I debated writing this as it’s no doubt controversial, but seeing some weigh in on Santa and avoiding The Clause, I must quote Charile Brown: Good grief. So, for the Scrooges who want to Grinch my Good boy from the north (Pole, not UP for my Michigan friends), here are top reasons I believe in Santa:

1) When I was a child I thought as a child. Boom. Let kids be kids and relish fantasy land. They’ll spend the rest of their lives dealing with the problem of evil in relation to he Gospel.

2) Fantasy stories lead to real stories. St. Nick was a real dude who showed chivalry to children and beat down heretics. Love kids, beat Satan. That’ll preach. 

3) imagination teaches what teaching cannot teach. Ultimately imagination turns into problem solving. Play turns into careers. Fantasy turns into hopefulness. When their ready to drop Santa they’re ready to take on some challenging concepts. Oh, and they’ll do Santa still because it’s about the fun & love of family. 

4) I believe in consistency. If you want to pull off a drive by on the big man, please inform me on: avoiding Star Wars, Disney, Left Behind Movies (I’m a Dispy, but still), and anything resembling a talking animal (Eve missed that point) or talking veggie’s. Same league as Santa. Kids act them out. I’ve done the VBS thing. Let’s get real, we do fantasy all the time teaching Jesus. 

5) I value work, even on the holidays. Elves do a great job. (Elf is annoying. Seriously, a rocket engine? For sure Santa could have something cool like a warp engine that’s powered by elvish spirit. I digress.) Churh is work not play. It’s not a club or a commodity. God made us to work, not rest & retire. There is purpose and value to serve others. 

6) I dig ministry. Set-a-part-one(that’s what Saint means) Nicholas devotes his life to blessing and serving others. Granted he’s the big man for about 30 days, then he’s at work the other 335 days. Devotion to serving others is a noble task. Noble tasks tend to bring on larger than life characters. Should we not do great things because they might become… SANTA?

7) I think we shouldn’t take ourselves too seriously. Play with your kids. Cherish the smiles, play, fantasy and cheer. Later in life you’ll have to teach them the harder lessons of dealing with heretics. So, don’t be dumb and do the Santa thing. It’s no different than sipping air tea from an empty plastic cup or answering the play phone handed you. 

The bottom line: I believe in Santa. I think avoiding Santa is dumb. I believe in childhood. I think avoiding fantasy is dumb. I believe Jesus would pop on a Santa hat. After all, he did let kids hop on his lap. Jesus is Santa’s hero.