Jesus or Santa?

This most exciting time of year is upon us once again. Christmas is the one time of year I cant wait for it to get here and when it does, I dont want it to leave. I have the very best memories of Christmas growing up. Our house was always decorated with garland and a beautiful Christmas tree. And each year, my parents would always sit us down and tell us the story of Jesus birth. We knew that Christmas was about Jesus, but the focus for us wasnt on Jesus. In fact, it was on everything but Jesus. My brother and I were more excited about the idea that Santa was coming to town! We looked forward to decorating the tree more than going to church. We were more interested in writing out a long christmas list of toys we want for Santa rather than thanking Jesus for coming to save us. We knew the concept of Christmas and the birth of Jesus, but we just didnt fully get it.

And this was no fault of our parents. In fact, this is just how the world does Christmas! We allow ourselves to get so excited about the Christmas festivities and so excited about playing Santa to our kids that our focus has become a bit skewed. Lacy and I have recently noticed this in our own lives. Each Christmas we love to hype Santa coming to our kids. And there is nothing wrong with that, if its done in the right context. We as a people tend to put more of an emphasis on Santa Clause than we do Jesus Christ. And as a result to our kids, Christmas isnt about Jesus, its about Santa. Jesus ends up just playing a secondary role in Christmas.

Being here in Panama and serving the Guaymi indians with my family has been such an eye opening experience. These people dont have their children make Christmas list. Mostly because they dont have the means to buy tons of toys. I have heard that on Christmas, some of the very poor families will save up to give their kids a piece of meat with their rice and beans meal. The meat is the gift, because its something they rarely get. Good meat is expensive to them. And the children look forward to this just as much as many American children look forward to handing Santa a list of 100 plus toys they have picked out of the Macy’s Catalog.

Jesus speaks so much in the bible warning us not to fall into the trap of idolatry, which is putting anything in our lives before Christ. And unknowingly, some people have committed this sin each holiday season not even realizing it.  I asked my wife this question the other day….”What do I hear our kids talking more about this season, Jesus or Santa?” Our kids will talk more about what Lacy and I put an emphasis on.

Not only do we by putting Santa as the center piece to Christmas commit the sin of idolatry, but we also are misleading our children, teaching them by example that Christmas is about “you.” We teach them to put their wants and desires first above everything. We may tell the story of Jesus, but is that all it is during this season….just a story? Or is Christ made to be shown in your family and to your children as THE ONLY reason for the season?

A very close friend of ours back home has shared with us that each Christmas, after the presents are unwrapped, they load up their car and take their family down to the local homeless shelter and help provide a Christmas party with their children for the people that dont have anything.  I think this is awesome.

Lacy and I have been convicted about some of the ways we have celebrated Christmas in the past. Its been made into more of a worldly holiday instead of what it really is meant to celebrate. So we are beginning to change some things in the Parish household when it comes to the matter of Christmas. We start with the gifts.

Gifts become the center point of Christmas. And we are conditioned to view things this way from a young age. We are taught that we need to make a list of all the things we want and if we are good maybe Santa will bring all or most of them. However, on the night Jesus was born, he receives just three gifts from the wise men. Just three gifts. So this year, we have told our boys that they will get three gifts. Of course, we know they will receive more from family and friends. But from mom and dad, they can each choose three things the really want. And we share with them the reason for this is because the baby Jesus received just three gifts. This allows us to share not only the story of Jesus birth, but the story of the wise men.

This Christmas our boys also have to buy one toy of their choosing to give to a little boy or girl in one of the villages here who doesnt have as much. By no means do we have the market cornered on the right way to do Christmas. This is just what God has convicted our family of recently. The more I grow in my relationship with Christ, the more I find myself and our family being very different than the world.

Noted author and pastor John Piper wrote recently that his household doesnt even aknowledge Santa Clause. They have a christmas tree and decorate the house, but the focus is entirely on Jesus Christ. He made a very convicting point that has stuck with me. He pointed out that the bible tells us that it is a sin to lie. Yet we do this every time we make Santa seem real to our children and make the holidays about him instead of Jesus.

I tried at first after reading this to justify Santa by telling myself, “Telling my kids Santa is a real person that is going to make Christmas about toys is not really a lie…….”  Then I had to ask myself, “If its not a lie, then what is it?” No matter how I may try to bend Gods word, I have yet to find a loop hole in Pastor Pipers theory. And frankly, I dont want to get in the business myself of bending Gods word to fit my preferences. But just because its always been done that way doesnt mean its right. Again, we fall into the trap of comparing ourselves to the world and its standards instead of seeking to know what Christ would say.  He went on to point out that some people, even Christians, will try to justify this saying that he is being over the top and that Santa is the way Christmas has always been done.

I brought this issue up to a friend of mine and he made a good point that we could just tell the story of Saint Nick to our kids as being a good person who gave to the needy. But honestly, if we are going to tell our kids about a good person at Christmas time, why tell them about anyone else other than Jesus Christ?

I love to celebrate Christmas. But are we as a people celebrating it in the wrong way?  Where is our focus? What gets us excited about this holiday season? Is it the gifts? The egg nog and christmas parties? Is it decorating the tree and reading to our kids “The Night Before Christmas?” Or is it telling the story of a baby born of a virgin who grew up to save us from ourselves?  What is coming before Jesus this holiday season, and what is taking his place as the most precious gift ever given?

I know this issue is very controversial. And many who read it may think I am totally taking things too far. But if we are followers of Christ, shouldnt we be more concerned with what God thinks of us? I want God to be pleased and I sure dont want to one day stand before Jesus hiimself and have him tell me that I made a mockery of what Christmas was truely about. It may not be popular, but I want our family to be about the kingdom of God regardless of if it may fly in the face of worldly tradition.

Maybe you find yourself already making the holiday about Jesus. And if so I think thats wonderful that you didnt fall into the trap of consumerism that so embodies Christmas these days. Or maybe you find yourself a little like me. Realizing that the normal way of doing things in the worlds eyes may not be the way God had intended things to be. If so, maybe God is tugging at your heart like he did ours. Maybe he is turning your eyes from the worlds concept of Christmas and putting your focus one what really matters.  And if Christ is doing this for you as he has done for my family, aside from Christ dying for my sins…..its the greatest gift I could receive this season. Merry Christmas and Christ blessings to everyone!

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