Celebrate Santa?

“What about Santa?” has been a recurring question from our readers through the years: “Is it right/wrong to celebrate Santa?”and “If you choose not to celebrate Santa, how do you help your children relate to family and strangers?”
 
Last week, Thabiti Anyabwile, a wonderful pastor in the Cayman Islands and a dear friend of CJ’s, published two thoughtful posts in answer to these questions.
 
He shares why Santa is not a part of his family’s Christmas celebration, and gently answers some of the common defenses for keeping Santa in Christmas:

Our children have grown up to have a wonderful, imagination-engaging, fun Christmas without Santa Claus. And scores of children whose parents make Santa Claus a part of their Christmas celebration have also grown up to have wonderful memories of Christmas and to serve the Lord faithfully….I'm not arguing a dogmatic causality here. I'm simply asking the question, "Why include Santa Claus at all?"

Thabiti follows up with a very helpful post on how to lead children through the difficult questions that arise when Santa is not apart of your family’s celebration.

1. Prepare your children before they're in the situation.

2. Don't leave your children hanging; model the response you're hoping for.

3. Teach children to take an interest in the traditions of others.

4. Finally, we have to teach our children how to handle objections.

As Thabiti notes, “there’s precept and there’s practice.” Whatever your practice, we hope God will give you much grace to lead your children in a Christ-centered celebration this year.