Postmodernism and the Death of Santa Claus

Before you read further I want you to know that I am not wishing Santa an untimely demise. Instead, I am asking about his future in light of cultural headwinds. The more I think about the Santa Claus issue the more I wonder if Santa Claus is not going to have difficulty moving forward. In Chris Altrock’s book, “Preaching to Pluralists” he lays out seven characteristics of postmoderns:

1. Uninformed about Christian basics
2. Interested in spiritual matters
3. Anti-institutional
4. Pluralistic
5. Pragmatic
6. Relational
7. Experiential

Santa may have a hard time making the cut with this group. How are you relational with a guy who isn’t real? How practical is jolly old saint Nick? What is more, postmoderns are pluralistic, that means they are open to relativism and less inclined to believe in absolute truths or that one way is the best way over other options. That means they don’t buy into things as a package deal. Instead they pick and choose what is practical (See #4 above). Santa could feel like a relic of a bygone age to many of them who grew up in less than happy, healthy homes.

Besides culture, there is another obstacle to Santa that many postmoderns face. That is the idea of their parents not being transparent and authentic when it came to Santa Claus. To be fair, I agree with the comments on the last post that there are some magical memories of Santa as a kid and that Santa can be healthy for the imagination of children. But what if the family is dysfunctional and lies abound? What if the kids already learned to distrust their parents because their parents were not consistent, abusive, etc? Postmoderns put a big emphasis on being real and authentic. Santa doesn’t cut it.

So how many of out there are postmoderns who have embraced Santa vs. rejected Santa when raising your kids or future kids?

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Do You Tell Your Kids The Gifts Come From Santa Claus?

Missy and I have been talking about what to tell our boys about Santa Claus. So far the consensus has been that we would rather them know that their parents are the ones giving them the gifts rather than a mysterious stranger named Santa. What is more, we would like more of a focus on Jesus than on the rosy cheeked guy from up north. A friend of mine shared similar thought. Here is an excerpt from her post titled, “the santa situation”

today trent asked the question.

who puts the treats in our stockings?

so I told him the truth. and he laughed. 

we knew this was coming.

we never told our children anything about santa.

but santa seemed to be everywhere.

the whole idea never sat well with us.

there are plenty of naughty kids with loads of presents.

and lots of nice children with none.

we wanted Jesus to be the focus. and wonderfully real.

so the hubs and I sat with not a reason to share the santa story

and plenty of reasons not to.

as you can imagine, this does not fit well into the

great american christmas.

but isn’t that the point?

What is your take on sharing Santa with the kiddos?

Jack Bauer Interrogates Santa Claus

This one is priceless. I laughed nearly as hard as the Greatest Action Story Ever Told video.

The one thing that makes me hesitate posting this is some profanity at 1:37. To date I don’t think there has been a single instance of that in any way, shape, or form on the blog and that is on purpose. So mute it at 1:37 for 1 second if you would like to avoid it.

HT – Michael Kruse