Did Santa Kill God?

Can you believe it is already that time of year again?
I have a love/hate relationship with Christmas. I am sure I am not the only one.
I love the focus on Christ. I love the food, the songs, lights, oh how I adore the lights! crisp air, red and green, nothing beats the smell of a fresh fir tree in the living room. Oh and the excitement of pulling out the ornaments. We let the kids choose a new one every year and I sharpie their name and the year somewhere on it. I was thinking by the time they move out they will have enough to decorate their own tree. It is really just fun to watch them search out all the ones from past years. They really get excited. The ones they made themselves are their absolute favorites. And mine too! They won’t be getting those back.
On the flip side. I hate the traffic, feeling like we have to reciprocate a gift, the bombarding of the commercial Christmas. My kid in Pre-K has to bring gifts for 13 kids! My 5th grader has to bring a gift for the same kid to school for four days in a row for crying out loud! I hate not being able to go into a store, any store without it being jam packed. And..
I really hate Santa. Don’t get me wrong, I see the attraction. I actually like the image of Santa. He is a pretty handsome guy. He is strangely familiar. Who doesn’t love those old fashioned Coca-Cola Santas? And those reindeer and elves are so enchanting! Who can resist? And the one thing he represents most- presents! What child, although he may be scared to death, is not dying to sit on some round, sweaty stranger’s lap in a mall after waiting three hours in line so that they can tell him all the things they want (because really they do not have enough) so he can squeeze his fat butt down the chimney, eat up your cookies and drink your milk and drop a load of toys? And boy is it hard to break traditions. Speaking of which, I even looked up a little Santa history here. The history channel website has the most fascinating video clips on Christmas stuff.
We don’t do the whole Santa thing, we did when our oldest was really little but it felt wrong. I do let the kids watch all the cute little shows. Elf, and The Santa Clause are two of my all time favorite movies. But I don’t lie to my children about the whole Santa down the chimney thing. We *gasp tell them over and over (they really want to believe) that he is not real, he is made up and that Daddies are the real “Santa”. Yes those are my kids telling your kids there is no Santa, or depending on their age that their Daddy IS Santa.
I kind of figure that if I am preaching that lying is wrong and that I turn around and do it myself that I am a hypocrite. and a liar. Isn’t that sin? I have a hard enough time with that as it is..
I know its “fun”. The kids rush down to see what Santa has brought. The joy on their face. Priceless indeed. But when will they begin to wonder what else I am lying about?
Also, is the ‘worship’ of Santa idolatry? We have our children pleading with Santa for gifts. Then they thank him for whatever gifts they get. We have images of him decorating our homes. We sing songs praising and even glorifying Santa and his elves. Shouldn’t all praises, worship, glorifying, exalting be for the Most High, Creator of all things? Didn’t our Creator say that he doesn’t want his glory to be shared with others? We are the ones as parents that God has given the ability, talents, and means to provide these things to them. Shouldn’t God get all the credit?
Did Santa kill God? This is pretty far out there, OK so really far, I have to throw this out there- but I have read some pretty convincing arguments as to why lying to our children about Santa could set them up to reject God. Scary.
So for Christmas, we set our focus on Christ. I will admit it was really frustrating when the kids were all so little because I didn’t feel like they were “getting it”. It really is all about the presents at that age. We thought about not even doing presents. But as they are getting older they are slowly getting that it is more about the Gift that God gave to us in His Son. And about our daily blessings. And about the gifts that we can bless others with. We still do a lot of the “traditional” things, and we still love doing the gift thing but our focus is being together and doing for others. Our favorite tradition is giving out boxes of homemade treats that we have made together. The whole process is family fun, but the excitement of delivering them and the joy in the kids eyes because they have worked so hard and are making people happy. That is what life is all about. Priceless.
And by the way, I am the Tooth Fairy