[Question]{.underline}: Ought Catholics to tell their children about Santa Claus?
[Answer]{.underline}: It is certainly true that children have a need for the “make believe,” that it entertains them, stimulates the imagination, and provokes better behavior. Consequently, it is not wrong to tell fictional stories, but to the contrary highly educational.
The problem with the modern Santa story is that it is entirely secular and has become, through the media, completely materialistic. In itself, though, it is not wrong, nor could a parent be accused of doing the wrong thing by telling his child about Santa coming down the chimney to bring some toys to good little children. The danger is rather in the circumstances. The telling of this story at Christmas can easily trivialize the great mystery of the Incarnation, the coming of the Son of God Himself upon the earth. It can also introduce an excessive and unhealthy attachment to material things, taking away the real cause of the joy of this holy season. Not being a part of Catholic culture and tradition, it tends to split off an area of life that is not sanctified, penetrated by the supernatural.
It is for these reasons that it is far preferable to tell the story of St. Nicholas on his feast day, December 6; for this is a true story, much more powerful in its message, and which is entirely integrated with the living of the Catholic Faith and the supernatural order of grace. The generosity with which St. Nicholas of Myra brought bags of gold to enable the three young sisters to pay the dowry necessary for marriage is an example of how he has so long been the instrument for God’s providence.
This is how the German custom of observing St. Nicholas’s feast day in the Catholic family is reported in Customs and Traditions of the Catholic Family, pp. 29-30: “December 6^th^ comes the great friend of children, St. Nicholas, whose visit to the home is quite a momentous event, because he is going to ask every child about his Advent efforts, his prayers, especially the daily ‘Angelus’ and his obedience. The good children receive apples and nuts, the bad ones are called on the carpet by ‘Krampus’, the black fellow who accompanies the Saint. ‘You must change your lives, or else I will take you with me,’ Krampus tells them. With joyous fear they readily promise and, in the end, also get their applies and nuts. Although Krampus will do a good bit of grunting and rattling of his heavy chains, he dare not, by order of St. Nicholas, touch any of the little ones, whose tearful eyes and stammering promises prove so eloquently their readiness to amend their lives.”
This is a much more beautiful way to encourage the imagination, creativity, and “make believe” of children and to have good healthy fun at the same time. Meanwhile it inculcates a profoundly supernatural and Catholic message. Is this not a real way to promote the social Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ?
Answered by Father Peter Scott, SSPX.