'Down with Santa' by Thabiti Anyabwile

'Down with Santa' by Thabiti Anyabwile

I am so glad to see a Christian seriously looking at this issue from a BIBLICAL worldview. A friend and I were talking about this just the other day ~ that just because our culture does Santa does not mean we as Christians should do Santa. Since when were we Christians supposed to conform to the culture? Thabiti does an excellent job of explaining why Santa should not be included in the Christian Christmas. He portrays my sentiments exactly.

My parents did not want to lie to my brother and me, so we did not "do" Santa. My Christmases were just fine. I have wonderful memories of "magical" Christmases. On thing I did run into as a child and am now revisiting as a parent is that I was forbidden to tell other children the truth about Santa. I fully understand why my parents did this. But now that I have a four year old who is very adament about not lying and telling the truth and wondering why people believe lies, I don't think I want to tell him to go along with the lie for the other children's sake. How can I tell my child NOT to tell the truth? That goes against what I have taught him and what the Bible teaches. There is of course the fact that we should tell the truth in love. But how do I teach my four year old this as it applies to Santa and other children? As I said, I'm still grappling with this issue. Any comments and suggestions would be welcome.