Is Santa Claus Dead or Alive?

Now, Religion in the News, a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.This week’s item is from BBC News, December 10, 2002, with a headline: Vicar tells children Santa is dead. It is the news no child wants to hear and certainly not from the mouth of a Vicar. Youngsters at a Christmas carol service were devastated when the Reverend Lee Rayfield told them Santa Claus was dead. Even parents at the service in Maidenhead Berkshire were shocked to hear Mr. Rayfield say it was scientifically impossible for father Christmas to deliver so many presents so quickly. Mr. Rayfield has admitted making a serious misjudgment in telling the story to children as young as five. He said, “I did not realize how young some of them were and I’m sitting here now wondering how I managed not to realize. Even when I was there I did not twig. I am mortified and appreciate I have put some parents in a difficult position with a lot of explaining to do. I love Christmas.” Mr. Rayfield also told the youngsters that reindeer would burst into flames if they had to travel at the speeds necessary. Mother Sue Smee was at the service with her five-year-old and nine-year-old sons. She said, “Children are not children for very long and it is not his job to tell them things like this. It has left us parents with a lot of explaining to do today.” Mother of four, Sarah McCreery, also from Maidenhead said, “It would not have taken a genius to look out at the congregation and realize how young the children were. It was totally inappropriate.” Mr. Rayfield, whose comments came from an internet story on how scientific research could dispel the myth of Santa is now writing a letter to parents apologizing for the blunder. The incident happened at the packed St. Piran’s school carol service at St. Mary’s church in Maidenhead on Monday night.

Tom:

Dave, maybe our listeners know that we tape this program so I don’t know when this is going to come out but it will probably come out sometime after Christmas. Now the reason I want to discuss this news article is that it does present some problems. But, you know, I’m not getting on this Vicar’s case about what he did, but it does bring up a concern that I think Christian parents should have about promoting a myth among their children. Because at certain time in their lives maybe, I don’t know, some kids are precocious but 8, 9, 10, you move up, all of a sudden they find out this thing that they have been buying into is a myth, but at the time the children have been taught in a Christian home about Jesus. So, where do they separate the myth on the one side that they have grown up with, with what they have been taught about Jesus? It presents a problem doesn’t it?

Dave:

I would say it would present a problem if you teach about Santa Claus. I grew up as a boy in a Christian home, I never believed in Santa Claus. I was never taught to believe in Santa Claus and I never taught our children, my wife and I never taught our children to believe in Santa Claus, that’s nonsense. I would say the Vicar is totally wrong. Santa Claus is not dead, Santa Claus never lived, Santa Claus never existed, so he might have done better to explain that but I don’t think it was up to the Vicar to be the one to do that explaining.

Tom:

Right, I agree.

Dave:

He did put parents in a difficult position. Maybe he should have taught the parents to tell the truth first and then let them apply it.

Tom:

Dave, again, we were caught up in the world and what the world does and my encouragement here to believers out there, to parents, you mentioned, we want to encourage them in the truth. Now somebody will say, O, come on, you know, this is something in their life they enjoy and they look forward to and it’s a tradition and—but I have to keep asking the question, yes, but if it’s not true, if it’s a myth, do the kids need this for their imagination? Why are kids into Christmas—toys and receiving gifts, you know, all of that kind of stuff, I think a Christian parent has to take a good look at what he is doing and what he is teaching his child because, you know, he may have to back away from it because of circumstances.

Dave:

Well Tom, what about the tooth fairy? You see, so, on the one hand you could say well, about Santa Claus and all this stuff, it’s just like the Grimm’s Fairy Tales, it’s like the Fables of Aesop the Slave. Kids read fairy tales, they love them and enjoy them and probably not too many children believe they are real, they’re not really taught to believe they are real. They understand, at least very early in life that this is simply a fantasy and a myth and so forth. But, Santa Claus or the tooth fairy, now that’s someone who’s impacting their lives, bringing them presents and so forth.So they would have more of a tendency to believe in that than they would in a fairy tale that they are reading about, the wicked witch or, or whatever. I think it’s a dangerous thing to teach children that Santa Claus is real and one day they have the rug pulled out from under them. But the way the Vicar went about it was very inappropriate, not quite wise by a long shot, he should have left that up to the parents. On the other hand, the parents got themselves into this problem, they need to have worked together. Tom, you bring out a very good point. The problem is that this is all mixed up with Jesus Christ in the manger, his virgin birth, and the angels, the life he lived—why should the angels be any more real than the reindeer or Santa Claus. So there is a great danger that when the child is disillusioned of his belief in Santa Claus, then he says, Well, you know, what about Jesus? I mean, that’s all mixed up in the same story.

Tom:

Mmhmm. I—again Dave, selecting this, some people are going to be upset—Well what are you doing, how are you dealing, you know, why are you dealing with this issue?Once again, we want parents out there who have the responsibility, Christian parents, of raising their children in the Lord. And, the last thing I would think they would want would be to have their children confused. Even at an early age children can receive the gospel, receive salvation at a very young age, but if that’s mixed, you know, as Gary mentioned earlier, our producer, that as a child he couldn’t separate the two because the same people who were teaching him about Jesus were teaching him about Santa Claus and that’s what we want to avert.

Dave:

And furthermore, if my parents are telling me something that isn’t true and I find out that Santa Claus isn’t true, what about, not only Jesus, but other things they say to me as well?

Tom:

It can be a problem, that’s our concern.