Santa, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny

W

Wolfeman

Member
I understand there are ditches on both sides of the road and it's easy to get too extreme or too liberal. I've seen all the arguments for and against Santa based upon the Bible.

My question however is do we set our children up for failure or difficulties later in life when we tell them to believe in Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny and Jesus at an early age then later tell them "Well, 3 of those are not real but Jesus is." Especially when you consider the world is telling them that Jesus is not real also.
 
I don't know that the Bible talks specifically about any of it... but some would say that teaching them about SC, EB, TF is lying to your children.

Can they handle the truth that the world made up a bunch of characters? Perhaps. At least one of my co-workers never used any of those, nor participated in any Halloween festivities and his children turned out just fine.

On the other hand, should we encourage creativity in our children? It leads to innovation and other good things. Perhaps.
 
I was never told to believe nor believed in Santa, The Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy. They were amusing tales of whimsy which got you fat loot, for which I was grateful to my parents for. I think without the fictional coloring holidays would have been more boring but they were never presented as real and certainly not with or eclipsing Christ. My parents really never used them any more than a passing mention in jest though.
 
I am very interested in how this discussion goes. I think Wolfeman is right about people going to extremes, usually in the name of protecting our children. Looking forward to the responses.
 
I have to tell you, even if it is somewhat embarrasing to say so, I actually did take Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy seriously when I was very little. It was a real let down when I realized they were fictitious. By the time I began to hear about God and Jesus, etc. I actually closed my mind to believing because I did not want to be so foolish again. So I can tell you that for some like myself, teaching that myths are true really can be a stumbling block to faith when one discovers they are only make-believe. But that is only one of the problems with teaching that these myths are real. When I believed they were real, and were good, I also believed that magic is good since magic was part of the myths. Fortunately when I did become a Christian I started to study the Bible and learned that God makes it clear that magic users won't get into Heaven (Mal 3:5, Rev 22:15) so I repented of that sin also :eek:.
 
Ok here goes my take. I have told my kids from the start that they are not real. However they are traditions that we still have fun with. Do I get my children stockings? YES! It’s a fun tradition. But when we talk about Christmas we talk about Jesus, not santa. Easter egg hunts are fun, but the resurrection is the reason. Santa is fun but the birth of our Savior is the reason. And my kids just use the TF as a reason to get money. They will even pull there own loose tooth out to get the loot!
 
I was told that Santa (and the Easter Bunny, etc etc) are real. Tek was never told that they were real. Being a really serious kid, I took Santa & Co. very seriously, too. I didn't let go of it for a long time (much longer than my friends) because I was so sure that my parents wouldn't lie to me (they went to great lengths to keep me believing). It was a big deal when it came to accepting the truth. Fortunately, though, I never lumped Jesus in the same category as Santa.

Tek and I agree that we won't tell our kids that Santa is real. Which makes my parents think we'll really be depriving them of an essential childhood experience. =P But we'll treat it as a fun story to enjoy...just not a real thing.

I think Tek's folks had a few too many jokes at Santa's expense...I certainly won't go that far. ;) But his mom had the same rationale: how do you explain to your older child that you were telling the truth about Jesus, but not about Santa? Many kids will understand the difference, but obviously not all will. Even though I didn't doubt Jesus after learning about Santa, for a while, I was still wary of whatever my parents told me.

(I've never seen any pro/con Santa arguments based on Scripture though...especially not pro....)
 
Well Saint Nicholas was a real person. Though much of his existence has been fictionalized if one wanted you could use him as an example of someone showing Christian love. Properly done a discussion of Saint Nicholas could focus his charitable motivations bringing the holiday focus back to Christ.
 
Good discussion. I'm a writer so I tend to get lengthy, I'll try really hard not too. lol

My sons are now 16 and 18.5, so I'm done with this stage thankfully! My 18 year old has decided to be a pastor. I kind of struggled through this as they were younger too. I had a friend who did not celebrate any of the holidays and was very adamant with telling her children that none of those things were real. Those kids suffered a lot during their school years as they were not allowed to participate in any of the holiday festivities at school. I knew I wouldn't do that to my kids.

One thing my kids knew was that I would not lie to them, it was a line drawn in the sand. So how to walk the line between the two "worlds" was what I had to figure out. In fact, when my son finally asked if they were real, he started out with, "Mom, I know you won't lie to me, so I want to ask, is Santa real?"

This is what I did, which I don't see it as right or wrong, just my way of walking the line.

As far as Santa goes, he also celebrated Jesus. Santa was kind enough to bring gifts to them to celebrate Jesus's birth. That was the whole reason for getting gifts. Which, in Christian reality is true. If it wasn't Jesus's birth, we wouldn't be celebrating Christmas in the first place. Many times we would even have a birthday cake for Him. When talking about Santa, I basically talked about the real St. Nicholas. When they were brave enough to ask if he was real, I figured they were ready for the fact that I actually brought the gifts and that I did it because I loved them and I wanted to celebrate Jesus's birth. I also told them about St. Nicholas and the good things he did and how the whole "Santa Claus" thing came about. And that I was their own personal St. Nick. They thought that was pretty cool.

As far as the Easter Bunny, I'm not sure they ever really believed in that. However, again, the Easter Bunny just wanted to celebrate Jesus's death and resurrection. As part of that he brought treats to the kids. I would talk about how the eggs represented new life. Honestly, I never made a big deal about the Easter Bunny coming, he just kind of came. It wasn't like, "Hurry up and get in bed the Easter Bunny is coming tonight," type thing. Because I didn't make a big deal out of him, they didn't think a lot of him either.

The Tooth Fairy, now that was interesting. I never took much measure in relating it to Jesus or anything else. She just kind of came when the teeth started falling out. I did say the Tooth Fairy came, because I was the tooth fairy lol. And you know, this was the one that they had the hardest time accepting as not real and seemed most disappointed about. I think I could have handled her much better. Eh, live and learn.

I feel we shouldn't lie to them. If they ask for a truth, we need to give it to them on an age appropriate level. I also think that we can not remove ourselves from this world and therefore we need to learn to navigate through it, just as Jesus did. When we make the holiday's focused on these characters, we set them up for disappointment. Yet, when we rob them of participation in school functions, we alienate them at an age when they really aren't ready to handle it. It's a tough thing to deal with.

Where we focus our lives will be where our kids focus theirs. If we use these childhood characters to focus on Jesus, I think we help separate the fact that they are not real and he is. Many of the biggest revolutions for faith happened because a Christian leader chose to use the symbols of the day in order to teach about Christ. St. Patrick is one of the best examples of this. Study his life and you will see that he took many of the pagan and druid symbols and used them to basically eliminate the culture. The whole reason that Christmas is celebrated on the day it is relates to Christian leaders wanting to overcome the pagan holiday at that time and guess what - it worked! They didn't ignore the other holiday, they just changed what was celebrated on that day. (Just a side note that I learned later in life, when we tell them Jesus was born on Christmas day, that is a lie. He was born closer to Easter. And most of the story of Jesus's birth is a lie as well - like Mary riding on a donkey, there were three kings. O.O)

Oh, and Halloween, well, I let my kids dress in an appropriate way. It was just a day to dress up and get candy. For several years when they were younger, I typed up a thank you note for the treat with an invitation to our church. I explained to the kids what they were, that we would hand them out, and why. So when they went to a house and got their candy, they handed the homeowner the note and said thank you. As they got older, I would reveal a little more about what the night was about and how we needed to be careful in our focus. We also had a God's Light Night at our church and passed out a huge bag of treats, provided a warm fire in the parking lot, popcorn, hot dogs, and hot chocolate for free, and playing some hip Christian music. Wasn't long until people were hanging around and just visiting - I can guarantee you we changed what that night meant in that town. :D

Anyway, that's my take on it - Where's the focus? Focusing on Christ whether it's Santa Clause, a four leaf clover, or a simple thank you for a treat - makes them all become a teaching and witnessing moment.

Well that's my two cents, well, more like a bucks worth!

Love the discussion though, can't wait to see what others think!

Abea (minecraft)

I did a blog on Easter Symbols and some questions about what is fact and fiction about Jesus's Birth, you might be surprised at what you can learn about them. Marcie's Blog On the right hand side there is a place to select Categories, pick holiday's and you'll see all of the ones related to holidays.
 
Ok I'm hanging with Zippy on this! My wife and I discussed this next years Christmas by puttiing santa in the trash can and a sign saying getting back to basics pointing to the birth of Christ! Yeah I play into the santa thing only because it is fun and no other reason, and as for the tooth fairy ahahaha I tell the kid it's lucky they fell out because the way I do it hurts worse! wOOt Jesus saves!
 
I can't think of any point in my life where Santa, The Easter Bunny, The Tooth Fairy AND (big and) Jesus were all lumped into the same pot. It's a "one of these things is not like the other" situation.

Jesus is talked about year round whereas the other three are only present during certain times or events.

I never thought about equating Jesus to the other three, so I've never really thought about it.
 
Santa/Easter bunny/tooth fairy/etc. don't really hurt anything. As far as I'm concerned, if kids want to believe that they exist, then it's not a problem.

That said, parents shouldn't tell their kids that these things are true. If they hear about them from others and believe it, that is one thing. If the parents say that they are real, that can create some serious trust issues when the truth is revealed. From the child's perspective, if the parent lied about Santa, what else have they lied about? Parenting relies heavily on trust, and lying (even about Santa) undermines that.
 
May seem cute and funny now, but a few years down the road when they are like 10 it's going to be 'why should I trust mommy now she lied to me before'. It isn't *trivial* to the kid. But yeah maybe don't SQUASH their hopes, but reply ambiguously?
It is sad that many people Christmas = santa but if it gets the kids excited, maybe they will want to hear the 'real' Christmas story? I see a teaching opportunity. Dunno, not a parent, just some teenager that remembers his childhood.
 
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