Santa Claus, The Easter Bunny, The Tooth Fairy, and the Truth

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If we are teaching our children about objective truth, evaluating claims and understanding that the biblical worldview is true, is it harmful or antithetical if we're encouraging belief in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy?

Hello, friends! Welcome to another episode of the Foundation Worldview Podcast, where we seek to answer your questions so that you can equip the children God has placed in your care to carefully evaluate every idea they encounter and understand the truth of the biblical worldview. I'm your host, Elizabeth Urbanowicz, and we'll dive right into our question for today.

Today's question asks, "What are your thoughts on Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, et cetera? If we are emphasizing objective truth, analyzing claims, and a Christian worldview, is it antithetical to encourage belief in these fictitious characters?"

I was really happy to see this question come in because I think it's one that so many parents and those working with children are wrestling through. Our culture really encourages belief in these fictitious characters as just fun things for our children. But especially for those of us who believe that a huge part of loving God is loving Him with our minds — and who also believe that God is the source of truth — if we're placing emphasis on objective truth, evaluating claims, and understanding that the biblical worldview is true, is it harmful or antithetical to those things if we're encouraging belief in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy?

Encouraging Belief vs. Encouraging Enjoyment

My answer to this question would be: yes. Yes, it is antithetical to the truthfulness of the biblical worldview if we are actually encouraging genuine belief in these characters.

But is encouraging enjoyment of these fictitious characters antithetical to objective truth, evaluating claims, and the biblical worldview? No. Encouraging some fun enjoyment of these characters is not antithetical to those things.

I am firmly convinced that we need to be honest with our children, and the reason for this is that we should be modeling what we do in our parenting and in our care for our children after the way God has cared for us. When has God ever lied to us? Never. The author of Hebrews tells us that it is impossible for God to lie, because God is the truth and He is the source of truth. We're teaching a double standard if we put an emphasis on objective truth, evaluating claims, and loving God with our mind — and then encourage the shutting off of the mind with belief in these characters.

So if you're a parent watching this, I would encourage you not to pump up the myth of Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, or the Easter Bunny. We can enjoy these things as part of the cultural heritage in the countries in which we live. We can enjoy them without actually teaching that they're true.

What This Looked Like in My Family

My mom did a great job of this. When my brother, my sister, and I were growing up, my parents were always honest with us that Santa Claus is not real. We would read the story of St. Nicholas, who was an actual man, and then learn how that story turned into the legendary, mythical figure of Santa Claus. My parents were always honest with us that Santa Claus didn't really exist, that the Easter Bunny wasn't real, and that the Tooth Fairy wasn't real.

But when we would lose a tooth, we'd still put it under our pillow, and we'd wake up to find a couple of quarters there. We always knew it was our parents who put them there. At Christmastime, my mom did a great job of doing something engaging and exciting with us every day leading up to Christmas. Sometimes we would actually go to the mall and get our pictures taken with Santa Claus, or we would make a little craft that involved Santa Claus. Most of the time, the crafts we did actually involved the nativity — but sometimes we might do something with Santa Claus.

Those things were fun, and we were able to enjoy them as part of the cultural heritage in the United States of America without actually believing that those characters existed.

Navigating Conversations with Other Kids

Now, when you tell children that these characters are not real, the hard thing becomes that most of their friends believe in them. I've watched parents do a really good job of explaining, "I've promised I'm always going to be truthful with you, so this character isn't actually real. A lot of your friends believe in it, and it's really their mommy and daddy's responsibility to tell them about that. So you can explain that we don't believe in Santa Claus in our house, but you don't need to go around saying that Santa isn't true."

Advice for Sunday School Teachers and Christian Educators

If you're a Sunday school teacher or a Christian educator, you might be thinking, "Oh my goodness, what am I going to do?" Because some of the parents of the children God has placed in your care are teaching them about Santa Claus.

What I would always do as a classroom teacher — I taught third grade, and by third grade, most kids knew Santa Claus wasn't real, but there were always a few still holding on to that belief. Usually once a Christmas season, students would come up and say, "Ms. Urbanowicz, is Santa Claus real?"

I would always respond, "Do you know that I've promised to always tell you the truth?" They would say, "Yes." I'd say, "And do you know that I've promised that I'm never going to lie to you?" They'd say, "Yes." Then I'd say, "Because I've promised to always tell you the truth and to never lie, I can't answer that question for you. You're going to have to go and ask your parents."

I don't know if that was the end-all, be-all best way to handle it, but what I wanted to do was affirm to them that I was always going to speak the truth, that I was not going to lie to them, and that because of my commitment to the truth, I couldn't answer that question in an arena where their parents needed to speak into it.

If you're working with children that are not your own biological, adoptive, or foster children, I would encourage you to do something like that. And if you're a classroom teacher or Sunday school teacher and you have another great way you've handled this honestly — without taking away the parent's authority in speaking truth to their kids — please feel free to write about it in the comments. We'd love to hear how other people have done that as well.

Turning Santa Claus into a Lesson on Investigating Truth Claims

I think actually thinking about Santa Claus can be a great way to teach our kids how to investigate the truth claims of Christianity. I would actually just ask kids, "Okay, so if we're investigating the truth about Santa Claus, what kind of evidence would we need to figure out whether or not Santa Claus were real?"

Well, we'd want to look for some evidence of his presence, even if we couldn't physically see him on Christmas Eve. We would talk about the gifts that are left — that could be evidence. Sometimes kids wake up and the cookies and milk are gone — that would be evidence too.

Then I'd ask, "What would we actually have to look for?" Well, on the gifts, does the handwriting match the parents in that house? Because if the handwriting matches the parents, it's probably from the parents and not from Santa Claus. What about the cookies and milk? If you got really in-depth, you could look for fingerprints. Whose fingerprints were on the glass? Are there any fingerprints that don't belong to someone in the family, or do the fingerprints match the mom and dad?

And then we'd talk about the difference between Santa Claus and St. Nicholas. We actually have a historical record documenting who St. Nicholas was, what he did, and what he was involved in within the church. We can look back at those historical documents, and historical records are vastly different than fiction picture books. It doesn't mean that everything in the historical records is accurate, but that's why we look at more than one source — we look at multiple sources.

The Parallel with Christianity

Then we can draw a parallel with Christianity. If we're trying to figure out if Jesus is real, what kind of evidence would we look for? Just like we're probably not going to be looking for Santa Claus in person today, we're not going to be looking if we can see Jesus today, because the biblical account claims that He ascended after He resurrected.

So what kind of things would we look for? We'd look for historical records of Him. We'd look for eyewitness accounts written in historical records — and we have the four Gospels. I highly recommend you check out the book Cold-Case Christianity for Kids, because it talks about why we can put our trust in the eyewitness testimony of the gospel writers.

We might also want to look for evidence even outside of the Gospels. There are other ancient historians who wrote about Jesus and His followers — not in nearly as much depth as the Gospel writers, but there are authors who included Jesus as an actual historical figure. And then we can talk about the claim that Jesus rose from the grave. How would we determine whether or not the evidence points there?

If you're interested in more about helping kids understand the historical reliability of the resurrection, we actually have a whole webinar on that topic right here on the Foundation Worldview website. Just click on Webinars and you'll find it there.

We can actually turn this cultural belief in Santa Claus into an opportunity to teach our kids how to investigate claims — so they can see that belief in Jesus is not like belief in Santa Claus. When we evaluate the evidence, it actually points to (1) Jesus' existence, (2) His resurrection, and (3) the reliability of the eyewitness accounts recorded in the four Gospels.

Conclusion

Well, that's a wrap for today's episode. If you found this content beneficial, please consider liking and subscribing, or even writing a review. All of these things help more people find this content so we can equip more adults to get the kids in their care carefully evaluating every idea they encounter.

If you want more help teaching your kids to investigate truth claims and think carefully about what they believe, check out our Careful Thinking curriculum — it's designed to give your children the skills to evaluate evidence and understand why the biblical worldview holds up under scrutiny. And if you'd like to stay in the loop on new episodes, resources, and practical tips for discipling the next generation, sign up for our email list so you never miss what's coming next.

As always, my prayer for you as we leave this time together is that God would richly bless you as you continue to faithfully disciple the children He's placed in your care. I'll see you next time.