Is Santa Really Worth It?

Pictures with Santa, Rudolph movies, Bing Crosby's version of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," the Elf on the Shelf shenanigans- for those of us who have chosen not to partake in “the Santa thing,” it can be easy to feel like we are missing out. Since becoming a parent, those first couple of years I was admittedly tempted to get back up on the fence about Santa. But is the guy in the red suit really harmless?

Many of us have core memories of childhood Christmases we spent excited for Santa. But nostalgia can be blinding, and it is time we open our eyes to the consequences this tradition can have on our families and our Christian witness in a pagan world. Societal pressures can cause us to fear that the exclusion of Santa will cause Christmas to lose its “magic.” But then I think we’re exposing our own shortcomings of not seeing the incarnation as it is- the climax of all of history- what every story longs to imitate.

If we think biblically through the moral implications that the message of Santa Claus brings, it is actually depressing and antithetical to the message of Christmas. At best, it is distracting. During the advent season, we want to teach messages of God’s grace, love, forgiveness, and hope to our children as well as the world. This time of year, we have a unique opportunity to have conversations about the miracle of the virgin birth, God’s timing in bringing about salvation, and the fulfilled prophecies of the promised Messiah. But rather than keeping the main thing the main thing, we can find ourselves reading the story of Jesus’s birth and “The Night Before Christmas.”  We put Santa on our mantles right next to the nativity scene. We wonder, how can we spin this to make him relevant to what we are trying to accomplish? And the answer is that we cannot.  I think this is an area where we have gone along with the world for too long and have neglected to ask the question, “Why?” 

What was historically a man who was known for his generosity and being a protector of children has turned into a marketable reason for the pagans to hitch their wagons to the celebration of Christmas without understanding what it’s about.  And when Christians play along, the message of Christmas becomes convoluted. Our Christmas doesn’t look much different from theirs. Christmas has become commercialized, and we have let the money lenders into the temple.

Our hearts were made to worship, and Santa is vying for our children’s affections. But he cannot offer what Christ can. He is a graven image, a golden calf, a Trojan horse we have allowed to enter into our celebrations without realizing the theological implications. He brings with him wonky theology and false ideas of hope and joy. We cannot expect a three-year-old to discern what is the “true meaning of Christmas” when they are distracted with writing letters to Santa and getting home from the church’s Christmas Eve service in order to leave out milk and cookies. These are their formative years, the years where we can spend time teaching them Christmas hymns and scriptures rather than the names of Santa's reindeer while we field questions about his existence. He is not the sideline player we think he is. He is in direct competition with Christ. Santa is a gimmick, an icon for an Americanized and paganized Christmas. Even if we try to downplay him, he is still the leaven that will spoil the lump.

The concept of Santa coming to visit and bring gifts describes an omniscient, magical being who is interested in rewarding children for their works. Explaining him to our children and answering questions about the naughty and nice lists is lingering too long in the town of Morality. January through November we teach them that we cannot do good apart from God, but in December, they better behave because Santa is watching. The penalty for sin and God’s judgment becomes a message about coal in their stocking. This works-based righteousness is a different gospel.

The Christmas season brings with it a lot of hype. It promises to bring joy. But at the end of the day, for those not in Christ, people are left with a void in their hearts that cannot be filled with a childhood Santa Claus, giving and receiving presents, or even charitable donations given to worthy causes. We were made to worship our Creator who became man. The beauty of the incarnation means that we can now know true joy. Christ’s birth, death, and resurrection mean that through him we can have communion with God, what our hearts are truly longing for. In the lowly manger we find grace and pardon.

Perhaps the Santa craze reveals a deep longing in all of our hearts to believe in something greater than ourselves. But rather than partaking in the temporary Christmas cheer to help Santa’s sleigh fly this year, we should take our cue from Paul in Acts 17 who addresses the altar to the unknown god. The secular world’s Christmas offers a false sense of relationship with a man who does not exist. But the distinctly Christian Christmas offers a relationship with the Kings of Kings, the Great High Priest who now intercedes for his people at the right hand of God because of the Main Event that took place in history 2,000 years ago. We do not need more stories about the North Pole and the man who puts on the red suit. We need to hear, and our children need to hear, about the Savior through whom God created the world, putting on human flesh and dwelling among us, whose crimson blood covers our sins to make us white like snow. Like the Star of Bethlehem, let's keep our light hovering over the manger scene. This, my friends, is the old, old story we cannot make up. It is miraculous. And it is true. There's no reason we need to add to this. This Christmas season, let us return to our first love.