“He brought out (I suppose from the big bag at his back, but nobody quite saw him do it) a large tray containing five cups and saucers, a bowl of lump sugar, a jug of cream, and a great big teapot all sizzling and piping hot. Then he cried out “A Merry Christmas! Long live the true King!” and cracked his whip and he and the reindeer and the sled and all were out of sight before anyone realized that they had started.” 
(Father Christmas, ‘The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.’)

I am a Christian Pastor and you may find it surprising that the teaching of Santa Claus doesn’t bother me in the least.

Do I believe in him? Absolutely not. Did I teach my kids to believe in him? No. But if my neighbor wants to, or the local school wants to sing songs about him, or a congregant in my church throws rocks on his roof at midnight to fool his kids that there are reindeer arriving (Rick Dolphin), I have no problem with it.

I realize that taking this position could get me into trouble with other pastors in my denominational branch. Many believe “The Man of God” must boldly stand up for truth and contest falsehood everywhere you find it. There is often widespread concern that pagan traditions have fooled us into following their reprehensible idolatry, and Santa is nothing more than Satan wearing a red suit. (Notice how even their names are identical when you switch the letter “n” and put it to the back?)  Lies are our enemy, this demands all true Christians to be ever vigilant, we cannot give an inch, and we must “Fight!”

This past month a headline read, “‘Kids, there is no Santa’: Pastor unloads on families waiting to take Christmas photos at a mall.” The article goes on to say that an evangelical pastor walked into a shopping center and started pointing at kids waiting to see a Mall Santa by saying, “Kids, I want to tell you today that there is no such thing as Santa Claus. Santa Claus does not exist. The Christmas season is about Jesus. The man you’re going to see today is just a man in a suit dressed up like Santa.”

He stood strong, he fought the good fight, and boy did he tick people off! One father began to physically escort the irritating preacher out, another tweeted, “A disturbed Christian, yelled at kids saying ‘Santa isn’t real, cause Jesus is!’ Someone tell him that Jesus isn’t real.” Even though his antics were eventually shut-down, the pastor still claims the victory. After he posted his public “testifying to the truth” online via video, he boasts, “The video has been seen more than 2 million times.” 

But I ask you, pray tell, what did this video actually accomplish? A greater hunger for Jesus? People willing to abandon their silly theories of Santa because this preacher’s powerful arguments were so persuasive?

I personally think this kind of Christian witnessing does more harm than good. And it has for many years now — I wish it would stop. Instead of fostering conversation and genuine rapport with others; finger-pointing crusades create nothing but walls of division and foster perceptions that Christians are “killjoys” and angry, unhappy human beings.  Maybe instead of fighting Santa, it might be a good thing for some of us to embrace him…or at least smile and enjoy the holiday festivities for once?

I offer three reasons why it might do some of us some good to stop getting mad when your neighbor adorns a red hat and sings songs about reindeer, chimneys and Jolly Ol’ St. Nicholas:

(1) Our world is “Awash” in lies, let’s fight the ones that really matter —  picking on a fat man in elf suit is a sign you have zero discernment. About ten years ago, a father who allowed his kids to come to our youth group was furious with his oldest son and wanted to kick him out of the house. So before he made such a drastic decision, he dragged his son into my office so I could knock some sense into him.

As I sat with the father and son, I asked the question, “So what’s the problem?” The dad looked at me with anger and said, “Isn’t it obvious?” Apparently, his son wanted to show school spirit for Homecoming week and he dyed his hair bright red. The father said, “I have told him I do not want a cross-dressing son in my house and look what he did…like a woman he went and dyed his hair red! I cannot have a son of mine dressing up like a woman. And not only that, according to Deuteronomy 22, God abhors transvestites.” I asked the son, “Is that what you are doing? Trying to dress up like a woman?” He said, “No, of course not, I just wanted to show school spirit.”

I asked the son to leave so I could talk to the dad some more in my office. I asked the dad, “How important is it for you to have a relationship with your son?” The dad barked back, “What is important to me is for my kids to do what I say in the home.” As we talked it was clear the boy was not by nature disobedient, he just wanted to have fun. The dad wanted unquestioned obedience. Needless to say, the son was forced to wash the red dye out against my advice. Over time, when the son graduated he left the house and rarely spoke to his dad ever again. I am pretty sure he won’t step foot in a church either. The father won the battle but lost the love of his son because he wouldn’t budge on such a silly issue.

Here is the point: We can continue fighting obvious, but harmless, lies like Santa Claus, but what’s the use? We may be the victors, but in truth, we lost our voice when it comes to bigger matters. Listen to 2 Timothy 2:23-26…

“Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth,  and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.”  Kindness, gentleness and respect go a long way in eventually winning hearts.

Don’t you think the father who teaches his son that Santa is real knows it is a lie? Sure he does. So why does he do it? It’s fun! But isn’t teaching blatant lies sin against God? C’mon, if you are asking that you have never had to confront the real lies that are making our homes killing fields; like the lie it is O.K. to be abusive to your children and wife through violence and emotional manipulation, or the lie that divorce doesn’t destroy, or even the lie that you can only be happy if you buy and buy and buy. I would take the father who brings his kid to see Santa at a mall any day over the dad who forces his kids to listen to the Bible while his anger pervades the atmosphere in the home. This brings us naturally to number two…

(2) The art of persuasion must incorporate delight & joy for the person you are trying to persuade ever to accept your argument. Why do we think sheer logic and cold hard factual reasoning is convincing? It’s not. Case in Point — your wife can argue with you until her face turns blue that eating cake, candy and salty snacks will ruin your health this Christmas. Shoving a plate of vegetables and kale salad in your face will never change your eating habits. A person has to want the truth before he will consider adopting the truth. Want is dependent on desire, desire is contingent on joy. As Christians, our job is to sell joy.

Here is the point: I find that the reason people reject Jesus is not because of Jesus, but because of the attitude and lifestyle of the presenter arguing for Jesus. Who wants to receive good news from someone who is always grumpy and angry? A person who hates Santa is a person I don’t ever want to be around, do you?  Who cares if they are right — they are still killjoys and curmudgeons.

(3) There is an important if not necessary place for myth in our lives. In the series “The Chronicles of Narnia” C. S. Lewis included the person of Santa Claus as a metaphor for hope, he called him Father Christmas. Some Christians wondered why Lewis would ever do that, so a Lewis apologist tried to make sense out of it by writing. . .

“Father Christmas in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is drawn from the well-known popular legends of Santa Claus, the magical person who travels every Christmas Eve in a sleigh pulled by reindeer to bring presents to children everywhere. These legends, in turn, are based on the real life of St. Nicholas, a 4th-century Greek Christian bishop who was very generous to the poor. Some Christian groups object to the concept of Father Christmas because they claim he takes the focus off Christ during the Christmas season. But Lewis’ inclusion of a Father Christmas figure who is subservient to Aslan, the Christ-figure in the series, is a classic example of Lewis’ belief that all myths ultimately glorify the Creator.”

How do myths glorify the Creator? Simple, they provide common feelings and expressions that touch our heart and point to a deeper truth. The idea of a man who showers gifts upon humanity pictures the fuller story of a God who sends grace to us all through his Son. In the story of Santa, we find a mystery that makes sense to us, it is a thrill to think about someone who exists that can do things no one else can. I will be honest with you, as a kid, I believed in Santa. No, I wasn’t basing it on reason or experience, but I just knew there was more to life than the mundane of everyday routine and work.

As a kid I knew just trying to survive and exist isn’t our purpose. We are made for more, we are created to be thrilled by something greater than us. This is why men love sports, women love romance, and movies are so captivating — we are made for more. 

Here is the point: The myth of Santa only begins to excite a taste for wonder in children, but as we become adults we learn to take this taste higher and let it point us to a greater wonder. It is true heaven exists, and it is greater than anything you can imagine — like a kid hoping for presents from Santa, it is not wrong to hope for a heaven that will meet all of my dreams. This taste for wonder has been hard-wired in us! The problem with myth is that it cannot stand up for long to reality — but it can condition our heart to embrace the reality that can.

You may not agree, in fact, you may believe that if we start lying early to our kids, they will never trust us later. That may be true, but as a reasoning adult, I never hated my dad for wanting me to enjoy the wonder of the myth. I actually saw his contagious joy for life as a reason why I embraced his God as I grew older.

My final opinion is this: When you are so zealous to strip away lies to the point you ruin wonder, you may be undercutting the gospel — because the gospel is the most wondrous fairy tale ever told, a fairy tale that is actually true.

Merry Christmas!