{"id":252,"date":"2011-12-16T12:46:00","date_gmt":"2011-12-16T12:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2011\/12\/lying-about-santa\/"},"modified":"2014-12-26T12:03:28","modified_gmt":"2014-12-26T17:03:28","slug":"lying-about-santa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2011\/12\/lying-about-santa.html","title":{"rendered":"Lying About Santa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
<\/div>\n

Fr Newman got into hot water some time ago for explaining to the children of the parish that Santa Claus was (I believe his words were) \u201ca fat pagan elf.\u201d I was rather amused by his outspoken defense of St Nicholas, but I believe there was a minor firestorm among the families in the parish\u2026much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth (and that was just the mothers)<\/p>\n

I\u2019m on his side, and call me a Scrooge, but I never lied to my kids about Santa. I thought it just wasn\u2019t fair. I had told them from the beginning that there were really only two rules: 1. Never lie 2. No direct disobedience. That seemed to do the trick and all four have turned out to be nice kids.<\/p>\n

So why would I break my own rule and lie to them about Santa Claus. Furthermore, the lie is so extravagant. Santa Claus visits every home in a reindeer driven sleigh on Christmas Eve? He comes down the chimney? Rudolph eats the carrot left for him? C\u2019mon. It\u2019s not fair. Furthermore, if you tell your kids this stuff you\u2019re setting yourself up for a fall later. They\u2019re not going to trust you.<\/p>\n

Especially they\u2019re not going to trust you about religion. You take them to church for Christmas and tell them a beautiful story about a baby in a manger and shepherds who see angels who come to them in the sky at night and wise men who come on camels and bring rich presents to the little fellow asleep in the hay. So they\u2019re supposed to believe that story, but they\u2019re supposed to also believe the one about the fat elf, the toys, the persecuted reindeer and all that baloney?<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what happens\u2013if you\u2019re not careful, they bundle all the stuff up together in their minds and when they learn that Santa\u2019s a fake they figure all that other Christmas stuff was a fake too. Angels? No more real than flying reindeer. Wise men from afar? Much the same as Santa at the North Pole. Babies in mangers receiving gifts? It\u2019s like the presents under the tree. Conclusion? The Christmas story with Jesus and Mary and Joseph is just another make believe.<\/p>\n

So we didn\u2019t tell the kids there was a Santa Claus or an Easter Bunny or a Tooth Fairy or any of that nonsense. We weren\u2019t total spoil sports though. We put out presents and left sherry and a mince pie for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph, but when they came down and saw half a mince pie and half a carrot we joked and said, \u201cGeesh, kids, it was Dad who drank the sherry and Mom who ate the mince pie. Santa Claus is just a fun story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t that the best way? Allow them the fairy tales and fun stories, but don\u2019t lie and pretend they are real the way the true Christmas story is real. Help them distinguish historical truth and gospel truth from fairy tales and all that fun stuff. You\u2019ll be doing them a favor.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fr Newman got into hot water some time ago for explaining to the children of the parish that Santa Claus was (I believe his words were) \u201ca fat pagan elf.\u201d I was rather amused by his outspoken defense of St Nicholas, but I believe there was a minor firestorm among the families in the parish\u2026much […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nLying About Santa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Fr Newman got into hot water some time ago for explaining to the children of the parish that Santa Claus was (I believe his words were) "a fat pagan elf."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2011\/12\/lying-about-santa.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lying About Santa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fr Newman got into hot water some time ago for explaining to the children of the parish that Santa Claus was (I believe his words were) "a fat pagan elf."\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2011\/12\/lying-about-santa.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-12-16T12:46:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-12-26T17:03:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2011\/12\/lying-about-santa.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2011\/12\/lying-about-santa.html\",\"name\":\"Lying About Santa\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-12-16T12:46:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-12-26T17:03:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/9a47bc6ba9c0a8c532dc90230d7ad3ad\"},\"description\":\"Fr Newman got into hot water some time ago for explaining to the children of the parish that Santa Claus was (I believe his words were) \\\"a fat pagan elf.\\\"\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2011\/12\/lying-about-santa.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2011\/12\/lying-about-santa.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2011\/12\/lying-about-santa.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Lying About Santa\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/\",\"name\":\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/9a47bc6ba9c0a8c532dc90230d7ad3ad\",\"name\":\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8dbbfbf5b6d096630322e90bce3f0cec?s=96&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8dbbfbf5b6d096630322e90bce3f0cec?s=96&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/dwightlongenecker.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/author\/frdwight\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Lying About Santa","description":"Fr Newman got into hot water some time ago for explaining to the children of the parish that Santa Claus was (I believe his words were) \"a fat pagan elf.\"","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2011\/12\/lying-about-santa.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Lying About Santa","og_description":"Fr Newman got into hot water some time ago for explaining to the children of the parish that Santa Claus was (I believe his words were) \"a fat pagan elf.\"","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2011\/12\/lying-about-santa.html","og_site_name":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","article_published_time":"2011-12-16T12:46:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-12-26T17:03:28+00:00","author":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2011\/12\/lying-about-santa.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2011\/12\/lying-about-santa.html","name":"Lying About Santa","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-12-16T12:46:00+00:00","dateModified":"2014-12-26T17:03:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/9a47bc6ba9c0a8c532dc90230d7ad3ad"},"description":"Fr Newman got into hot water some time ago for explaining to the children of the parish that Santa Claus was (I believe his words were) \"a fat pagan elf.\"","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2011\/12\/lying-about-santa.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2011\/12\/lying-about-santa.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2011\/12\/lying-about-santa.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Lying About Santa"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/","name":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/9a47bc6ba9c0a8c532dc90230d7ad3ad","name":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8dbbfbf5b6d096630322e90bce3f0cec?s=96&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8dbbfbf5b6d096630322e90bce3f0cec?s=96&r=g","caption":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/dwightlongenecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/author\/frdwight"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/557"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}