The Great lie of Christmas!

I am struggling with something this year. In part because of what is coming and in part because of what has come to pass.

I remember growing up and believing in the age old story of Santa Clause up until the time I could count. Then I started doing the math. In just one city the amount of time it would take Santa to distribute all of his gifts to a million plus kids would take more time than the night provided, not including travel time… then there were other cities that he was going to have to visit and he wasn’t even able to finish the first… that was the end of my childhood fantasy. And looking back I don’t remember any hard feelings or animosity towards my parents.

But I will never forget when we told my middle child ‘James’ about Santa. He was starting to figure it out just like I did… but he kept believing us because we told him it was true. Actually we were kidding ourselves by disguising the lie with; “When you stop believing in Santa your parents have to buy the gifts.” We thought this half truth would somehow make it all better. I’ll never forget, when the truth finally came out he looked at us and angrily said; “You lied to me… and you’ve been lying to me!” He was extremely upset… and the whole thing came back up again the next Christmas when we had to perpetuate the lie for his brother. If you ask him, to this day he will tell you he did not like the revelation that his parents would deceive him about such a thing for so long, but now he is a full blown participant in the deception. He plays along and keeps the story (the lie) alive for his brother… but at what cost. His brother is a smart kid, and I am sure he has done the math… he certainly is old enough to be able to figure it out by now, heck he might have even Googled it… but he continues to believe in spite of what his friends say or any other evidence to the contrary. Why? Because his parents whom he trusts implicitly have told him it is true. And what will be Zachary’s reaction this time. He does believe us no matter what we say, because we are his parents. For him that is good enough, but when he finds out we lied, will he say to himself… “If they lied about Santa maybe they lied about Jesus”! It was certainly something that came up with James… for months afterwards he would preface things with; “Is this true or did you lie about it too?” I really think we lost something in James that day… and I am fearful of the same innocence that will die in Zachary when the truth is told to him.

Why do we do this?

Have we not already polluted with commercialism one of the most Holiest of days we have as a Christian? The rest of the world is so consumed by consumerism that hardly anyone really even knows the true meaning of Christmas anyway! They all think that Santa has more to do with Christmas than Jesus does! And whose fault is that?

And not to be a Grinch… but the whole gift giving thing is way out of control. If you can’t or don’t you are less than American… and what about all the families that are devastated by the economy this year and Santa didn’t show up at their trailer in the Appalachian hills or the back roads of Georgia and any number of other places… what do they tell their kids? “I’m sorry honey Santa only brings gifts to people who have enough money to not need them!” or “Your not special enough because were too poor to make a difference!” The whole gift exchange and Santa thing is compounded in the poor.

Our entire countries economy hinges around how much we as consumers spend on the gifts we give.

If you really think about what it has become… I believe that we as Christians would be ashamed of what we have done to Christmas if we could see how Jesus would really want us to celebrate His Birthday.

I don’t know what the answer is… but I do know it is time to tell my youngest the truth. And that leaves me with where I began. How will he receive the news that his parents and every authority figure in his life has been lying to him since he was born… and just like his older brother so many years ago… what will he think of us then?

You tell me why we do this… or better yet, tell me what God would say about turning His son’s birthday into a fairytale gift exchange program for the privileged and affluent of society that alienates those near and dear to His heart… the poor.