Powerful Reasons Why You Can Tell Your Kids That Santa Is Not Real
Why It Is Hard To Say “Goodbye” To Santa
- Tradition: Our parents did the work to create Santa magic for us, shouldn’t we do the same thing that they did?
- Peer-pressure: No one wants to be the mean (or lazy) parent among our group of friends so we keep doing the work even when we would rather not.
- Desire: We love the creation of such a huge Christmas production each year that the desire overtakes our abilities, energy, and our budget.
- Culture mandates: As we watch the culture around us, we pick up on the cues that Santa is the biggest part of Christmas. Over time, we simply believe what we have heard over and over again since our own childhoods.
- Kid-centered demands: In our efforts to give our kids wonderful experiences, we bow to their demands for a Santa and gift-centered Christmas rather than giving them a Christ-centered Christmas that they their souls need.
Why We Told Our Kids Santa Is Not Real
One day after Thanksgiving, my husband was eating his breakfast and listening to our 3 year old daughter chatter. As she talked, the conversation turned to Christmas. Hubby asked her what we are going to celebrate at Christmas. Without hesitation, she squealed, “Santa!”
At first, Nick was a bit shocked. We had done nothing Santa-related for any of our Christmas celebrations. We don’t watch TV shows with Santa in them. In fact, we have never even introduced her to a Santa at the mall or anything. Our Christmas music playlist includes only traditional Christmas hymns (no, Up On the Housetop type of songs here…) So, how did our sweet little daughter connect Santa with Christmas so easily?
Two books.
The previous year, she had received two Christmas books that featured some of her favorite picture book characters. In both of the books, these characters interact with Santa. That was all it took for her to assume Christmas equals Santa. This happened easily despite our best efforts to keep Christ at the center of all our Christmas celebrations within our home.
After much discussion, we decided for numerous reasons it was time to talk with our toddler-aged kids. We told them that Santa is not real.
There was no tears or sadness. We explained Santa is a silly story and tradition that some people enjoy pretending about during the Christmas season. Next we explained that our family chooses to focus on the real and historical reason for Christmas which is celebrating the birth of Jesus. We explained that some parents want their kids to pretend that Santa is real for longer and that is there decision. (This was ensure that our kids respect the decisions that other parents make in keeping Santa real for a little longer.)
Our Christmas season has been more richly blessed by the focus that is given to Jesus. Also, we can even enjoy reading a story that mentions Santa from time to time and chuckle about it because we ALL know that it is just a cute silly story. For our family, the decision to tell our young children the truth about Santa has been an easy transition that left us able to honor God more in our daily family life.
Powerful Reasons Why You Can Tell Your Kids That Santa Is Not Real
It is the parent’s decision for when and how they tell their kids the truth about Santa. However, as Christians, I definitely think they are legitimate reasons to consider telling your kids (even young kids) that Santa is not real.
If this is a decision you are trying to make (or trying to explain to your confused family members), these are some talking points to consider.
Reason #1: Focusing On Jesus First!
Let’s be honest. There is a LOT of noise in our lives. Some of that noise is from your kids. Most of the noise comes from worldly distractions. Keeping Christ at the center of our focus is a battle everyday of the year, not just during the month of December. With that being said, Santa provides an added distraction to us and our kids during the Christmas season.
People are willing to remove distractions from their lives at times. Often, we set Do Not Disturb modes on our phones so we can disconnect from work during the evening hours. When traveling, we let the cleaning lady know that we want our room undisturbed because we plan to focus on sleeping in. Christians even set Do Not Disturb signs up in a sense during Lenten seasons when they take a fast from social media or certain dietary delights.
Yet when we come to Christmas, we panic at the thought of saying Do No Disturb our celebration of the birth of Christ!
Jesus was willing to leave the comforts of Heaven to become a frail human baby on Earth so that we could know Him personally and have the chance at eternal life. Let’s be willing to quiet disturbances like Santa, shopping sprees, Elf on the Shelf and everything else. Rather, let’s consider how to spend this Christmas season focused fully on our dear Savior.
Reason #2: Simplifying Over Stressing
Christmas stress is real. During the month of December, there is a myriad of details that seem necessary and demanding of us . Rather than a season of slowing down to focus on Christ, we find it a season of break-neck speed between activities.
Imagine how wonderful it would be if this December was a time spent together with our kids in meaningful ways that point their hearts and souls to Christ!
One way you family can simplify this season is by removing certain aspects of the holiday celebration. If your goal is to focus more on the birth of Christ and simplicity, then you will have to take a serious look at your calendar of activities.
Want more time to focus on Christ this Christmas season? Consider what activities steal the most of your time. Think about all the activities you do that surround Santa. As mentioned before, a significant amount of your family’s valuable time together can be squandered as you plan gifts from Santa, visit Santa, write letters to Santa, decorate for Santa, and perhaps have an Elf from Santa visit your house for an entire month.
Brainstorm all the ways you could intentionally use that time to enjoy simple Christ-centered Christmas traditions together as a family. Allow yourself and your family a season of pausing to see Christ better.
Reason #3: Receiving Eternal Life Vs. Earthly Gifts
Receiving gifts is such an exciting element of childhood. Especially when surrounded by beautiful Christmas decorations and traditions. Gifts can be a display of love of parents to their children. But earthly gifts are fleeting. Toys break. Gift cards are emptied. Trips and experiences end.
As enjoyable as Christmas gifts are, we want to focus on Jesus. He was obedient to God the Father to come as a human baby so He could eventually die for the sins of the world. Truly this is the greatest gift ever given.
Santa (and grandparents and parents and friends…) all give earthly gifts that will fade. Rather than focusing on the gifts that will be forgotten, we must remember to help our kids focus on the Gift that came at Christmas.
Quick Side Note
Gifts coming from both parents and Santa can be an added challenge. As the parent, you have to remember which gifts came from you and which came from Santa. Personally, my parents let me think Santa was real until I was 5. They didn’t try very hard because they weren’t entirely sold on the idea of having Santa be a part of their Christmas season. I figured out who Santa was the day I noticed that all of the “Santa” gifts came from an Avon catalog. Strangely enough Santa only brought me gifts made by Avon. (Mom used this trick so she would know which ones to claim came from Santa.)
Remove the task of remembering who gave what gifts when all the gifts actually come from you! For our family, it is easier to remove that element of confusion and craziness.
Reason #4: Obeying From Love Rather Than Fear
When I worked at the local grocery store during college, I had several different managers over me. Some of those managers were great to work for, others were downright miserable to work for. I still complied with and did the tasks that were required of me by the miserable managers but my obedience was done out of fear of losing my job. On those days, I hated even being at work. On the days when the good managers were there, completing the tasks that they assigned was a delight. I genuinely enjoyed working for them.
The same can be said for our kids. We want our kids to obey because they are motivated by our love not by fear. Staying on Santa’s nice list can seem like a nice leveraging tool for the tired desperate parent during the Christmas season. Telling your kids that Santa (or his elf) is watching them can result in fear-based obedience.
I want my kids to learn to obey because they love God and they love us. When they obey out of love, even hard requests can be manageable. We decided to tell out kids that Santa is not real because we want them to continue to experience the joy that love-guided obedience brings.
