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Mathis_Preston

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Is it a sin to tell children that Santa Claus is real, because that would be a lie?
 
I’m not qualified to say if it’s a sin or not, but my wife and I decided we don’t want to lie to our children. Not so much out of fear of sin, but out of simple respect for them as human beings.

We told them the story of Santa and it’s roots in the story of Saint Nicholas. So they had no problem at school with children that believed in Santa. Santa IS real. He is a Saint, not an “elf”… He inspires genorosity among others, but does not break into peoples houses and leave gifts.

Our children are now grown past th age where most children have found out their parents had been less than honest with them (7 and 12) and I believe they trust us more because we told them the truth. At the same time they had the childhood joys of Christmas as a “magical” (and majestic) time of year.

I can’t say what’s best for you, but that’s how we handled it. We also have a Birthday cake on Christmas eve and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. We belive this is the best foundation for them to learn the true meaning of Christmas. They receive Birthday Presents for Jesus (“Whatsoever you do for the least…”) instead of Christmas Presents from an elf in red.

God bless.
 
Santa Claus is based on a real person, St. Nicholas, who was a third century bishop in what is now Turkey. He did, in fact, leave gifts for poor children in the town that he lived in. So, the modern story is simply a highly exaggerated version of a real tale. I don’t really see the harm in letting a child believe in Santa Claus, although I was taught about his historical role as well as soon as I was old enough to understand. I would also make sure to emphasize that the holiday was about the birth of Jesus first, and that Santa’s role is quite secondary.
 
A lie is a lie, even if it is an “innocent” one, that said I’ve tried to skate around this one (though I’m probably on pretty thin ice.)

When my children have asked about Santa, I’ve never lied to them.

When they’ve asked about him, we’ve talked about St. Nicholas and the legends surrounding him and explained that in that spirit you get gifts from Santa at Christmas.

I have asked all my children what they wanted from “Santa” for Christmas, and the “From” on the gift cards say “Santa” on them, but I’ve never actually said to them that there is in fact a Santa that brings you gifts on Christmas. **

My reply to “Is there a Santa?” has always been "Let me put it this way, when you tell me you no longer believe in Santa ‘he’ will stop bringing you gifts for Christmas.”

My 20, 21 and 22 year old sons have yet to inform me that they do not believe in Santa :D.

My 8 year old daughter asked the question this year, she got the same reply, I don’t expect her to confirm her disbelief anytime in the next 50 or so years I hope to have left either.😉

So the whole family now knows that Santa doesn’t actually bring gifts himself, but that’s not gonna keep us from pretending any way, it’s just too much fun.👍

They’ve always gotten 3 gifts from Santa each year, explicitly to remind them of the 3 gifts brought by the Magi to Jesus. They’ve also left a gift of some sort for Jesus each year (usually some small gift of nature with a note, etc.) that “Santa” took away along with the milk and cookies.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with the Santa tradition, as long as we remember the Reason for the season.

But in the end, Santa’s not worth lying about, if they ever demanded an answer, then I’d have to tell them the truth.

Chuck

http://www.obyrnereligiousgoods.com/images/products/Roman/26779---large.jpg
 
Saint Nicholas was a real person.

As for the Spirit of Christmas, that comes from God.

God the Father gave us His Only Son as a Christmas present to us.

The three wise men gave presents to the Baby Jesus, and in many European countries they believe in the “Three Wise Men” instead of “Santa Claus” when it comes to the custom of gift giving at Christmastime.

When we give gifts at Christmas, we are in a small way following God’s example.

Thanks for bearing with my ramblings! 🙂

~~ the phoenix
 
Mathis_Preston said:
Is it a sin to tell children that Santa Claus is real, because that would be a lie?
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I am not sure which is the tougher sell. A guy who has to wear a Santa suit for a few days or weeks or a guy who has to put on a bunny costume at Easter.
Either way the child knows something is not quite right there.
 
I make it a point never to lie to my children, and here’s how I handled it:

My definition of Santa is a person who gives a Christmas present, usually anonymously, without expecting a gift in return or even so much as a thank you.

I never mentioned anything about reindeer or the North Pole, just that Santa brings Christmas presents.

Now, when my firstborn got old enough to question everything, I sat her down and explained all this to her. I told her she was now old enough to understand. I pointed out that she herself had been Santa in the past when she helped pick out a gift for a child from the Angel Tree. I then invited her to help fill the stockings on Christmas Eve. She was thrilled.

Ever since then my two daughters take turns being Santa (and the Easter Bunny). Whoever is Santa that year gets to select the gifts that go into the stockings.

So my kids got all the joy and magic of Christmas when they were little. Now that they’re pretty much grown, they get even greater joy and magic by being Santa not only for each other but for a needy child from the Angel Tree.

No Santa? Why, there are millions upon millions of Santas in the world.
 
I’m fairly sure that, when my mother told me to let the little airplane fly into my hangar, that didn’t count as lying to me!

Telling kids that Santa brings presents or fills the stockings is an extended game, play, or joke. If you’re not into that, don’t play. But if you consider the wide variety of countries that have the game “secret holiday gift-giving by parents is attributed to legendary figure”, you can’t seriously believe that everybody everywhere is into lying and child abuse. Parents like to sneak around with gifts, and kids like to get gifts that seem to come out of nowhere. They don’t care if it’s the Three Kings, La Befana, the Easter Bunny, or what have you.

And of course, sending the kids around to beg for gifts from other people allows everybody else to have the fun of giving kids (or adults) unpredictable gifts. Thus the popularity all over the world of that particular game, with various amounts of stuff being required of the kids (or adults) in return. There’d be a lot more Christmas caroling if people remembered that they’re supposed to give the carolers food and drink! But we don’t know our neighbors anymore…

I heard a new example of a secret gift-giving figure recently. Apparently some places in France and Germany used to encourage kids to leave out glasses of water on St. Martin’s Eve, so that the kids could wake up in the morning to glasses of new wine from St. Martin. (This was back when plain water tended to need boiling, so kids drank weak alcoholic beverages from a young age.) Maybe some of you adults out there could revive this custom, as a secret wine gift for your spouses or siblings. You go out for the evening, and come back to find that St. Martin has visited and left you a bottle. 🙂
 
Mintaka said:
I’m fairly sure that, when my mother told me to let the little airplane fly into my hangar, that didn’t count as lying to me!

Telling kids that Santa brings presents or fills the stockings is an extended game, play, or joke. If you’re not into that, don’t play. But if you consider the wide variety of countries that have the game “secret holiday gift-giving by parents is attributed to legendary figure”, you can’t seriously believe that everybody everywhere is into lying and child abuse. Parents like to sneak around with gifts, and kids like to get gifts that seem to come out of nowhere. They don’t care if it’s the Three Kings, La Befana, the Easter Bunny, or what have you.

And of course, sending the kids around to beg for gifts from other people allows everybody else to have the fun of giving kids (or adults) unpredictable gifts. Thus the popularity all over the world of that particular game, with various amounts of stuff being required of the kids (or adults) in return. There’d be a lot more Christmas caroling if people remembered that they’re supposed to give the carolers food and drink! But we don’t know our neighbors anymore…

I heard a new example of a secret gift-giving figure recently. Apparently some places in France and Germany used to encourage kids to leave out glasses of water on St. Martin’s Eve, so that the kids could wake up in the morning to glasses of new wine from St. Martin. (This was back when plain water tended to need boiling, so kids drank weak alcoholic beverages from a young age.) Maybe some of you adults out there could revive this custom, as a secret wine gift for your spouses or siblings. You go out for the evening, and come back to find that St. Martin has visited and left you a bottle. 🙂
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When your mother told you to let the little airplane fly into your hangar, she was simply trying to get you to eat your veggies or protiens.

She was using a way she knew best to do that.

I don’t know how far away you were from any major airport at the time, or if she ever took you to see the planes taking off and landing.

I simply don’t see how you find this to be an “extended game” or a “play” or a “joke”.

Then you say, if you are “not into that” then don’t play.

Explain how the innocent child can vote on this and opt out of the game the parent is playing on them.
 
Mathis

my children told me when they were pretty small that they weren’t easy to fool. i had to work hard to teach to them that explaining the truth to other children wasn’t fair to those children… i finally explained to them by telling them that the other kids weren’t able to think abstractly enough to understand that the jolly fat man was just a picture and that he represented an idea.
my kids were so strange … the oldest told me there was no Easter bunny when she was 2 but she believed that the oral roberts hands at ORU applauded every hour until she was 15 or so …lol:shrug:
 
I should point out i think that the ENTIRE point is generosity and hope. if you are worried about lieing to children then change the game … make them santa … give them a few bucks and let them buy toys to donate or secretly do something nice for a neighbor … like pick up limbs from their yard. OOOO or you could visit a “rest” home … that would be an AWESOME way to keep up the idea of santa with out the lie part
 
StrawberryJam said:
Me too. Not in the way I thought I would. I am getting more and more dissapointed by the day.
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You should try to remember that the audience that uses this forum is much more traditional and conservative than the average Catholic, even the one who attends Mass and Confession regularly. It’s how I stop myself from freaking out that I’m getting an extra 5 gifts this Christmas for pretending to believe in “Santa”. 😉
 
Mathis_Preston said:
Is it a sin to tell children that Santa Claus is real, because that would be a lie?
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I was never told Santa was real or unreal growing up in a Protestant household, I assumed and was simply never told otherwise. Santa came to our Church each year and gave us all a gift, a small bag of nuts with candy and an Orange in it, it was a wondrous time of year and I never once felt lied to. When I found out Santa was not real I was disappointed but remember my mother talking with me of God and the gift of His Son and the fact that, as with Santa, even though we are not perfect and fail many times Jesus is always there for us as was the case with Santa. I never once received a lump of coal in my stocking but rather a gift … Jesus, even though I fall and fail often, would always be there for me. Grateful to the Church of my youth and my parents, … my old Sunday school teacher can go jump in the lake!!!, bloody old Scrooge!!
 
It is a lie, and as a lie it should be completely avoided. Instead of letting children pray to Santa for gifts let or rather teach them to pray to God, who is the Father of heavenly lights and from who all good and perfect gifts come.

It should be remembered that the devil is the father of lies, and thus we are not to lie.
 
Couldn’t agree more. I love this post. My wife and I are having a ball telling our kids about Santa and they love every minute of it. We don’t teach this alone. We stress the biblical narrative of Christ’s birth, the Incarnation, and Christ is the center of Christmas. We just emphasize St. Nicholas, charity to children, and St. Nick’s love for Christ. I could care less if Jimmy Akin and these folks call it a “lie” and damaging to kids. Poppycock. :mad:
Rolltide said:
Santa Claus is based on a real person, St. Nicholas, who was a third century bishop in what is now Turkey. He did, in fact, leave gifts for poor children in the town that he lived in. So, the modern story is simply a highly exaggerated version of a real tale. I don’t really see the harm in letting a child believe in Santa Claus, although I was taught about his historical role as well as soon as I was old enough to understand. I would also make sure to emphasize that the holiday was about the birth of Jesus first, and that Santa’s role is quite secondary.
Click to expand...
 
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