The sin Ms. Linda Johnson points out goes way beyond Santa Claus being used as a false idol. Santa is not being placed before God because God is nowhere in these children’s or adults’ lives at all and that is the path to destruction. But God has given us free will and each needs to find his path to Him — it cannot be forced. This is how God works, like the thousands of maple seeds dropped and the few that become mature trees.

But in a secular culture, Santa offers hope.  As Ms. Johnson alluded to, Santa was a real person, St. Nicholas, who secretly gave money for a dowry so a Christian family could avoid selling their teen daughter to an older man as a wife. The dowry money allowed the family to marry off the daughter in love where she could be supported. St. Nicholas did the same for her sister.

This Christian act of secretly giving to those who cannot repay is the essence of the Santa Claus practice: St. Nicholas is real and lives today through us. So, instead of casting Santa Claus to the side and demanding those who don’t wish it to celebrate Christ’s birth when they don’t yet believe, explain the true nature of Santa Claus. Then explain that the impulse to do such things is God’s way of doing things in this world without all of the death and destruction that will accompany Him the next time. And who wouldn’t wish to volitionally follow and celebrate a God who puts this instinct in us?

Joseph Sheeley

Tullahoma