Do Christian kids believe in Santa Claus?
December 4, 2008 by Rick Osborne
I used to get upset when I saw people replace the word ‘Christmas’ with ‘Xmas.’ I saw this abbreviation as another attempt to cross Christ out of Christmas. After blustering on about this at some length to all that would listen, I decided that I’d look up the origin and meaning of the little offensive word in order to give myself more bluster ammo. I was embarrassed, yet relieved, to find out that the word was not an anti Christ conspiracy after all. The symbol ‘X’ is simply a Greek abbreviation the represents the word ‘Christ’ and therefore Jesus, and has been around and used by Christians for hundreds of years.
Although I still believe that Xmas has become a clever way to stay politically correct, I learned a valuable lesson about ranting and raving before I’ve done a little research. Which brings me to the point of my blog;
I was shocked to learn that apparently 85% of kids under 8 are led to believe in a ‘literal’ Santa. Given the percentage of us who claim to be Christians, that means that many Christian children believe that Santa Claus celebrates Jesus’ birthday.This gives rise to meaningful questions such as, who is Saint Nicholas? How did he become Santa Claus? Is he an affront to the true meaning of Christmas and as Christian parents, what should we tell our kids about him? But before I bluster, let’s look at the history.
Nicholas was an actual person who lived in what is present day Turkey, about 300 years after Jesus walked the earth. He was the son of a rich noble man and inherited much when his parents died. He was a very devout man who served God all of his life. He was especially known for his generosity. One legend says that when Nicholas heard of a man who could not afford to marry off his daughters because they had no dowry, he conspired to secretly help. As each daughter came of age, Nicholas threw a small bag of gold through the window for her dowry. The third and final gift landed in the girl’s stocking which was hung by the fire to dry. This time the father caught and thanked Nicholas and the word spread. Consequently, for many years after, anonymous gifts were thought to have come from Nicholas.
Several miracles were attributed to Nicholas while he was alive and his reputation spanned several countries. After he died, December 6th was named Saint Nicholas day and children left out stockings or shoes the night before, and in the morning they were full of either goodies or coal (an antiquated and bad parenting idea). The stocking legend is of course the original origin of our modern day Christmas stocking.
The truth of Saint Nicholas was mixed with other myths and legends over many years and truth took a back seat to fiction. During the reformation when the Protestant Church was distinguishing and distancing itself from the Catholic church, Saint Nicholas (who since his death had become a Catholic Saint) was blessed (in several countries) with different posthumous name changes. With the name change came the need to change the new character’s history and resumé. Therefore (over a period of time), many of the non historic myths surrounding Saint Nicholas were adopted and added to the season’s celebrations. In short, protestants who didn’t want to believe in the real Saint Nicholas gave him a name change and started promoting the idea of believing in a fictional character. (Anyone else see some irony here.)
The Dutch had changed Saint Nicholas’ name to Sinter Claus and when they emigrated to New Amsterdam (which later became New York), the name’s English pronunciation eventually morphed into Santa Claus. Our idea of Santa grew from there. Clement Clarke Moore, another devout Christian, wrote a poem he called, ‘A Visit From St. Nicholas.’ Today it is known as ‘The Night Before Christmas.’ That poem pulled together some of these myths and ideas that had originally come from the life of St. Nicholas and/or had been changed and added to the protestant version. It attempted to weave them into one fun tale that Moore wrote as a lark for his children. He called the poem a ‘mere trifle’ and he’d roll over in his grave if he knew that for many families, it had become a replacement for the real Christmas story.
Saint Nicholas day was and is still celebrated in many countries around the world. However, here in North America, we blended all the myths and legends surrounding Saint Nicholas and/or Santa Claus (as they were brought here from other countries like Holland) with our Christmas celebration.
Over the years, advertisers, authors, TV shows and movies have further shaped the myth of Santa Claus into the story we tell our children today.
That is perhaps an over simplified history, but it serves its purpose which was to allow me to bluster. So let me begin. For the sake of brevity (because I tend to get long winded when I’m blustering), I’ll frame my thoughts in the form of three simple answers to three complicated questions.
Shouldn’t Christmas be simply about the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?
As Christians celebrating Christmas, we should make great efforts to keep Jesus at the center of Christmas. I always put the manger scene front and center. When my children were younger, we always read the Christmas story from the Bible either on Christmas Eve or on Christmas morning. We would pray and focus on Christ before we opened presents and before each holiday meal, we took extra time to thank him for his wonderful gift. We also talk about the Christian origins of the Christmas Tree and Stocking.
Isn’t it wrong and possibly damaging to children to lie to them about Santa Claus?
This is an age-old question and one that has sparked many arguments. Studies have been commissioned and concluded that no lasting damage is done to kids who have been raised with this deception. The main argument supporting the deception is that it’s a cultural, just-for-fun lie, propagated by the whole population and not a parental deception alone. Therefore, it should not negatively affect a child’s trust for his or her parents. Unfortunately, this argument doesn’t deal with all of the issues.
Although I wouldn’t go as far as to say that you are wrong if you tell your children that Santa Claus (as we know him) is real, I will tell you I think you’re missing out on something greater.
First, the story of Santa Claus (which we’ve been embellishing with new imaginative ideas for hundreds of years) tends to be more exciting to a young child then the manger story. If your child is keyed into believing that Santa, elves, Rudolph and a BIG bag of toys are real, for them Christmas will be mainly about Santa and toys.
Next, I think we do our children a disservice when we don’t expect them to understand or know truth from error until they are eight or ten. These are the formative years where our children are learning more than they’ll learn for the rest of their lives. When Jesus was twelve, he was wowing the religious leaders with his understanding of the truth. Furthermore, I don’t think we should ever lie to our children (or anyone else) about anything. God’s Word is clear on that topic.
Finally, I think that a practice that is based on two very faulty foundations (using a lie to control your child’s behavior [if they're bad they won't get a visit from Santa] and wanting to distance ourselves from the real Saint Nicholas because he was Catholic) should perhaps be rethought. Also, there’s a way to have all the fun without lying to our children..
Is it possible to have a Christ-centered Christmas and still enjoy some of the fanciful cultural excitement known as Santa Claus?
Yes! After reading the brief history of Santa Claus, it becomes evident why a reported 85% of parents today lie to their kids about Santa. One lie leads to another. It started out with telling 4th and 5th century kids that St. Nick might fill their stockings if they were good. Then protestants didn’t want to promote a Catholic Saint, but they still wanted the holiday so they expanded the deception.
Could we get back to the truth, parent well and endorse a great man of God without caring what church he attended?
Try this, tell your children about the real Saint Nicholas and the origins of the Christmas Stocking. Instead of telling them that they have to be good to get stuff, teach them what Saint Nicholas knew; God wants us to be generous and to give to others unselfishly like God did when he gave us his only Son. Now start a tradition of everyone putting little gifts in each other’s stockings.
Tell your kids how today’s Santa came about but don’t bah humbug the whole thing. Focus on the real Saint Nicholas but let the rest of the story ride as a bit of cultural fun. My kids always knew the truth but we gave a place for the imaginary add-ons. Do children enjoy Disney’s animated movies or the fiction books that we read them any less because they know that they’re not real stories? We as a family built snowmen and sang about frosty, we watched the animated Christmas shows and we included the silly and fun Christmas songs in with the traditional ones when we played our Christmas music. Before the kids went to bed, they put out cookies and coffee for Santa. We probably had more fun with this than anyone else because everyone knew it was a charade and played it up to the hilt, with winks and nods and the kids pretending to be suspicious about how Saint Nick seemed to like his coffee exactly how dad liked it, and lots more joking.
In the end, our Christmases were more focused on Jesus’ birth because my children knew what was real and important and what was just for fun.
Many years ago as a young Christian (when I was prone to bluster before the research was done), I used to call Santa and his elves, Satan Claus and his demons. However, I’m older now and hopefully a little wiser. I know the truth and that’s exactly what I’ve told my kids and will be telling my Grandkids. The truth and I plan on continuing to have a ton of fun celebrating our Lord’s birth in the culture we live in.
Rick Osborne (www.rick-osborne.com)
ParentingTwits 
In our home, we have always viewed Santa as a fun character, just like Mickey Mouse or Barney. They are fun – but not real. If we go to Disney don’t we laugh and have fun with all those characters? Same for us with Santa – we have fun with it but we make it a point to let our children know Santa does not bring the presents: mom and dad do.
Jesus is the Reason for the Season; and we even go so far as to have birthday cake for Jesus and we limit presents to only three per child. Giving and receiving gifts is a gesture of celebration of Christ’s birth. It’s fun – and we love it; but we are always mindful of why we are celebrating.
This has worked for all of my children – the oldest of which is now 27, the youngest is only 6. No regrets at all from the older ones. They appreciate that I didn’t lie to them; but still made Christmas fun.
Your Santa Claus got coffee? No wonder he was wired by the time he got to our house.
We followed pretty much the same philosophy with our kids. We emphasized the birth of Christ, we taught them about the real Saint Nicholas, but we allowed them to put out the cookies and MILK and a few carrot sticks for the reindeer. They enjoyed getting letters from him one year, but my daughter was always suspicious because Santa’s handwriting looked mysteriously like Dad’s. :)
Kids believed in Santa till about age 7…
Always knew the Birth of Christ details…
Two totally seperate things in my home…
~Patricia
My husband and I have decided on not including Santa Clause in our family celebration of Christmas. The reason why is that it takes the focus off of what is the only reason we should be celebrating Christmas. And of course that is the birth of Jesus. I don’t feel the need to include Santa to make the holiday “more fun and exciting.” I want my daughter’s heart to know truth and learn to discern what is of this world and what is of the bible. I think Santa Clause is just another way Christian holidays are being manipulated. Easter….Bunny’s…. NOT the reason we celebrate. But it does seem more fun I suppose(to children) but it really is unnecessary to go about life doing things that are just Satan’s way of taking from what is a day that is to celebrate the life of Christ. The real reasons we celebrate are the things we want to remember not the pretty bows that are put on these holidays. I truly believe that these things are a distraction from truth!
I do a “blended” approach to this for my kids. I keep Christmas Christ-centered by making an Advent wreath with the kids and using that as a weekly reason to talk about the wonder and excitement around the birth of the Lord. We also are lucky to have this WONDERFUL evening “living” exhibit one weekend every holiday season in our neighborhood where several churches all get together and stage what it called the “Bethelehem Walk,” where there are 15 stations set up with live actors acting out different stages of the Christmas story, along with associated scripture. Also, the churches are all open and choirs are all singing carols – it is a wonderful way to keep the true meaning of Christmas in the season for the kids.
But regarding Santa, my kids will grow up “believing” in Santa as well – just as I did. My belief in Santa was just as strong as my belief in Jesus at each age, but I don’t mean that in a bad way. I always knew and accepted Jesus as the Lord and my Savior, but I also knew and accepted that Santa was a wonderful magical person who came Christmas Eve.
My parents did a good job of letting us believe in both, without compromising our values or the real meaning of the season, and I hope to acheive the same for my children. I never felt “lied” to, and when I discovered that Santa wasn’t who I thought he was, it was of course a dissappointment, but certainly not traumatic.
I really enjoy your blog – so glad I found it!
GREAT! If we see Santa as an opportunity to learn and practise generous, anonymous, living loving and giving then what a fantastic opportunity to teachour children this. Just as many Christians throughout history have been recognised as setting examples in living right so too can St.Nicholas! – Have we ever noticed that often these Saints godly examples are often recognised by the Catholic part of the Body of Christ – maybe we can take something from that!
If I choose to see Christmas as a family time of being blessed through giving , sharing and enjoying food, gifts, time and love together then that will be the legacy my children receive – if I see it as an expense, tiring, problematic, selfish time – then how wil they go on to celebrate it? The buck stops with me and I am delighted to see others want to use Christmas as an opportunity to promote Giving of ourselves to one another!
All I know is that when we stopped believing in Santa, he stopped bringing presents!!!! my kids have fun with the Santa idea but figured out along the way that he was a cultural tradition like most countries have in one form or another.In Norway it was trolls and Santa was a mean little creature. Every culture seems to have their folk lore and traditional stories that keep life fun and interesting. There are more important issues to grapple with for our kids than debunking Santa in my opinion. Growing up we only got one present from our parents, and Santa brought the other one so it was to our advantage to hold on to Santa as long as possible and write really nice thank you notes. I have 3 pastor brothers and a missionary sister so I think we must not have been harmed too much in our fun with Santa!
I really appreciate the information given on this site! I have a 2 year old son and a 6 month old daughter. My husband and I have already decided not to tell our kids that their gifts are from Santa. We are going to have our Christmas centered around Christ and His gift of salvation. We will also probably tell them about St. Nick, and how he WAS a real person who gave to others in need, just that he’s not the one leaving them presents on Christmas day. My husband and I grew up believing in Santa Claus and yes, we did have a lot of fun. So, some people might wonder why we’re choosing not too bring our children up the same way. Here’s a thought: You tell your kids that Santa IS real (who’s someone you can’t see) and then, tell your kids when they’re older he’s NOT real, they could take the same logic and say well, my parents are telling me God is real (someone I can’t see), so maybe God isn’t real either. Telling your kids that their presents are coming from Santa is a LIE. Period. And, exactly, a lie is a lie anyway you look at, wether in fun or not. So, thank you and God bless to everyone. Hold on to the Faith, keep Christ in the center of your life and remember His promises! Till we meet in heaven, Michelle
My wife and I had a problem with this deception with our children. We decided to tell them the truth about Santa, while reassuring them that Jesus is real and true. We got ourselves in a little trouble with other parents who had told their children that Santa was real, and then our children told them that Santa was not real. If we had to do it over again, we do the same. Perhaps we would might have done better to instruct our children not to discuss the subject with their friends.
Fortunately or unfortunately, I grew up in the Philippines; and in the town where I grew up, Santa Claus was really nothing but a decorative item on the walls or table tops. At the very least, I cannot recall having been told, nor heard, that Santa Claus was real, and that he would actually fly high on top of the clouds and land on our rooftops and give us gifts. Nope. We’re used to fairy tales here, and while they sounded nice, we didn’t expect the characters to actually appear.
In fact, it was only when i did a simllar research very recently that I ended up knowing that Santa Claus, in fact, represented someone real. Somehow, that gave me a strangely similar feeling of being slapped on my face, opening my eyes to the long history of Christianity, and the fact that there were recorded stories of Christians outside of the disciples and Saint Paul!
This is part of growing up I guess :)
Thanks to internet, people across continents can swap stories like this.
My son who just turned 5 today has never had an interest to sit on Santa’s lap. He wishes he could sit on “God and Jesus’ lap” as he says. Wouldn’t that be awesome?
I believe he has a closer connection to God than most kids his age as parishioners at my church have commented that as well. Although he doesn’t care to sit on Santa’s lap, he is aware of who he is and now being in preschool he is exposed to Santa more. The odd thing about all of this is neither my husband or I have ever pushed him away from Santa. In fact, we’ve even suggested he visit Santa (like we did as kids) but he always declines. He says “Santa is ok over there but I prefer Jesus.”
I feel so blessed to have a son like this and perhaps his love for “God and Jesus” will be God’s gift of him planting seeds in his lifetime so that others will see the truth as well.