Santa Claus

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BlueEyedLady

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Just a question: Do Catholics in general allow their children to believe in Santa? I was raised by Protestants, and I as well as all of the other kids in my church believed in Santa, but it was always made clear to us that the birth of Jesus was what the holiday was about and that that’s what we should focus on. My mom always told me that Santa loved Jesus very much and his way of celebrating his birthday was to give toys to children to make them happy, because when you love Jesus you want to do nice things for others.

However, my fiance who was raised Catholic was not allowed to believe in Santa or the Easter Bunny because his family wanted him to focus completely on what the holiday was about. (Of course they gave him presents on Xmas though.)

I just wondered what everyone else does. Is Santa allowed in your home? If yes, how do you explain it? If no, why not?
 
Most Catholics I know allow their children to enjoy the Santa Claus mystique when they are young. Easter Bunny too. This is not true for everyone and there are many Catholics who strongly oppose this. There is no official teaching either way. As long as you teach your children the true meaning of Christmas and don’t let Santa overshadow Baby Jesus, you will find lots of people on either side.
 
Corki said:
Most Catholics I know allow their children to enjoy the Santa Claus mystique when they are young. Easter Bunny too. This is not true for everyone and there are many Catholics who strongly oppose this. There is no official teaching either way. As long as you teach your children the true meaning of Christmas and don’t let Santa overshadow Baby Jesus, you will find lots of people on either side.
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Thanks. I knew that there was no official church teaching, I just figured that Catholics in general didn’t let kids believe in Santa. I’m glad I asked, because apparently I figured wrong.
 
We let Santa into our homes. 😉

Something we teach our children is that good ol’ Saint Nick was a real person…and he really did do good things for those in need. (St. Nicholas’ story is a wonderful one.) We actually celebrate his Feast Day (today) by hanging a new pair of shoes for the kids where the stockings will soon be hung on the fireplace. If I am not mistaken (and I may be) it was Nicholas’ story that started the tradition of gift-giving at Christmas time?

For Christmas, we emphasize Christ and His birth, and let “Santa” play a minor role if someone gets a gift for them that says it’s from “Santa”.
 
BlueEyedLady said:
Thanks. I knew that there was no official church teaching, I just figured that Catholics in general didn’t let kids believe in Santa. I’m glad I asked, because apparently I figured wrong.
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My kids bust their boilers waiting for Santa. We even sprinkle powder around to trap his footprints and the kids always leave out a glass of beer and a biscuit or three for the poor fellow. We have indeed trapped his footprints and the beer and biscuits are always gone! We have no chimney, so we even leave a door unlocked so he can sneak in. No-one ever wakes to catch him, so we reckon he must sprinkle around some sort of magic dust when he comes in. And gee, he leaves some great stuff. We swear he can read minds.

The Easter Bunny is great fun too. Yep, we’ve trapped his footprints too!

Now, wait until I tell you about the funnest of 'em all: The Tooth Fairy. It fascinates me how he always manages to allow for the inflation rate. Pretty clever, that Tooth Fairy.
 
John21652 said:
… the kids always leave out a glass of beer and a biscuit or three for the poor fellow…
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OH! I absolutely LOVE this idea! 😃 How do I convince my wife and kids that this a better option than milk?
 
I tok told my children about Saint Nicholas and his transformation into Santa Claus, and the game peopleplay at Christmastime… and then one day my 3yo loudly replied to someone who kindly asked her what Santa was bring to her, Santa Claus is DEAD!!!

It’s not easy being Catholic sometimes!
 
St_Francis said:
I tok told my children about Saint Nicholas and his transformation into Santa Claus, and the game peopleplay at Christmastime… and then one day my 3yo loudly replied to someone who kindly asked her what Santa was bring to her, Santa Claus is DEAD!!!

It’s not easy being Catholic sometimes!
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I don’t think Catholicism and Santa Claus are mutually exclusive but to each their own! :christmastree1:
 
Yes, our family always enjoyed Santa Claus all while acknowledging the real meaning of Christmas. My dad used to dress up as Santa for us as kids. You know there are three stages in evey man’s life. When he believes in Santa Claus, when he doesn’t believe in Santa Claus and when he is Santa Claus…😃
 
One of the attractive things about Catholicism, the refusal to demonize everything under the sun!

I remember being at this guys house for Thanksgiving many moons ago, throughout the day he cursed the Catholics, Baptists, TV, rock music, Christmas, Halloween…then at dinner he gave thanx! 😃

Now I resisted, but I was tempted to say; "thank God, something finally worthy of praise, I thought for sure this bird was straight outta Hell! :eek:
 
teach ccd said:
Yes, our family always enjoyed Santa Claus all while acknowledging the real meaning of Christmas. My dad used to dress up as Santa for us as kids. You know there are three stages in Evey man’s life. When he believes in Santa Claus, when he doesn’t believe in Santa Claus and when he is Santa Claus…😃
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Well you certainly brought a smile on my face. 😃 Why; I’ve dressed, acted, and played the part of Jolly Ole Saint Nick often more times than I can count in my life in shopping malls and visitation of young ones. Oh yeah I forgot…no pillows needed. Oh Well they say I had looked and sounded like him. Retired Santa now.

Guess I’ve always taken a certain liking to the old editorial story written in the New York Sun September 21st, 1897 “Yes Virginia; there is a Santa Claus”.
Somehow though the spirit of the story feels like it rings a tone of Christ-God like love even if it is just a real written fictitious story.
newseum.org/yesvirginia/

Maybe what we need sometimes is another story…Yes Virginia; there is a Jesus Born in Bethlehem.

We all know Jesus Is the Reason for the Season.
There are many ways parents can show their young the secular fanfare bending to the Real Reason for Christmas.

http://policelink.monster.com/nfs/p...3415/Kneeling_Santa__3__max600.jpg?1292348143
 
In all the time I spent in Catholic schools, I never met anyone who hadn’t believed in Santa as a child. A few Protestant family members, however, did not participate because they were afraid their kids would also not believe in Jesus when they found out Santa was a myth.

My feeling is that kids are smart enough to know the difference, as long as the household is religious to begin with. If you go to Mass every week, pray together, and make sure the kids know what Christmas truly is about, and also introduce the story of St. Nicholas, when kids find out “Santa Claus” really wasn’t bringing them all those presents, they understand the difference between a fun little story and the truth. Aside from being a tad disappointing when you find out, it didn’t hurt my faith in the least. People can keep the focus on the true meaning of Christmas and have some fun too- the two aren’t mutually exclusive.
 
I usually wind up posting this once a year, and I guess this is the time: I believe that lying to children is wrong under all circumstances.

Eph 4:25: Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, [including children]” for we are members of one another.

Rev 22:15: But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.

Sure, enjoy the myth, watch the Santa Clause movies, etc., but tell your kids the truth: there won’t be any reindeer on the roof at midnight, and there isn’t any fat man in a red suit wih a load of toys who’ll be coming down the chimney.
 
I’m from a small town, a very small, predominately Baptist town. My second grade teacher was the wife of the town’s preacher. She made sure we all knew there was no Santa! (Thankfully for me my mother had already told me, just to be mean, so it was no surprise! I was sad for the other kids though.)
 
My mother who is a Baptist and occasionally the font of great wisdom said that the purpose of Santa is strongly encourage young children to go to sleep on Christmas Eve so Santa can manage to wrap the presents and deliver them. Since my parents completely overdid Christmas presents I was told about Santa. And my sisters informed me that Santa and his elves worked in my parent’s room and if I listened really carefully I could hear them work.

I don’t feel betrayed that my parents told me about Santa. And I enjoyed putting up the Santa trap and leaving out the cookies. For some reason my parents were really into coffee on Christmas morning.:coffeeread:
 
Santa comes to our home to celebrate Christmas by bringing each believer 3 gifts just as the wise men brought 3 gifts to Jesus at his birth. We teach them that “Santa” wants to continue the celebration of His birth by remembering the gift of the Holy Infant by continuing the tradition begun by the Three Kings.

When they stop believing in Santa, the receivers become the givers, all in the name of Jesus, with no expectation of being given credit for picking out some really cool gifts! 😃
 
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