Why I Don’t Teach My Kids Santa Claus

The Christmas season is in full force! Everywhere I look I see red velvet bows, decorative houses bright with lights, the classic Salvation Army rep spreading cheer and ringing bells at our local grocer entrance, and one of my favorites, the Holiday seasonal drinks from Starbucks!

I am even more excited this year since they are doing a B5G1 free, and you best believe I ensure I get my sticker every single time I get my Chestnut Praline or Caramel Brûlée Latte, and those are the only two I alternate between. #issues

Giving gives me JOY!

Something else that excites me during Christmas season is gift giving! Caleb, my 3yo, has a teacher who admired my purple lipstick one day and revealed that purple was her favorite color! So I remembered to include something purple in her gift from Caleb as an expression of our appreciation and her care for my son. My oldest son, Jabin, got out of our car this morning and presented gifts to the two women who are religiously outside every single day- rain, sleet or snow – helping all of the children out of their parent’s cars safely which makes all of our lives easier.

We can just pull in the car line, allow them to get our children out of the car, and we wave, say” thank you”, and drive off! One of the young ladies was SO excited that she was thought of, and her face expanded with a smile and she gave Jabin the cutest little pouty lip and hugged him her thank you. Giving just gives me JOY! I love it!

The REAL reason for the season

Now, on to the point of this post. CHRISTmas begins with “Christ” for a reason-Jesus Christ! It used to be that stores would willingly and enthusiastically have signage and employees that unabashedly exclaimed “Merry Christmas!” But now, that is not the case. “Merry Christmas!” has been replaced with “Happy Holidays”, because our society at large is eager to make this a pagan holiday, one that has nothing to do with what it stands for.

Let me remind someone today, that Jesus is the reason for this season! Christmas represents the birth of Jesus Christ, who was born miraculously from the virgin Mary, all because God sent His son to earth so that He could walk among us, teach us, love us, show us His perfect ways, and ultimately willingly lay down His life for us. So, do I teach my children to believe in Santa during this Christmas season? Absolutely not. Why? Allow me to explain.

Putting child-like faith in something that isn’t real…

The Bible declares for us to raise up a child in the way that they should go and when they are older they will remember and not depart from that training (Proverbs 22:6). That goes for every area of their lives. The Bible also suggests that we should have child-like faith for a reason (Matthew 18:2-4), because children are much more eager to accept what is just as it is without the tainted second guessing that simply living life will teach us to do. If an adult holds out a piece of candy, the child’s instincts is to grab hold of that candy and eat it! Not to wonder, “is this person trying to hurt me? Is this person giving me candy that is poisonous?”

For my husband and I, this concept is very similar to teaching our children to believe in a fictional character that holds absolutely no power. By teaching our children to believe in Santa, you are teaching them at a very young age to put their innocent child-like faith in something that is not real! That is not the way that I want to train my children, to put all of their faith and hope and trust that Santa will deliver their hearts desires.

If you really think about that, that is DEEP! No wonder some of us grow up fickle towards the things of God and are tossed to and fro, hot in our faith and devotion to God one moment, and then we are cold the next, and then we walk through life lukewarm, which is a spiritual state detestable to God. I’m really not trying to preach I promise lol! However, we live in a day and age that it is CRITICAL to set our children up for spiritual success, if you get my point.

“Our goal is not to spoil the fun”

Now on the other hand, do we disdain Santa, do we turn up our noses at all the people in the lines at the mall eager to plop their children on the red-suited man’s lap and get them to deliver their pinterest-perfect smile? Nope! In fact, we join them! Santa for us is a fictional character, same as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, a Snowman, Sponge Bob, Power Rangers, Iron Man, and etc. Our goal is not to spoil the fun for our kids, but to give them the truth in love so that they are not trained to give their heart-felt and innocent faith to anything other than Jesus Christ (well we put our faith in people too, but obviously people fail us because we’re human).

Our faith

We want them to know at their young tender ages, that God gave His only son so that we could live and live abundantly! We want them to know, that when tests and trials come their way, that Jesus is real and that He is deserving of their faith because He will work everything out for their good! We want them to know, that if sickness or disease ever came across their bodies or someone they loved, that they will have unadulterated faith to call on the name of Jesus and believe that healing is theirs! Faith is something that we learn … let’s show our children through our living and teaching that faith should only be put into things that are real 🙂

Ok, ya’ll can send ya’ll offering (or hate mail) tooooo (lolol). Kidding!

Final thoughts…

I hope that you all have a VERY Merry CHRISTmas and that this season for you and your family is filled with love, laughter, and joy, because Jesus is truly the reason! I know that the issue of “Santa” comes up every single year among parents and it will forever be a debate. I just wanted to share our beliefs and why we do NOT teach our children that Santa is real. But I’d like to invite you in on the discussion! Do you teach your children to believe in Santa? Were you taught to believe in Santa? As an adult and or parent, what are your Santa beliefs now?

Originally published on my blog: http://mylifewiththesekids.com/why-our-kids-dont-believe-in-santa

Disclaimer:  The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the the views or position of Sassy Plum.