Do You Believe in Santa?

Did you grow up in a family that passed on the Santa Claus myth? I did. I have a vague memory of lying awake in my bedroom as a little kid and catching what I thought was a glimpse of Santa putting presents under the tree. I also remember seeing, at least once, a note left from Santa thanking us for the milk and cookies. (Although I remember the handwriting looked exactly like my Dad’s, for some reason it didn’t dawn on me at the time that there might be a connection…) At some point around adolescence I came to know the truth that there is indeed no Santa Claus. I don’t remember when or how this came about, but it did, just as it does for every kid.

I have wrestled with whether we should pass on the ubiquitous Santa Claus myth to our son Ben. I use the word “wrestled” in the past tense because we actually started the “Santa thing” pretty much since his first Christmas. He is 4 years old now, so he still has a few more years before the naivete of youth gives way to reality. But at times I have wondered if the Santa myth is a healthy tradition. Does it basically amount to deception since there really is no Santa? Are Christians, who are “people of the truth,” doing the right thing by playing along with the Santa story? Or is it really just harmless fun? What happens if a parent tells their kids the “truth” about Santa from an early age, and those kids tell other kids that Santa doesn’t exist, then their parents become upset?

I’ve been known to over-analyze things, but these are some of the questions I’ve wrestled with. I read an interesting lecture on believing in Santa Claus; you can find it here. (It’s really just an outline of a lecture, and I don’t endorse everything in it, but it’s interesting nonetheless.) The legend of Santa Claus is based, of course, on the life of St. Nicholas, who was born in Turkey in the 3rd century. He inherited a fortune when his father died, and he began to anonymously give money away to those in need. His most famous “miracle” is recounted in the book The Physics of Christmas by Roger Highfield:

This miracle concerned a noble and his three daughters, who had fallen on hard times. The daughters had little chance of marriage, as their father could no pay their dowries, so they faced a life of prostitution. One night St. Nicholas, hearing of the girls’ plight, threw a sack of gold through a window of the nobleman’s shabby castle. The sack contained enough gold to provide for one daughter’s marriage. The next night he tossed another sack of gold through the window for the second daughter. But on the third night the window was closed. Ever resourceful, St. Nicholas dropped the third sack of gold down the chimney. Townsfolk heard the story and began hanging stockings by the fireplace at night to collect any gold that might come their way, presumably — hence the tradition of the Christmas stocking and Santa’s affinity for fireplaces. (pg. 13) Read more of this post