The Reason for the Season

As many of you know, Easter was on Sunday. For those that believe in the Bible and who Jesus is, it was a celebration of his resurrection from the dead after being emotionally and physically abused before being killed on a cross. His resurrection meant that if we choose to believe in Him, we can be saved from eternal damnation and be granted eternal life with our Father in heaven. For others, it is just another one of those holidays that families get together for and eat a bunch of food, particularly one of the nastiest smelling foods out there, deviled eggs. Speaking of deviled eggs, where in the world did that name come from? Why did a staple Easter food get deemed devious when it is often eaten on a day to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ?

So as I was meandering through Facebook on Easter I came across a statement made by "The Daily Christian," stating that he believes parents who raise their children with Santa, Easter Bunny, etc. are essentially hurting their witness to their children about God. The foundation of his point is that if you couple the celebration of Jesus birth and resurrection with Santa and the Easter bunny, does the true reason for the holidays existing fall away?

I have zero interest in arguing this point. I believe the decision of whether or not to do Santa must be something that parents decide to do based on their own personal conviction on the matter. What do you feel God has directed you to do? I know many bible-believing, Christ-following families who have been able to properly balance the importance of Jesus (most important) and Santa (much less important). I also know many families that chose to not do Santa and still have a great Christmas. Santa is neither necessary, nor completely destructive to Christmas. All of this pertains to the Easter Bunny on Easter as well.

What I do wish to discuss is some of the comments I saw on the post made by "The Daily Christian." The most troublesome thing that I saw was that people were defending their use of Santa by comparing it to Jesus preaching parables. Essentially, there was no prodigal son in the same way there is no Santa. Jesus preached in parables so that people could understand the truths he thought necessary for them to know. Santa is just a traditional character that has been generation-ally passed down to reward children for good behavior and to punish them for bad behavior. The hope that came through Jesus' parables was everlasting, the hope that comes from Santa lasts for one day, maybe a week depending on how Santa works in your home.

Bottom line, if your justification (for yourself or anyone else) for having Santa and the Easter Bunny in the lives of your children revolves around the fact that "Jesus told stories too" you should probably reconsider the impact that you want Santa to have because the story of Santa should not carry the same weight as the man with a plank in his eye (Matthew 7).

For those that are curious, Claire and I have decided that we will not be raising our children with any of these traditional holiday figures. It is a conviction that we personally have. There are two big reasons we are choosing to do so...
1) First and foremost, I am afraid that Santa and the Easter Bunny create a false faith in children. The definition of faith in its simplest form is the belief in something that you cannot see or prove. Since Santa and the Easter Bunny do not exist in a provable way, children must have faith that they exist and there will come a day where you must tell your children that they are not real. In that moment, their faith has been proven false and I don't want them to think that their faith in God has been fake as well. I would be curious to hear if any parents have had this happen upon informing their children that Santa is not real.
2) The reason stated above. We don't want anything or anyone getting in the way of way these holidays exist. We desire for Jesus and our family celebration of him to be the central focus of the holiday season.