Thursday, December 19, 2013
Will my kids get confused about God and Santa Claus?
If we pretend there is a Santa Claus, will that lead my kids to think God is pretend also?
I have to admit I never thought much about this when our kids were growing up. But as an elder, I have had to answer this question several times from concerned parents.
So here are my thoughts on not confusing Santa and God.
You can keep Christmas a religious event and never allow any "Santa" stuff near your kids.
You can keep Christmas a Santa event and not allow any Jesus stuff to get in the mix.
And I have known families who tried each of these approaches. But here are some things that may help for the rest of us.
Here is what we did about Santa Claus. We never intentionally taught anything. He was the character who checked the naughty and nice list and gave out presents accordingly. But mostly he was a gift giver and he had reindeer and a sleigh and they ate all the snacks left out. It was always sort of a fun game.
But God was a whole different story. Very intentional teaching and very real. Our family believes in a God who acts to forgive your "naughties". And a God who enables you to become nice. God changes the list based on whether we believe. God was a year long reality, not a seasonal thing.
I never remember talking about whether Santa Claus loves us. We always talked about how God loves us. Our kids wrote Santa one letter. We talked to God every day.
We spent a lot of time talking about the God who gives because he is good, not because we are good.
But a word of warning. If you only talk about God during Christmas, it might be confusing. If you believe that God is mostly about judgement and keeping a record of right and wrong, he might sound a little like Santa. And if you think getting to heaven is about what we do and not what God does... then your kids may be confused.
Of course, I think that kind of God is a whole lot like Santa. And just about as real.
So if there is confusion in your family about God and Santa, it may be because we treat them just about the same. And the problem may not be what we say about Santa. It may be what we are teaching our kids about God.
I have to admit I never thought much about this when our kids were growing up. But as an elder, I have had to answer this question several times from concerned parents.
So here are my thoughts on not confusing Santa and God.
You can keep Christmas a religious event and never allow any "Santa" stuff near your kids.
You can keep Christmas a Santa event and not allow any Jesus stuff to get in the mix.
And I have known families who tried each of these approaches. But here are some things that may help for the rest of us.
Here is what we did about Santa Claus. We never intentionally taught anything. He was the character who checked the naughty and nice list and gave out presents accordingly. But mostly he was a gift giver and he had reindeer and a sleigh and they ate all the snacks left out. It was always sort of a fun game.
But God was a whole different story. Very intentional teaching and very real. Our family believes in a God who acts to forgive your "naughties". And a God who enables you to become nice. God changes the list based on whether we believe. God was a year long reality, not a seasonal thing.
I never remember talking about whether Santa Claus loves us. We always talked about how God loves us. Our kids wrote Santa one letter. We talked to God every day.
We spent a lot of time talking about the God who gives because he is good, not because we are good.
But a word of warning. If you only talk about God during Christmas, it might be confusing. If you believe that God is mostly about judgement and keeping a record of right and wrong, he might sound a little like Santa. And if you think getting to heaven is about what we do and not what God does... then your kids may be confused.
Of course, I think that kind of God is a whole lot like Santa. And just about as real.
So if there is confusion in your family about God and Santa, it may be because we treat them just about the same. And the problem may not be what we say about Santa. It may be what we are teaching our kids about God.
