Mar

16

Everybody Knows that Santa Claus is …

Posted on March 16th, 2010 in Life and Family by Fred McKinnon

“Everybody knows that Santa Claus is not real”.

That’s what my oldest, Jon Michael (9) proclaimed, virtually out of nowhere, last night at the dinner table.  The younger 3 siblings (7, 5 and 3) seemed too busy eating their dinner to pay attention.  Not to mention my quick dampening of the subject.

Why does this come out at the dinner table in March?

Well, I had the “Santa” talk with my 9-year old this morning.  It’s one of many “you’re growing up” talks we’ll have over the years, I’m sure.  He wasn’t phased a bit.

We’ve always stressed that Christmas is about the birth of Jesus Christ.  We don’t open presents until we’ve read through that great story from the Bible.

But … we decided to allow our kids to enjoy the mystery and fantasy of “Santa Claus”.  I realize this is debated among Christian parents, and that’s OK.  Each parent should prayerfully decide for themselves, right?

One of the main things I wanted to ask my inquisitive 9-year old was if he felt that Mom and Dad had lied to him or betrayed him.  After all, that’s one of the things I hear a lot.

To my relief, he said “not at all” and was thankful that we let them enjoy the mystery.  I tried to cast some excitement (though it’s still 8+ months away) for this year so that he could share in the fun with the younger siblings.  (Though he’s certain that our 7-yr old already has the clue)

We’ll see.

Anybody want to share their parental “Santa” stories?


  • http://thewatersedge.thehonnolds.com/ Jeff Honnold

    My wife and I dealt with the EXACT same thing when my oldest decided to share that comment at the dinner table back in early December of last year. Luckily, my two younger daughters were either too engrossed in dinner or to used to ignoring their older brother to notice. He was pretty excited to be “let in on the secret” and play along with us.

    We feel the exact same way as you and your wife feel regarding Christmas and see no problem with letting the fun & mystery surround it. We stress that Christmas is about the birth of Christ and that Santa just likes to celebrate it in his own way.

    • http://www.fredmckinnon.com Fred McKinnon

      Jeff,
      Something about that dinner table, huh?

  • http://mikeymo1741.blogspot.com Mike Mahoney

    As a children’s pastor, I deal with this often. Many of my kids (and by “my” I mean church kids) know that there is no Santa. Especially the ones who grew up in the church, though not all. Some of the parents, like you, choose to allow the kids to believe in Santa. Like you said, each family has to make their choice.

    We also have a consistent influx of new families, and with them, new kids. So often I’m faced with a situation where there’s a “new” 8 year old who believes in Santa, and a room full of 8 year olds who don’t. And you know how 8 year olds like to prove they’re right. :)

    So I’ve broken up many “discussions” over the existence of the jolly old elf. Personally, I will not lie to a child and tell them that there is a Santa Claus. I don’t out-and-out blow them out of the water, either. I’ve become pretty good at side-stepping the discussion, at which point I will sit down and explain to the parents that most of the kids don’t believe in Santa, kids will talk, and be ready for some questions.

    • http://www.fredmckinnon.com Fred McKinnon

      Mike,
      Yeah, being in children’s ministry would definitely put you in a situation where you’d have to be ready.

      I’m not into totally lying about it – if a kid that age asks me straight up, I’ll have an open and honest dialog about it.

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  • http://www.onevoiceworship.org Harold Forbis

    My parenting experience is out of the norm in some ways, as our son has Down Syndrome, but for the most part, we deal with the same situations as all parents, and this is one of them.

    When Evan was young (he’s 22 now), he was scared to death of Santa Claus, clowns, and Beaker from the Muppets. Beaker is no longer an issue, clowns are mostly tolerable, and Santa is okay because of a couple of things -
    Tim Allen is a cool guy as far as Evan is concerned, and once he did the “Santa Clause” movies, Santa became cool and non-scary. Also, Evan is a real people person, he just loves everybody, and two of our friends many years ago used to dress up as Santa for the daycare kids at our church. Keith, who has since passed away, and Roger are both much loved by Evan, and once they became Santa, Santa became a lovable figure.

    Evan understands that Jesus Christ is what Christmas is all about, but having Santa be a fun, enjoyable part of it is a good thing in our house!

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