For some reason, Santa was very late for my fifth Christmas. It’s not that there was too much snow; it seems it was one of those “green Christmases” in north-central Ohio, as I recall. Maybe it was because there wasn’t enough snow?
Perhaps it was because I stayed up too late watching for him. Well into the night, I peered out into the dark sky looking for the sleigh led by Rudolph. My parents warned us kids that Santa wouldn’t come if we were awake. After all, “he sees you when you’re sleeping; he knows when you’re awake….”
Whatever the cause, my siblings and I got up very early on Christmas morning; it was still dark outside. The stairway was blocked, so we headed to our parents’ room to wake them. Rousing from apparent slumber, dad said he’d go downstairs and see if Santa had come yet.
“Nope,” he said upon his return. “But listen! Be very quiet! I think I heard something on the roof!”
With wide eyes and alert ears, we listened intently. Indeed! We could hear a ruckus! Then some clomping around downstairs!
And suddenly we heard it. A robust, “Ho! Ho! Ho!” Was that the plate of cookies clattering? The empty milk glass dinging against the plate? A few moments of silence, and then, “Merry Christmas to all!” More clomping around. Silence.
The tension and excitement in my parents’ room was at a fever pitch! We actually heard Santa Claus! We couldn’t wait to get downstairs to find out what he left behind—besides an empty cookie plate.
I can’t recall a single gift I received that Christmas. Might have been the year I got the gas station, or perhaps my Radio Flyer wagon. I don’t remember. But I do remember hearing Santa Claus!
The Truth Comes Out!
Was it the next year, or the year after, I learned the truth?
A week or so before Christmas, my older brother and I were on our way to the store with dad to buy mom her Christmas gift. Dad asked what we thought our younger brother might like for Christmas. I was confused.
“He asked Santa when we went to see him. Santa knows, right?” I replied.
Then from the backseat came the earth-shattering news.
“There is no such thing as Santa Claus!” my older brother declared proudly.
“Yes there is! We heard him last year, right dad?” I retorted!
The slight smile on my dad’s face preceded the revelation.
“No, Santa is just pretend. Mom and I are the real ‘Santa Claus.”
“But…but…but we heard him! Last year!” uttered my confused little 5- or 6-year-old self.
Dad went on to explain that the whole thing was made up. He used his new reel-to-reel tape recorder to record all those noises…Santa’s belly laugh…the jingle bells. All of it. When we went in their room, he went downstairs, hit the play button, and a couple minutes later it all started.
As I said, a bit earth-shattering for a little kid who was sure Santa came last year and was coming again this year!
To Tell or Not to Tell?
Over the years. I’ve heard many well-meaning folks counsel parents not to lie to their kids, telling them there’s a Santa Claus. They’ll find out the truth eventually, so the advisors say, and then they won’t trust anything you tell them—especially when you try explaining the real Christmas story.
In fact, from the get-go with our two, we told them Santa was make-believe. We just pretend the big guy comes on Christmas with a sack full of gifts. That created a humorous and only slightly embarrassing encounter with the mall Santa when our daughter was four.
“What would you like me to bring you for Christmas, little lady?” Santa asked.
“My daddy is the REAL Santa!” she replied.
I got this really peculiar look from behind the fake beard.
Anyway, I don’t think I got totally messed up when I finally learned the truth about Santa. From that point on, I didn’t question the truthfulness of everything my parents told me (at least not until sometime in adolescence!).
It also didn’t undermine my ability to distinguish between the story of Santa Claus (make-believe) and the story of the baby Jesus in the manger (biblical truth).
Most likely, on Sunday following the Santa revelation, our church held the annual Christmas program with all the different Sunday School classes participating. For a six-year-old, the program involves a bit of nervousness coupled with excitement. A bit scared because I and my peers had to stand in front of a whole bunch of people, sing a couple songs, and recite verses from the Bible’s Christmas story. But excitement because at the end of the program, we would get a little cardboard box with the nativity scene on the outside and Christmas candy on the inside!
And not for a moment did I wonder if what we were singing about was as make-believe as “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.” Nor did I conclude that the story of the shepherds’ visit and the wise men’s journey was no more true than Twas the Night Before Christmas.
In time, of course, the preposterous details of the Santa story serve to awaken even the most ardent Santa-believer to the truth. The more aware of time and the size of the world a child becomes, the more difficult to believe that Santa could visit every house on the planet in a few hours’ time. And then there’s the chimney problem. And flying reindeer? And how is it that the model airplane I got under the tree is made by elves at the North Pole, but it’s exactly the same one I’d been eyeing at the 5 & 10 store since September. Etc.
In contrast, the more details one learns about the true Christmas story, it’s all the more credible and believable. Sure, trying to wrap your head around the Virgin Birth is a bit overwhelming. Until you read the creation account in Genesis 1 and any of a number of recorded miracles. The Virgin Birth holds no problem for the God who created life!
More importantly, what about the purpose of it all?
So, let’s pretend for a minute that the was no birth of Jesus. What’s the point of the Santa story? Where did it come from? Why does it persist? What’s its purpose?
Why, to promote generosity, good will, and good cheer, of course. Right?
Well, why only on one day a year? And what does all the other stuff have to do with it—the tree, garland, lights, tinsel, holiday music, feasting…? And we need an obese guy in a red suit riding in a sleigh pulled by reindeer to get the message out?
Now, I’m not trying to be a Christmas kill-joy…a grinch, if you were (another Santa-story addendum!). All of that can be fun in its place. I’m just trying to point out that the so-called purpose of a merely secular “Christmas” doesn’t bolster the believability of its story.
But what about the purpose behind God becoming man, born of a virgin in a Bethlehem stable a couple thousand years ago?
Paul the Apostle succinctly explained that purpose.
“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”
– 1 Timothy 1:15
Is it any stretch in credulity to believe the world is populated by sinners—and has been for all human history? Do you know anyone who wouldn’t qualify as a “sinner”? Anyone who’s never violated any aspect of God’s moral law? Me either.
Is it any stretch in credulity to believe that we humans can’t save ourselves? Oh sure, the Humanist Manifesto declares, “No god will save us; we must save ourselves.” How are we doing on that score? Any closer to that today than, say, a century ago? Has all of our progress and technological advancement brought us any closer to saving humanity—or any single soul? It’s still “appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment.” We haven’t been able to do a thing to save us from it.
But Jesus has. That’s what He came for! The writer of Hebrews explains:
“But as it is, [Jesus] has appeared once for all at the end of the ages (a reference to the time from His birth to the present) to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed unto man once to die and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”
Hebrews 9:26-28
Understanding the purpose of His coming explains why all the celebration at His birth—celebration that has persisted to this day. Celebrating a very believable, true historical event.
Have a very Merry Christmas…Santa or not!
