.

My childhood was extremely Christ based, since I grew up with parents who were strong believers.  My birthday happens to be Christmas Eve (Happy Birthday to me - today), so that was kind of fun, but we would get so excited about Christmas that Christmas Eve evening, we could barely sit still.  My parents would get us into bed earlier than usual, which was painful.  My dad would read the Christmas story, since it was something that would calm us down and get our focus on something other than stockings, candy canes, and a tree skirt covered with surprises.  We discussed the Christmas story, then we went off to sleep. The next morning, we opened the presents and there would be so many thank you’s, probably not as many as the number of screams and squeals, but we always thanked the person giving us the gifts.  It was about understanding the Christian principles of giving, accepting, being thankful for what you had (and accepting that you didn’t always get what you wanted - blast not getting that new car when I turned 16!), and understanding the real reason for the celebration: the greatest gift ever given.  It definitely was not “ruined” by not believing in Santa.

Merry Christmas everyone.  The Father gave us the greatest gift of all time, and it is there for anyone willing to accept.  It is free.  It was given out of a never ending love.  I pray that you and yours will truly understand the real meaning of Christmas.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.  Isaiah 9:6