THE BIBLE AND YOU
What Will They Get This Christmas? Promoting materialism, debt for what families can’t afford, lies and pagan revelry—it’s all part of the magic of Christmastime. by Vince Szymkowiak
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espite the Christmas holiday being touted as “the most wonderful time of the year” for children and families, the sad fact is that it brings serious problems to both. Young people are taught to focus more on what they will get for Christmas than the real meaning of the coming of Jesus Christ. And among people of all ages, terrible falsehoods about the celebration abound, along with wrong objectives and pursuits. Pressuring into debt
There was the story of three children in a family who all wanted their own gaming notebook computers—expensive ones to play on and proudly show their friends. Right after Halloween, they began working on their parents to make it happen. By starting in early November, they felt they could get what they wanted by Dec. 25. Sadly, this had been a difficult year for the parents. The father had gone through a period of unemployment due to mandatory layoffs, and the highly educated mother was underemployed, finding no work in her field of expertise. The parents simply could not afford all three notebooks at one time. So they decided to buy one a year, starting with their oldest child. But the children persisted. After all, it was argued, all their friends had gaming computers. They whined, complained, begged and badgered their parents until the parents simply gave in. They went into debt, paying with their credit card. Surely, they hoped, this would give their children a merry Christmas. Several months later, the parents were still paying down Christmas bills—at over 17 percent interest. This all-too-common story illustrates one of the pitfalls of Christmas observance. The “spirit of the season” can entice young people into whining and complaining until they get what they want. Parents are pressured to give in and buy gifts the family really can’t afford. In fact, some will still be paying off credit card debt for nearly a whole year—until the Christmas season rolls around again! And, we should ask, is lasting character really developed when children know they can pout and prod and manipulate until they get what they want? Mature adults know this is not the path to real, lasting success. Is this what Jesus wants? Like many, you probably sense that something is very wrong with this picture. Our Savior came to give to mankind. So why should Christmas be used to teach the way of get? Think also about how many conversations with
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Beyond Today
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B Tm a g a z i n e . o r g
friends at the end of December start with the question: “So, what did you get for Christmas?” How sad it is that the day claimed to be for the worship of Jesus Christ actually focuses our children on self—effectively emphasizing that it is permissible to be greedy. Lying as part of the enchantment
A second pitfall of Christmas is the intentional lying to children about Santa Claus and surrounding mythology to make the holiday exciting and magical for them. The involvement of strong authority figures in this deception (including parents, grandparents, teachers, pastors and public officials), along with businesses and the media, ultimately sends the message to children that in certain situations it is permissible if not even commendable to lie. And it may well factor into distrust of parents and other authority figures children develop as they get a little older. In the late 1800s, a young girl in America by the name of Virginia O’Hanlon asked her father whether or not Santa Claus existed. Her father suggested she write a letter to The Sun, a New York City newspaper. So she wrote: “Dear Editor, I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, ‘If you see it in the Sun, it’s so.’ Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?” The letter was answered by an editor named Francis Pharcellus Church. His answer became immortalized with the famous line “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.” Even 100 years later, this article “is the most reprinted editorial in any newspaper in the English language” (Wikipedia, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus”). In fact, the phrase “‘Yes, Virginia, there is (a) . . .’ has become an idiomatic expression to insist that something is true” (ibid.). While some praise the editorial for supposed philosophical value, the fact is that this famous article is riddled with lies! Indeed, the entire Christmas holiday is riddled with lies! Yet most of society is happy to join in on the deceptive “fun.” Even NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, a joint Canadian and American early warning defense organization, gets into the act. For decades, it has pretended to track Santa Claus’ travels across the northern hemisphere. A Reuters article explains how this tradition gained traction: “The origins of tracking Santa date back to 1955 . . . when a local ad to speak directly with Santa printed the wrong phone number—instead directing children to a military defense
