Santa Lie

I wrote this letter to my oldest daughter 8 years ago. She asked me if Santa was real and with her being my first, I didn’t have an answer ready. I dodged the question because I didn’t feel right lying to her. Later that night I wrote her this letter.

Dear Daniela,

You asked me if Santa is real and I didn’t give you an answer. I want you to decide for yourself if Santa is real, but first I want to tell you a little more about where he lives. Santa doesn’t live in the North Pole; he lives in a place called imagination. We all have imagination, but children have more of it than adults. Imagination lets you take bits of things that are real and string them together to make a story that is magical. The story of Santa began after a kind man named Saint Nickolas gave gifts in secret. Over the years people used their imagination to make the story bigger and more beautiful. As you get older it will be harder and harder to keep this imagination. People will tell you that it is silly to believe in a man that comes down a chimney, that fairies are just pretend and dragons only live in storybooks. And even though you might not be able to see those things, they can still be real if they live in your imagination.

Someday you will also be told that the story of Jesus being born in a manger isn’t real either. They will say that Jesus was a man that lived, but over the years people created a story about him just like they did Santa. That will be a lie. Unlike Santa, Jesus does not live in a place called imagination. He is as real today as He was the night He was born. He is in your heart and you don’t need imagination to believe in Him, you need faith. And unlike the story of Santa, the Bible is full of true stories that are meaningful and have the power to change your life.

So my prayer for you is that you never lose your imagination. I hope you always choose to believe in wonderful stories that make your heart happy. I hope someday you are able to surprise your children with gifts under the Christmas tree. But what I hope and pray for most is that you never lose sight of the meaning of Christmas. That as you lose a little bit of your childhood imagination each year, your faith in God grows stronger each year. Please never confuse the fun of Santa and the realness of Christ.

Love,

Mom

My handwritten letter to Daniela has been read by four of my kids now. We tuck it away with all the Christmas decorations and each year it gets pulled out and read by one of them. I remember worrying that telling her the truth would take the fun out of Christmas, but it only made it better. It took the pressure off of us to keep up with this lie and it let our kids use their imagination. Santa has become a fun story that the kids all talk about without being the focus of our Christmas.