Article December 23, 1972 Issue

Replacing the Santa Claus Myth

[For parents]

GLENN W. McCULLOUGH

Speaking of joyful Christmas celebration for children, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes, "Let it continue thus with one exception: the children should not be taught to believe that Santa Claus has aught to do with this pastime."^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 261;}

If we tell a child there is a real Santa Claus and later tell him there is no Santa Claus, aren't we actually training him to believe that deception is acceptable? In Proverbs we read, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."^{Prov. 22:6;}

As a child, our daughter used to hang up a stocking on Christmas Eve knowing that it would be filled, not by any mythical figure but by her parents. Being aware from the beginning that Santa Claus was not really involved in this never made her unhappy. We told her that parents everywhere, reflecting God's tender love, gave gifts to their children and that sometimes they pretended it was Santa Claus who gave the gifts. Knowing that some children believed in Santa Claus, she never interfered with their beliefs.

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