December Holidays: What “History of Santa Claus” are You Creating?
Honest Fun or Snowy “White Lies”?

As the December Holidays arrive, you and your spouse begin discussing whether or not to do Santa with your toddler. She is old enough now to understand presents.

Your husband has great memories of Santa, the fun, the excitement, the anticipation of wondering what Santa brought, leaving cookies for him and carrots for the reindeer. It’s a fun practice he wants to do with your toddler.

You, on the other hand, remember the fun of the Santa tradition, but also felt terribly betrayed when you learned that Santa wasn’t real. You don’t want to lie to your toddler and prefer to just be honest.

Neither of you feel strongly about your positions and don’t want to argue about this. You’d like to find a win/win compromise that’s fun but doesn’t require lying. Is that possible?

Is Santa an Okay lie?

If you are concerned about encouraging your children to believe in Santa, it’s probably because:

• You want to focus on the original meaning of Christmas.
• You don’t want your children to be materialistic or manipulated by commercialism.
• You teach your children not to lie and want to be a good role model, but telling children Santa is a real person is a lie. Plus, in order to answer your child’s questions about how or why Santa does something, you have to tell more and bigger lies to keep the first lie alive.

So during the December Holidays, you not only need to consider if you are going to do Santa, but if you do, how you will do it.  Here are the three main options and the pros and cons of each:

1. Do Santa and lie about it as good and as long as you can.  The goal: To have fun with the fantasy and downplay any possible negative consequences. This option carries the highest risk for devastating the child when he/she finds out the truth and destroying the child’s trust in you, because you have been lying to them and laughing at their gullibility. It is clearly the most humiliating, unethical and risky option.
2. Not do Santa at all. The goal: To be as honest, factual and value-based as possible. This option is the most respectable and ethical. It’s also the easiest, with no lies to tell or uphold.

   You need to be aware that your children might feel left out or resentful that you were deprived of a fun tradition widely practiced by their peers. To avoid or minimize this, you want to make an extra effort to have fun non-Santa traditions.

3. Talk about Santa as honestly as possible and let children decide what to believe.  The goal: To have fun with the fantasy and still be honest. Here are some tips:

• Tell children the stories about the original meaning of Christmas, the history of Santa Claus and the real St. Nicholas, and learn how people around the world, from all cultures, practice various Santa traditions.
• Approach Santa as a fun fantasy that you play along with, by setting out cookies and milk, gifts from Santa, etc.
• Never force the issue. If you express doubts, don’t tell blatant lies to convince them otherwise. If children don’t want to sit on Santa’s lap, don’t force them.
• When children ask questions, make every effort to respond honestly:
  • To logical questions, ask them “What do you think?” Or say, “No one knows for sure, but it could be…” You can weave in value messages with your answer.
  • To questions that point-blank ask you for the truth, like “Is Santa real?” you can be totally honest and say “no” or can gradually ease away from the fantasy, saying “Some people believe…” or retell the story of St. Nicholas, talk about the history of Santa Claus or give a “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” kind of answer.

One mom sums it up well saying, “I have taught my kids to be truthful and that lies only get you into trouble.  I don’t see Santa as being a lie but a make believe person.  It brings out the creative side of my kids as you try to come up with where Santa would live, what he does during the day, and what he does in the other seasons.  Santa is just a fun addition to Christmas.  My kids were not brought up thinking that Christmas is all about Santa and getting gifts but are taught the true meaning of Christmas.  If you choose to believe in Santa, that’s fine but it’s not something we push our kids into doing.”