Remember the excitement of Christmas eve as children when we couldn't get to sleep. We were awaiting the arrival of Santa-Claus. We were told that "He knows when you are sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake". Now children know Santa-Claus lives far away on the North pole and they have never met him. Children can understand how parents know if they've been bad or good, but for a perfect stranger that lives far away to know when they are sleeping or awake is nothing short of supernatural. In fact Santa-Claus to a child is an exact representation of God to an adult. Children are taught to believe in this "all knowing", "always present", "all powerful" giver of best gifts. In fact, a child's faith in Santa-Claus is in my opinion more powerful than their faith in God himself.

I am reminded of a boy in my grade 2 class. It was just before Christmas break and the whole class was excited. One boy discovered that Jamie, a fellow classmate, still believed in Santa-Claus. The whole class ridiculed Jamie so bad that he ran out of the class and cried all the way home. My heart still goes out to Jamie. Yet in reality most children learn that Santa-Claus doesn't really exist by mocking of older children or peers as in Jamie's case. Older siblings love to laugh at younger siblings when parents give approval to "pop" the Santa-Claus bubble of the young and faithful.

Now this is where the danger lies. Every year, millions of children suddenly have their faith "shattered" in this "all knowing", "omni-present", "all-powerful" Santa-Claus. This must damage their ability to have faith in the one true God who really does exist. No wonder adults usually visualize God as a kind old man and Jesus as baby in a Christmas nativity scene. This is how they were taught about God and Jesus as children.

Since Christmas is not found in the Bible, I believe parents would be well advised to participate in Santa-Claus as a game. Teach children that Santa-Claus is a myth and a fairy-tale on their first Christmas. Play the "Santa-Claus game" but protect your children's faith in God by seeking out and destroying any "faith" they have in Santa-Claus. Otherwise, imagine this: Your 13 year old hears the preacher talk about God the Father, as an all knowing, all powerful giver of the gift of eternal salvation in his Sunday sermon. The preacher then encourages all to have faith in God. But "once bitten, twice shy". Your young teen thinks to himself, "Dejavu! I know when I am an adult, that I will learn that Jesus was just a myth and that church is just a game, just like Santa-Claus". Playing the "Santa-Claus game" doesn't take any of the fun or joy out of Christmas for children. In fact they may enjoy it more!

By Steve Rudd

My mother's parents taught her to believe in Santa Claus. My mom said it hurt her deeply when she discovered that they had lied to her, so she didn't want to lie to us. My dad was just very, very spiritual and refused to lie to us. So I never believed in Santa Claus.

My husband was taught to believe in Santa Claus but did not want to lie to our children. We took a lot of heat from his family because we refused to lie to our children. My children are grateful to us that we did not lie to them. A couple of them got in trouble at school and got taken out of class and reprimanded because they told their fellow kindergartners that Santa didn't exist.

Do we love our children or don't we? If we can look into their innocent little faces and lie through our teeth to them, then we absolutely do not love them. They trust us. They depend on us to tell them the truth. What kind of horrible parents are we if we would say, "Oh, don't listen to Johnny. You know I will tell you the truth. Of course Santa exists"? Well, you know what? When they find out it isn't so, we shouldn't expect them to listen when we tell them God exists. At least I wouldn't. If my parents had lied to me about one thing I would have figured they'd lie about something else. Or they were so stupid they didn't know reality from fiction.

Do we want our children to be ignorant? If they asked us why grass is green would we fill their pure little minds with some kind of story about fairies dropping green food coloring on the grass or would we tell them the truth? Do we want our children to be IGNORANT? Mercy, the truth is all there is in this world!

A lie is a lie is a lie, and no matter how we want to sugarcoat it it's still going to be a lie. All liars will have their part in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone. And surely lying to children has to be the worst kind of lie of all. We can compare Santa to Bugs Bunny all we want but our children KNOW Bugs is just a cartoon figure. They really and truly believe that a big fat bearded man comes down a chimney to give them presents. How anyone could deceive their own children that they gave birth to and deliberately make them ignorant so that they are laughingstocks to children with honest parents is beyond me.

Do all good gifts come from God or do they come from Santa Claus?

Sorry, this is one of my soapboxes. As far as I'm concerned this topic ought not to need discussion. Anybody with half a brain in his head knows that lying is a sin. And since Santa doesn't exist, to say he does is to lie.

By Tina Collins

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