by Carla Raley

Created on: November 02, 2009   Last Updated: November 04, 2009

I am a mother of ten children, ages 33 to 2 years old. I've run the gamut over the years on issues like these. We used to do Santa Claus, the Easter bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and all those make believe things that people do with their children.

My parents had always gone overboard in the gift department, making the lives of my sisters and me like a fairy tale on Christmas morning. I can remember walking down the stairs to a room that almost had a magical glow. I also remember during a frenzy of ripping open gifts during a time when my conscience was awakening to Jesus, suddenly feeling a conviction that something wasn't quite right here. I stopped in the midst of my materialistic glut, and whispered "Happy birthday, Jesus!" and then went back to tearing into my presents.

I grew up and had children of my own. My husband, who had come from a conservative family that didn't have as much money as mine did, thought I was crazy for the way I went about holidays. He didn't like it, but I overruled him, and followed the example of my childhood, even though we did not have the same income my parents had had. In fact, there were years where the money for Christmas was hard to come by. However, since we had taught our children that there was a Santa Claus, they just assumed our financial status didn't matter, since Santa would be bringing the expensive items. In order to keep this myth alive, we would have to go into debt to get them their hearts' desires.

As the years went by, my children didn't quite develop the moral sense I thought I was teaching them. Trouble erupted in the teen years, and I began to seriously take stock of what I had been teaching them. I soon came to see that my fruit was not what the Bible promised. So I turned to God in earnest, crying out to him to save my family, which was growing larger all the time. I asked him to save ME! I promised to open my Bible, and if He would teach me, I would do anything He said.

As my Bible study grew, one of the things that became clear was that God does not like lies. In fact, He tells us that liars will not see His kingdom (Rev. 22:15). As the Christmas season approached, I knew I could not tell my children that Santa would be making a visit to our house. To tell them there was a Santa, or an Easter Bunny, or a Tooth Fairy, was to tell my children a lie, pure and simple.

Wow. Now what? Was I going to crush them? Would this cause them not to believe me anymore? Was it going to spoil the holiday season?

No matter.

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