Confessing Evangelical

Chris raises the question of What Christian Parents Should Say About Father Christmas. Always a lively one this, and one which vexed me for some time following the birth of our first son.

Basically, my personal feeling was that I couldn't really see what all the fuss was about. Father Christmas (whose exclusive franchise in the UK keeps getting encroached upon by his North American rival, Santa Claus) had always been part of my childhood Christmases, "and it never did me any harm" - it was all part of the fun, even once my sister and I had "apostatised", and indeed even today my parents (particularly my mother) will joke with us about "what Father Christmas is going to bring us this year".

It felt a bit cold and calculating for young children just to get their presents from Mum and Dad rather than from this magical figure of generosity - almost a bit like encouraging them to call you by your Christian names. All rather tedious and "adult". And - quite apart from children feeling left out as everyone else goes Santa-crazy - it's scarcely a guaranteed route to popularity for one's children to be solemnly telling all their young friends that Father Christmas doesn't exist.

(I stress that all this was just my personal feeling within my own family context - I don't mean to criticise any Christian parent who exercises their Christian liberty differently on this issue in their own family).

So I needed a pretty good reason for "me and my house" to go down the "anti-Santa" route, but all I that was being communicated to me was the generalised sense that "good Christian parents don't do that", coupled with an uncomfortable awareness that, in fact, an awful lot of "good Christian parents" do.

So, last Christmas - with our then-two year old son approaching his first Christmas at which he would be conscious of Father Christmas' existence - I emailed the LCMS's Church Information Center as follows (I wasn't a Lutheran at that stage, but I knew where to get sound, sane, pastoral advice that respected true Christian liberty without tolerating the genuinely sinful). Here, from the depths of my "saved items" folder, is my query:

What advice would the LCMS give to parents concerning what they say to their children about Santa Claus? Should Christian parents refuse to have anything to do with Santa, or is it enough just to try and ensure he is put firmly in his (marginal and secondary) place, with a positive focus on centering the whole Advent/Christmas period on Christ in a way that captures children's imagination?

And here's the reply I received a day or so later:

Hello, Mr. H_____:

The following is an e-mail response written by one of our pastors here when this question was asked previously. I hope it's helpful to you:

Christian families will make Christ the absolute center of their Christmas and will have devotions and focus on His birth. They will therefore not permit themselves of their children to become all hung-up on Santa, *either* by way of talking about Santa so much that they cloud the true meaning of Christmas, or getting so caught up in a legalistic "ban on Santa" that they inflict on their children their own personal issues.

If my own personal experience is of any help, I'll share it. We have three children. One is nine, the other eight, the other is five. My oldest son never believed in Santa (neither did his father), Santa just never made any sense to him and so he never believed in the jolly old elf. Does he enjoy the Christmas stories featuring Santa? Of course! Does he watch Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer every year, yes, sure he does. His younger brother is presently wavering between reality and fantasy re. Santa, and enjoys that. Our youngest, a little girl, is a firm believer in Santa and no amount of persuasion from her older brother has so far swayed her opinion (though we suspect her confidence in Santa is starting to waver).

Have we gone out of our way to lecture her about the fact Santa is not real? No, of course not. Have we encouraged her "belief" in Santa? No. We are letting her be a child. When she is older, she will put away childish things, even as our older children are in the process of doing. We don't pray to Santa. We don't write letters to Santa. We do not deliver discourses on Santa to the children. It is just a fun story for them and they have enjoyed it, much as they enjoy the Aesop's fables and nursery rhymes.

Blessings in Christ!

In His service and yours,
L____ C. H____
LCMS Church Information Center

I found this a very helpful response. I also found this article by Pr Richard Bucher helpful (from The Christmas Page of Our Redeemer Lexington's website).

My current line with my older son (our younger son will only be one year and one day old on Christmas Day this year) is that Father Christmas brings presents to people because he is so happy about Jesus being born. When the boys are older, then I can tell them about how his real name is St Nicholas, and share with them some of the stories about that great saint. And then when they turn round and say that Father Christmas isn't real - well, I'll tell them that under no circumstances are they to break that news to their grandmother ;-)