It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Check out some posts I've written over at my Children's ministry blog in advance of this season.
Just when you thought you were safe, the Evangelism Linebacker is now protecting us against the secularization of Christmas. Watch it at Sermon Spice.
Santa is not all bad. I agree that the arguments made in the post linked above are solid and God-centered. My reply is more a footnote and a chance to link a great post. His main points are:
1. Santa has the tendency to obscure the true meaning of Christmas.
2. Santa is a lie.
3. Santa obscures the character of God.
4. Several more good points in the comments - they really are good reasons.
There are ways to "do Santa" that don't fall into those traps. Making Christmas a big deal (even without Santa) can distract us from the incarnation message. To make a clean break we need to move Christmas to another month. I don't really have the connections with Walmart to make that happen.
Imagination is normal for kids. My son was Aslan all weekend. Sometimes he’s Luke Skywalker or Frodo (Mr. Underhill if you’re a Black Rider.) Most kids will naturally transfer Santa to the pretend category by kindergarten. But playing Santa lasts for many more years. It's really the grown-ups who are into Santa. (Opps, I think I just weakened my case.)
Obviously, no one should build a tradition on lies. But to bleach the imagination out of your child’s life is wrong. Find a middle ground. Santa is not real – but can we pretend? Remember, Father Christmas even makes a cameo appearance in Narnia.
(Santa, if your reading this I actually do need new socks this year. But your can keep the neck ties.)
Clarification: By pretend I mean we "play Santa" with our kids. They know its pretend. I didn't mean that I am currently pretending that Santa is real. Even if it looks like it on this post. We pretend like Santa brings the stuff. But the gifts are from real people like Mamaw & Papaw. We don’t do the whole good/bad thing either.
