Of Fairy Tales
Fairy tales and Santa Claus prepare us to embrace the ultimate Fairy Tale, the one ingrained in our being...more
posted by M Clark at 12/30/2008 12:46:00 PM
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
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5 Comments:
This is an interesting perspective, but one I disagree with. We wanted our children's first Christmas wonder & belief to be about Jesus not Santa...the Christmas imposter. Santa focuses Christmas on ME... Jesus IS Christmas...God with us.
I'm with Dori.
While I do not at all believe that fairy tales are inherently evil, I become most uncomfortable when they usurp the rightful place of God, as in Western Culture Santa has done. I also think there is some confusion about what fantasy is and how we should view it as Christians. As a genre (the English teacher in me is coming out) it creates a whole, other kind of world, although a world that resembles ours in many ways. If it didn't, we wouldn't be able to relate to the story.
But that is not what the Santa Claus myth does. No other world is created. Santa is imported into our very real world, not a fantasy world. It gets even worse because Santa possesses many of the incommunicable attributes of the one, true God. How confusing is that for a child? I also wonder, given the fact that no alternative reality is created in the "fantasy" of Santa, if engaging in the myth causes us to break several of the Ten Commandments. Check out questions and answers 46, 47 and 54 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, preferably with Scripture proof texts.
Just some musings.
Susan Fletcher
While I agree with some of Susan's comments about fantasy's value being in it's ability to create other worlds and Santa not doing that, I have to say that I really like and agree with this article. I was raised in a Christian home as a PK and with a strong childhood faith and yet also believed in Santa Clause and the Toothfairy till I was almost 10. When I found out they were not real it did nothing to harm my faith or make me disbelieve what my faith had taught me and don't feel that it robbed me of any of the Christalogical focus of Christmas. We do not "do" Santa Clause in our home so I can't say how it would play out for my kids but I do know that they have been raised on a heavy diet of fairytales and mythology right along with Bible Stories. I have not seen any detrament to it but rather see them pulling reflections of God's truth's from what we are reading and commenting on how the authors got parts right and parts wrong. It has given us great opportunities to discuss how we keep ahold of God's truth in the face of the worlds distortions or how to pull gold from the dross.
Sylvia, I agree very much with what you wrote. Our children were also raised with a heavy dose of fairy tales and mythology, and, and as you rightly write, there is great value in using both these forms of fiction to teach biblical truths, as are all kinds of great fiction. But I suspect that when Christian parents, and probably most other parents as well, teach their children from these fictional pieces that the teaching does not include that Zeus, et. al., are real and have many of the attributes of the true God. Yet this is is exactly what is done with today's modern version of Santa, and there's the rub. But let me also say, that while I do not endorse teaching children that Santa is real, I'm also not convinced that doing so will single-handedly undermine or overthrow their faith. Dori put it beautifully with, "We wanted our children's first Christmas wonder and belief to be about Jesus not Santa . . . Santa focuses Christmas on ME . . . Jesus IS Christmas . . . God with us.
Best,
Susan
Thanks Susan, good point about teaching one as real and other others as clearly story, I hadn't really tought of it that way and hadn't thought of Santa as having the christlike attributes you and Dori point out. It is a great point and helps me understand why Santa is a potential stumbling block for many even though it didn't work that way in my experience. I imagine that my Husband's decision that we would not "do" any Santa meant that I never really thought it out from an adult/parenting perspective I thank you both for the benefit of your experiences in helping me do that. This is yet another example of why I love the fellowship of believers and the electronic extension of it!
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