I Won’t Lie To My Kids About Santa Claus

I’ve made up my mind. I’m not going to lie to my future children about Santa Claus.

Call me a grinch, a Scrooge, or even a communist, as one of my colleagues recently joked, but I refuse to sacrifice my kids’ trusting relationship with me over a fat man with a beard.

I’m not alone in my hesitation to incorporate Kris Kringle into sacred Christmas traditions. Plenty of parents are uncomfortable with the idea of giving credit for their thoughtful, hand-picked gifts to a mysterious elderly man who trespasses through the chimney, eats the leftover cookies, and lets his reindeer trample on the roof.

One of the most obvious rationales for abandoning fanfare about Santa is that it requires blatant lying. At a time when every institution in the U.S. seeks to distance children from their parents, I want my kids to know they can and should trust me and my husband with their lives, hopes, dreams, grief, and hardships. I also want them to know they can trust God with those.

Sending mixed messages about whether God, the divinely associated modern-day Santa, and invisible historical figures are real is not something I want my young, vulnerable children to feel like they must face alone.

The tradition associated with Santa is fun and may be done in good faith, but when the truth surfaces, it requires an explanation for years of deception and deceit. And oftentimes, that deception and deceit were projected on innocent, naive children for the benefit of their parents’ enjoyment.

Parents might think that giving their kids a “magical” Christmas is worth being dishonest, a falsehood that my Santa-less, magical childhood proves wrong. But what happens when that “magic” wears off?

I’ve seen and heard of too many kids crying after learning Santa isn’t real. The truth about Santa breaks their hearts and their trust, especially if that truth surfaces prematurely. Even some parents become irrationally upset that their child’s Christmas is “ruined” after he is informed the “magic” that gave Santa his allure isn’t real.

I don’t care if you choose to let your kids believe in the myth of Santa. I, however, simply refuse to breach the trust of my children over something as trivial as a fat man with a beard.

The Secular Santa Ruse Spoils the True Meaning of Christmas

I’m not here to say you can’t enjoy Santa as a character, but it is increasingly harder each year to look past the gross commercialization of the man with a bowl full of jelly to the greatest event ever recorded: the birth of Jesus Christ.

Unfortunately, the over-glorification of Santa in Christmas movies, Christmas shopping, and Christmas activities has stolen the attention that Christ’s coming, the most incredible story, deserves. The consumerism of the holiday season has enabled our culture to embrace Father Christmas over God the Father. That choice not only damages our individual spirits, but it damages the spirit of Christmas.

The “thrill of hope” that

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