House of Lloyd

I know that I will probably get blasted for this post, but in my house we do not encourage the belief in Santa. David and I decided many years ago that we would not encourage our children to believe in Santa. Instead we tell our children that Santa is an example of how we should give to others while expecting nothing in return.

When Caleb was four or five he asked us, “is Santa real?”  This question came up because he had heard other children talking about Santa. Our answer to him was that each of us in our own way is Santa, when we give to others. We also told him that there were no flying reindeer or elves working in the North Pole.

We do not ban Santa from our home, we have just assigned him an appropriate place and status. Our children still get to watch Christmas specials featuring Santa on television. Our children still get to have their photo taken with Santa for fun. Our children still get to sing silly Christmas songs. They just know that no one is coming down our chimney to deliver packages on Christmas Eve.

The problem with telling kids Santa is real:

1. It is a lie, and the Bible says that we should not lie.
2. Once  you have to come clean about Santa not being real, how is your child supose to know that you are now telling the truth about other matters. It becomes a trust issue, which places you in a bad light in the eyes of your child.
3. How do you explain away that wonderful “Sally Jane” got little or nothing for Chirstmas when horrible “Billy Bob” got everything he wanted and more? I have seen children assume that a poor child was a bad child because the gifts did not appear on Christmas therefore “Sally Jane” must have been on the bad list.
4. Telling your child that there is a Santa can cause them to have high expectations for Christmas. What do you tell them during the years that the budget is tight?
5. Having a child that really believes in Santa may cause a parent to feel the need to fulfill every item on the “Christmas Wish List” which could lead to financial problems.

Several of our family members encourage the belief of Santa and that is fine with us. Everyone is allowed to parent their children in the way that they feel is best. We do not say anything to children to contradict what their parents have told them. We have also told our children that it is not their place to tell others that Santa does not really exist.

My children enjoy Christmas just as much as other children do, just without belief of Santa.

Tags: Christmas, Family, Holidays, Santa

This entry was posted on Monday, December 6th, 2010 at 7:18 am and is filed under Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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