It's All About Santa!

This post is for ADULTS ONLY (kids need parental permission to read this). And it is not intended to offend anyone. These are just my thoughts and feelings of how I view Christmas and Santa, so if you become offended, that’s your own fault.

As a little girl, I was a faithful believer in Santa Clause. I wrote him letters, made him cookies, and sang odes to him all year long. One year, my sister and I got his signature when he came to our house during the night. Every year, I prayed for him and I probably even prayed to him. And why wouldn’t I? He sees me all the time- just like God. He knows when I am doing what’s right- just like God. So it seemed natural to talk and beg him for things I wanted- just like I did with God.

It’s important to note that I faithfully believed in God, too. I knew that Christmas was Jesus’ birthday and we wouldn’t have the holiday without Him. But I also knew that Santa was real. And no matter how you shave the ice, no matter how much Mom and Dad tried to put an emphasis on the “reason for the season,” when it came down to what was really important on Christmas morning- to me it was all about what Santa brought us.

I didn’t fully realize how much I believed in Santa until much later in life. I’ve been able to have several “counseling” talks with Jeremy to help me sort out all of my emotions.  

As a child, it took me a long time to face the truth about Santa- probably because I wanted to keep believing so badly. I ignored the boxes in the garage that had pictures of the gifts Santa brought. I turned a blind eye when Santa put his glass in the sink. I came up with all kinds of explanations as to why Santa looked different at every mall.

Finally, on Christmas Eve when I was 12 years old, I heard dad drilling something late at night. I wanted to go see what was going on, even though my older sister Desha urged me to stay in bed. I snuck down the stairs to find my dad drilling together a toy slide. The dread crept in. Could this be proof that Santa isn't real? I ran back upstairs and tried to erase what I saw. The next morning, sure enough, Mom and Dad claimed that the slide was from Santa Clause. I felt the world cave in on me. Everything I knew was true actually wasn't. I remember feeling darkness around me and feeling a heavy weight on my heart. I was crushed. Even worse than knowing Santa was nothing more than a joke was realizing that my parents, and all the grown-ups I had trusted, had actually lied to me, year after year. Even all four of my grandparents lied to me when I asked them for the truth about Santa. I just couldn't understand. The sense of betrayal consumed me. 

During the next few Christmases, I really struggled. I knew Tanya believed, so I could play along. But I also knew that it was all a lie, and it felt weird helping someone believe in something that wasn’t real. Then, when Tanya knew the truth (at like age 5, and no I didn’t tell her!), there was seemingly no point to Christmas anymore. Desha was now gone to college, everyone knew Santa was a fake, and so lots of the traditions that we had done in the past were pointless. What was the point of waiting until Christmas morning to open presents? So we actually stopped that tradition. Christmas since has never been the same for me, and every year when the holiday comes, I cringe. In many ways, it is a time of year that reminds me how a big part of my childhood died. Needless to say, I became bitter towards anything involving Santa at Christmastime.

But that wasn’t the only effect that the truth had on me. It did not take my adolescent mind long to start questioning the reality of God. If everyone- literally EVERYONE- had lied to me about Santa, how was I supposed to know if they were lying about God, too? And it’s not like you could ask people and trust their answer. They all lied to me about Santa, so surely they could be lying about God. It took months of soul searching, prayer and faith for me to gain and confirm my testimony, and luckily the one person I could count on to tell me the truth was the Holy Ghost. He witnessed to me that God is real and that I am His daughter, and I’ve remained true to that testimony ever since.

So now, as a parent, the big question is: How will I handle Santa with my own children? Maybe I want them to experience the same wonderment and magical belief that I had for so many years. But then that means that they would also experience the same disappointment, deceit, even trauma that I experienced. Do I want to risk the chance of jeopardizing their faith in God because I lied to them about Santa?  Do I think it’s even moral to lie to my own child- even if they are just 3, 4, and 5 years old?

For me, the answer is pretty simple. I want my children to know that I will be truthful to them about all things. I want them to grow up knowing that Mom will tell them straight up anything they want to know- that I can be trusted with anything they bring me. So in order to build and keep that trust, it is my parental duty (and my childhood duty, for that matter) to make sure they don’t get duped into believing in something that is wrong and false. I will tell them the truth-- not just when they are old enough to ask. They need to know the truth from Day 1.

Now, I know what you are thinking. “SarahLynn, that takes all the fun out Christmas for them!” My reply to this is simple: If removing the belief of Santa- a fake person who not even 100 years ago had anything to do with Christmas- really does take the fun out of Christmas, then maybe we need to rethink how we celebrate the holiday. Quite simply stated, once Santa was not real for me, all the fun WAS taken out of Christmas. As I mentioned earlier, the holiday became pointless to me. So I have spent many years trying to figure out how I can infuse love, laughter, wonderment, and joy into a holiday that should --in all frankness- have nothing to do with Santa anyway.

You’re probably thinking, “SarahLynn, Santa should be a part of Christmas! He symbolizes everything that Christmas is about- love and gift giving. He even wears red, which is a symbol of Christ’s blood that was shed for us. Santa is the epitome of Christmas!” And to that, I could not disagree with you more. Each year, I see more and more that Santa is basically Satan’s way of driving us away from remembering the Saviour’s birth, not closer to it. I really believe that the devil has taken one little truth- “Santa is a symbol of Christ’s love”- to hide an entire mountain of lies. Among those lies include these messages that are quietly taught to our children with the modern traditions of Santa:

·         To hope and have faith means that you hope that Santa brings you what you want.

·         Santa can bring you blessings that are better than what God can bring you.

·         Christmas is about what you get (and how better do we teach this than by asking our own nieces and nephews “what did you get for xmas?” and “what did Santa bring you”).

·         Christmas is something you buy.

·         God is not the only Father that cares about you. Afterall, “Father” Christmas loves you, knows you by name, and watches over you day and night, too.

·         Jesus’ birth is boring. Maybe if Santa brought him on his flying sleigh and put him in Mary’s stocking, it would be a better story.

·         God is not that powerful. He doesn’t have flying reindeer and he can’t go to every child’s house in one night. (and this thought did actually cross my mind as a child).

·         Happiness is getting what you want.

Especially this year, I have noticed how Santa is more of an anti-Christ than anything. It is so interesting to me how parents are willing to let teachers do holiday activities about Santa. They embrace anything that is related to Santa. Even the Muslims and Hindu and atheist parents have Santa come to their homes on Christmas Eve. But the moment something about Jesus is mentioned at school, all hearts stop. The parents mob the principal’s office and your whole career is in question. Why is this? Why is it so offensive for people to hear or talk about Jesus at Christmastime? Maybe it’s because they are afraid of his reality?

I hate how it’s easier for people to love and cherish a fake person than it is for people to even just recognize someone that is real. I HATE how teachers, parents, church leaders, the media, and even news reporters will go great lengths to make sure that the truth about Santa isn’t ever spoken of in public, yet we try teaching our children the importance of honesty and trustworthiness. Can’t anyone else see the moral conflicts here!? When you look at this way, it’s easy to see that Satan has become extremely successful with driving people away from the Savior at Christmastime.

So then, we come back to these questions: As a parent, how do I handle Santa and Christmas? How do I tell my children the truth from Day 1 without them spilling the beans to all their friends? How do I successfully infuse love, laughter, wonderment, and joy into Christmas while focusing on Christ? This year, I think Jeremy and I figured it out, or at least came closer to figuring it out. This post is getting really long, so Stay Tuned to my next post for our solutions…