Teaching Your Children About Santa
Santa is such a happy character. All little kids should believe that someone brings them whatever they want, as long as they are good! As parents, we want our kids to take part in this tradition. But it becomes difficult trying to keep this myth going.
The problem is that we as parents know the truth about Santa, and telling our kids the truth tears at us a bit when we are telling the children about the little old man all dressed in red. How do we deal with this? Is it right to teach them about him, knowing one day, as all children do, they will find out that Santa isn’t real, and you knew it all along and lied to them.
The biggest problem is the fact that we are telling our children a lie. But we are also telling them not to lie. How are they to understand what the differnce is, and should they? Not to mention the fact that what we are lying about isn’t even real.
Some parents believe that teaching your children Santa is allowing them to believe in a tradition, kind of a cultural thing. The origins of Santa are actually based on a real person, Old St. Nick, and the story just grew and grew. A lot of civilizations do this.
Like a lot of parents, I had a hard time deciding about Santa. I was not permitted to believe in him as a child, and I feel like I missed out. So I wanted my children to know what that was like. As they say, you are only a kid once. From a biblical perspective, we shouldn’t lie. In the end, it comes down to a parent making the call.