Why Telling Children Santa Claus Exists Will ALWAYS BE A CRUEL PRANK!
It upsets me whenever parents say, "Oh come on, it was just a fantasy game. Nobody takes Santa Claus seriously." But that is were they are wrong. When you think of it, a child's first guidance is his parents. How parents carry out a child's discipline can affect him or her greatly. Remember Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train up the child the way he should go, when he is old, he will not depart from it." The Santa Claus "white lie" sad to say will always be equivalent to bad parenting. A little child trusts his/her parents never to lie to him and lying about Santa Claus breaks that trust. Parental lying is always wrong no matter how many times you try to invert it... it cannot be made right because as stated, children trust their parents not to lie to them. If you expect your children not to develop a habit of lying, parents then must show an example and lying about Santa Claus is not an exemption to the rule.
Another issue we must consider about lying to children about Santa Claus is this one you cannot ignore. Most parents don't realize or purposely ignore that most children believe Santa Claus exists because mommy and daddy said so. For them, if mommy and daddy cannot lie then Santa Claus exists. If a child should defend the existence of Santa Claus, guess who he or she is going to tell the source? It's all because mommy and daddy told them that Santa Claus is real. It gets ingrained into them. For them, they really believe that their Santa Claus is real, that he will bring a toy for them on December 24, that he will reward all the good little girls and boys, that he's making a list checking it twice... they take the lie about Santa Claus very seriously. Little children think Santa Claus is real, they expect his coming. They are already waiting for that present to arrive under the Christmas Tree on Christmas Eve, they believe Santa Claus is coming. For them, they must tell others about Santa Claus and it's a cruel network hoax.
It's also cruel manipulation of parent towards their children. I remembered when I got upset and angry whenever people told me Santa Claus didn't exist, it was worse when one lie covers up another. Parents may go ahead and tell stories to "assure" their children that Santa Claus exists. They might even go as far as rent "The Miracle on 34th Street "just to assure their children that Santa Claus is real if the mall trips to an obviously fake Santa Claus weren't enough to prove to their children that Santa Claus is real when he isn't just so their children feel good and will continue to behave. You might even think, "Well we remembered a kid who was mocked about believing in Santa Claus. Then there was that newspaper that finally revealed the existence of Santa Claus." Then it's hypocritical why parents get mad their children are lying to them and like talking nonsense. Isn't it what the Santa Claus lie is doing? The Santa Claus lie is nothing more than selfish manipulation with good intentions. But remember the road to death is always paved with good intentions (Proverbs 14:12) and the Santa Claus lie is no exception to that rule.
It's not hard to understand why the world thinks nothing is wrong with the Santa Claus prank because they don't follow God's standards for discipline. God's standard has always been spanking and truthful parenting. Lying about Santa Claus being real to children will always be a lie no matter how much you invert it. Even a Roman Catholic devotional which I read before had a December 6 dated issue talked about it. I was still a Roman Catholic when I read it. To paraphrase the entry, the writer wrote something like, "Well Christmas is coming. Today is the feast of St. Nicholas. Sadly our parents lie to us about Santa Claus. One classmate I knew said he no longer believed in God. When he found out Santa Claus wasn't real, then he ended up realizing his mom's promise not to lie to him... was broken." Although the person who wrote it was unsaved, but it did strike a strong point that lying about Santa Claus is a serious breach of parental trust.
Sad to say but parenting today is double standard that is follow what I say but not what I do. It's no better than how the Roman Catholic priests and the Jewish Pharisees are in their religion. Many times they prefer to rule like dictators than disciplinarians. They get mad at their children for using violence to solve problems but hypocritically use methods no longer recommended by the Bible. While you must certainly spank your kids but you do not torture or abuse them. They get mad at their children saying bad words but they scold their children with insults and bad names. Likewise, the same goes... parents shouldn't even start to wonder why whenever Christmas ends, their children's lying habits and being manipulative grows a lot. They have themselves to blame for lying to their children that Santa Claus exists when he doesn't. It will always be a cruel prank no matter how many times you invert it.