Santa and the Spofford Household

***This post was first written December 2010***

First of all, what I'm about to share is personal and important to me. I share it here with the expectation that those reading it will see it as my way of explaining why I stand where I stand on this particular issue. If you don't agree or choose to do something different, that's perfectly fine; this is not to persuade, convince, or judge. Please read the following knowing that I'm not looking for a debate or to be 'countered.'

I don't celebrate Santa in my house. I mean, sure, he's in our decorations: he's in ornament form on the tree, there's a stuffed Santa in the guest bathroom, my son wears holiday attire with Santa on it, etc. We also decorate with snowmen, reindeer, snowflakes, a tree, lights, stockings, a nativity, etc. All the 'typical' things. We will watch movies and shows with Santa in them like Elf, Rudolph, Frosty, etc. We won't, however, be telling our children that the gifts were brought to them by a jolly old man wearing red--that he really exists and flies around all night delivering gifts via chimney all over the world. That's where I draw the line.

And because I recently read a book wherein my thoughts were put into words better than I could do myself, here is an excerpt from the book:

"Thinking About Santa
For several reasons, we have chosen not to include Santa Claus in our Christmas stories and decorations. First, fairy tales are fun, but we don't ask our children to believe in them. Second, celebrating with Santa and manger will postpone a child's clear understanding of what the real truth of God is. It's very difficult for a young child to pick through a marble cake of part truth and part imagination to find the crumbs of reality. We want our children to understand God as fully as they're able, at whatever age they are. So we try to avoid anything that would inhibit or distort that understanding.
Third, think how confusing it must be to literal-thinking, uncritical preschooler. Santa is so much like what we're trying all year to teach our children about God. Look at the attributes of Santa:
He's omniscient-he sees everything you do.
He rewards you if you're good.
He's omnipresent--at least, he can be everywhere in one night.
He gives you good gifts.
He's the most famous "old man in the sky" figure.
But at the deeper level that young children can't comprehend yet, he is not like God at all. For example, does Santa really care if we're bad or good? Think of the most awful kid you can remember. Did he or she ever not get gifts from Santa? What about Santa's spying and then rewarding you if you're good enough? That's not the way God operates. He gave us his gift--his Son--even though we weren't good at all. "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" Romans 5:8. He gave his gift to us to make us good, not because we had proved ourselves good enough.
Helping our children understand God as much as they're able at whatever age they are is our primary goal. But we've also seen some other encouraging effects of not including Santa in our celebration.
First, I think children are glad to realize that their parents, who live with them all year and know all the worst things about them, still show their love at Christmas. Isn't it better than a funny, old make-believe man who drops in just once a year?
Second, our children know our family's usual giving patterns for birthdays and special events. They seem to have an instinct about our typical spending levels and abilities. Knowing that their Christmas gifts come from the people they love, rather than from a bottomless sack, can help diminish the "I-want-this, give-me-that" syndrome.
And, finally, when children know that God's generosity is reflected by God's people, it tends to encourage a sense of responsibility about helping make Christmas good for others."

There's more to the topic, the chapter, and the book, obviously, but the above is the piece that struck me the most. Not only are the above points true, but I simply can't imagine lying to my children. I remember learning that Santa wasn't real and thinking "Well, if they've been lying about that, what else are they lying about?" I don't want my kids to have a moment where they question if the things I've been teaching them about the world, about life, and most importantly about God are true. It doesn't sit well with me. Sure we'll read fairy tales, but I won't ever go to great lengths (putting out cookies, writing 'from Santa' on presents, etc) to convince them the characters are real.

A story in the next section of the book talks about a foreign exchange student studying in the US and writing home telling his family of how we celebrate Christmas here--that it's to honor this guy wearing a red suit. He goes to this house that has a large nativity as their main decoration and he's confused about what a baby in a barn has to do with the guy in the red suit and presents, and the family has a chance to share Jesus with him. Talk about making me check my motives! Do I want outsiders to see that I celebrate Christmas as a way to get gifts from a old, fat guy, or do I want to use it as an opportunity to share Christ and his salvation? I choose the later. I mean, we'll exchange gifts, but we'll be doing it as a family, from family. (On Christmas Eve since there's no reason to wait til morning.)

Now, I'm not saying this in a 'Holier than thou" or "My way or the highway" way. I'm sharing why we've chosen to celebrate this holiday the way we have. I'm sharing how the topic affects me; I'm sure it affects each of us differently. I'm sure you can have both Santa and Christ in your Christmas, but as for me and mine? We'll be celebrating Christmas as a way of honoring and remembering God's perfect gift to us, his son, Jesus Christ, without the inclusion of the figure of Santa being promoted as a real person. I do hope, however, to explain that there once was this man named St. Nicholas, that he gave gifts to poor children, and that he's represented today as the jolly figure in red. (I also hope to teach my children the origins of all the other symbols we use this time of year: lights, the tree, presents, etc.)

Please don't leave your time having read this thinking of this as a judgment of others and their celebrating practices. It's simply a long-winded (long-worded?) way of me answering the question "Why aren't you including Santa in your Christmas traditions?"

*Book section taken from "Treasuring God in our Traditions," Noel Piper

postscript December 2011: A friend just shared this blog with me, and I wanted everyone else to get a chance to read it. I'm in love with this blog post.