Is Santa Claus a Bad Influence on Christian Children?

Last updated on: April 9, 2012 at 12:38 am by Leah Libresco

Is Santa Claus a Bad Influence on Christian Children? 2012-04-09T00:38:22-04:00 Leah Libresco

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Thanks to everyone for the lively discussion on last week’s post which necessitated a follow-up and set an agenda for upcoming posts. As always, if you’d like to respond to a Monday Call to Arms in longer form as a guest blogger, please email me at leah (dot) libresco (at) yale (dot) edu.

—

In my more cynical moments, I sometimes think Santa Claus is God’s greatest gift to atheists.

I don’t that mean in the usual, anti-materialist way. The commercialization of Santa Claus is a symptom of the power of materialism and commoditization generally, not a problem in itself. Even divorced from his commercial connotations, the idea of Santa Claus must weaken belief in Christianity.

Think about the story of Santa Claus. Not the one that recurs every year, but the way that the story plays out during a childhood. Santa Claus is usually the first major lie parents are caught in (unless their child already rumbled them on the Tooth Fairy question). When the jig is finally up, what is it that children discover?

They find out that their parents maintained a convenient fiction about a man with powers beyond our knowing, who can see you at all times, who will descend once a year for a day of judgment rewarding the righteous and punishing the wicked. Oh, and he has a long white beard.

At that point, it doesn’t matter whether the kids believe that their parents lied because they thought Santa was a convenient cudgel to compel obedience or because they thought that the world would be better if Santa were real.

What matters is that parents lie, about big things. And this lie is almost never revealed by the parents. It’s told by other kids, who have already seen through the lies. And most parents don’t even have the decency to admit they’ve been lying until the children have already given up on the deception.

So what, from the perspective of a child, is the difference between Santa Claus and Jesus?

The Santa Claus story seems like the perfect introduction to religion as a cultural practice, rather than a truth claim or a spiritual discipline. Both become simply a fun or useful story to pass on to your own children and a way of finding a sense of commonality with the neighbors. It seems a strange way to treat a religion.

So, Christians, how do you deal with this problem

Will you/do you bring up your children to believe in Santa Claus?

How should you reveal that Santa/Tooth Fairy/Easter Bunny, etc are not real?

How do you differentiate between Christian stories and the prevalent mythologies and folk tales of your culture?

Previous Post

July 18, 2010

Humanist Symposium #57

Next Post

July 20, 2010 Two quick stories about Santa and Empiricism

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 7 Quick Takes Apologetics Atheism Book Conversion Debate Tactics Debates Epistemology/Philosophy Housekeeping Ideological Turing Test Marriage Morality in Practice Parsing Catholicism Possibly Heretical Radio Reviews/Recommendations Sequence Index Spiritual Practice Uncategorized

Select a Month April 2017 March 2017 January 2017 December 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does "Beersheba" mean?

Select your answer to see how you score.

House of the King Valley of Water Blessed Field Well of the Oath