Photo by Sharon Waldron on Unsplash
It is unwise to mix myth with truth.
Explanation
Jesus Christ is alive. Modern Santa Claus was invented by Coca Cola to sell soft drinks. When you have Jesus Christ, the Creator and Redeemer of all mankind, the true super-god-man, why would you possibly distract from that? What possible value can you add to the greatest story ever told? And then to mix it with a completely made up myth?1 One that focuses on presents and treasures that break and rust and wear out rather than eternal rewards in heaven?
Santa Claus does not bring the magic of Christmas, he teaches a theology similar to that of the health and wealth gospel. You might as well tell your kids that Jesus grants wishes so long as they are good boys and girls. The morality of Santa is as bad as VeggieTales: God loves you very much, but you better be a good boy or you won’t get presents. So while all the mythologies that have been invented about Santa Claus may be cute and funny, going from that to teaching that Santa is real is a bizarre leap. Why? You are teaching your children that some beliefs you teach them are lies. If you lied about Santa, who and what else did you lie about?
There is much danger in mixing myth and truth.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I love mythology. I even love Santa mythology. I will even go so far as to say that myths, whether fact or fiction, really are about truth, not lies. The most powerful myths are the ones that teach us about ourselves. The movie Elf starring Zooey Deschanel and Will Ferrell is a great example. The characters are awkward and relatable, but demonstrate genuine worries and troubles in a humorous way. There is a lot of good morality in that story about the importance of family, the difficulties presented by non-traditional family, the yearning for love, the importance of hope and faith, and so on.
What I object to is treating a fictional mythology as if it were fact.
A factual mythology is found in the Bible. It is a true story of history, but it is also a true story of truth, that’s mythology. Myths are how cultures are defined and the Bible is near the very center of how our culture is defined even if it is actively ignored by pop culture at large.
So don’t hear me that I think mythology is unnecessary. What you should hear is that treating fictional stories as fact is lying. And lying about your myths, the things that define your culture, to your kids teaches the wrong lesson.
Don’t lie to your kids.
The origin of the modern myth is rooted in history, but only very vaguely. The man who was canonized as “Saint Nicholas” was a Greek bishop in the Christian church in the fourth century. However, the jolly man with rosy cheeks, who crawls down chimneys, and keeps a list of naughty and nice children, is a modern fantasy. He has as much in common with actual ancient history as Kung Fury’s Adolf Hitler, the Kung Führer, has with the historic leader of the Third Reich. ↩︎