I read an article yesterday about how to handle the subject of Santa Claus with children when you are a Christian. I found it to be an interesting article. It seemed to go along with what we did with our own children.

I remember my father-in-law calling his grandkids and telling them sSanta had been seen here and there. This shocked me! Growing up in a Christian household, we did not “believe” in Santa. Oh, we watched the Santa Christmas cartoons and saw the Santas in the stores but he was just some man dressed up in a costume like clowns or cartoon characters and such. My mom never acted as if he was anything but a fantasy character, like Mickey Mouse and such.

When our kids were old enough to communicate, I remember we had to tell my father-in-law that we did not want him making those Santa sighting calls to our kids. I’m sure he thought we were a bit odd but he did honor our wishes.

All was well and good when the Christmas specials were just cartoons but when The Santa Clause came out, that was something entirely different. For the open minded, that movie can really cause some trouble and for children . . . well, I chose to err on the side of caution. If kids have enough things telling them something, I would think they can begin to believe it is real. The Santa Clause was not animated, it used real people and had good answers to questions about Santa. I chose not to allow my children to watch it and its sequels until they were older and had a firm grasp on real and make believe and were solid in their beliefs, not to be swayed by it.

We felt that we wanted our children to believe us. If we told them that Santa was real, the Easter bunny, the tooth fairy and/or others were real and then we told them that Jesus, God, Adam, Moses, David, Goliath, Jonah and others were real. Just how much would they believe me when they found out that Santa and other fictional characters were just pretend and I continued to tell them that Jesus and the others are real. We did not want our credibility to take that hit.

Then there is always the whole lying issue. How can I hold my children to a standard of truth when I will choose to tell them a lie or just lead them to believe a lie. I taught my children that if you are intentionally making someone believe something that is not true then whether the words you say are actually a lie or not, you are lying. I must be held to the same standard. Thankfully it was never an issue.

I did however, tell them about Saint Nicolas. I even got a book about him. Saint Nicolas was a real and good man. With so much info out there, it is a good thing to be able to separate the true.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº