During the Christmas season, many traditional songs are played. One of the most popular is “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”. It was written by John Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespe and was first aired in 1934. Many of the modern beliefs about Santa originate from this song.
Although most adults certainly know that Santa is a fictitious character, this song and others like it, attribute many of Santa’s characteristics to something no man, make-believe or real, should be given credit for. The Santa fantasy includes miraculous powers that only God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit have, and certainly not those of any person. Even his title, “Santa”, implies he is a saved child of God, as “santa” is Spanish for “saint or holy”.
This song encourages unbiblical teachings. Although most allow their children to temporarily believe in this man with supernatural powers, it starts a young life off by believing wrong things. Also, as many politicians have discovered, if you tell false facts enough, people will believe it as the truth or will question the truth.
Some of the powers attributed to Santa Claus in “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”, in the most popular portion of the Christmas song, include:
| You better watch out | The song starts by teaching that there is another, other than a judging God, that we need to be wary of. | |
| You better not cry | Be on your best behavior reinforces doing good works to please this “Saint”. | |
| You better not pout | “Pouting” is not being content and complaining. That is sin. Here it is warned not to sin because of “Santa”. | |
| I’m telling you why | What this song writer said can be trusted more than what God’s Word says. | |
| Santa Claus is coming to town | “Saint” Claus is the other “judge”, and he is coming. This is reminiscent of the true judge, Jesus, who will one day return and judge. | |
| He’s making a list | Santa is recording all we do. Only God can do that. This verse also implies that he is everywhere and all the time seeing all that each person is doing. Only God is omnipresent! | |
| And checking it twice; | Supposedly Santa is a “righteous”, diligent judge. In reality, it is only God that will be the only righteous judge. | |
| Gonna find out Who’s naughty and nice | Only God knows the “evil and the good” that each of us do. “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” Prov. 15:3 | |
| Santa Claus is coming to town | The real judge is here all the time. He is God! | |
| He sees you when you’re sleeping | “Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.” Psa. 139:12 Only God sees you all the time! | |
| He knows when you’re awake | This again attributes God’s omnipresence to this make-believe character. | |
| He knows if you’ve been bad or good | “For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings.” Job 34:21 Only God knows what you have done. | |
| So be good for goodness sake! | Being “good” may be enough to please man, but the Bible says no man is good. We are all sinners and unless we trust Christ the Saviour as payment for all our sins, we will have no hope of Heaven. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” Rom. 3:23 |
Surely, most will ignore the accusation that this song is teaching heresy and potentially dangerous untruths. Most will write off this song as “harmless fun for the children.” However, damage to one’s belief in the only God in Heaven is often a slow eroding of truth. Belief in fantasy may do more harm than is realized.
Encouraging a belief in a fictitious character and teaching our youth that others can have the same supernatural powers as God may cause future problems when the child faces the decision to trust God in his life. One of the first obstacles he may face is “Is God real or is he just like Santa — make-believe?” Doubt and credibility may also arise when the child weighs, “If my parents lied to me about Santa, are they lying to me about God also?”
Christmas is one of the few holidays we have honoring our Saviour, Jesus. It should be kept as a celebration of a day when the hope of the world was born into this world. Do not detract from the remembrance of that day by supporting supernatural abilities in a make-believe character.
Listen people…this is as relevant as it was a year ago!
You don’t get this kind of teaching everywhere, but it is sorely needed. I applaud this man of God, prophet perhaps, that has the backbone to stand in the face of this culture and repudiate this seed of doubt that gets planted in practically every young mind in the USA these days.
There are no new revelations. “Prophecy” today refers to teaching what the Word of God already says and exposing its truth. It makes me nervous that anyone would think anyone is a prophet today exposing new truths. I know you know the difference but I wanted to clarify to anyone that did not know the difference. There are no new “apostles” nor “prophets” as there were in biblical days.
It is so good to hear from you, David. I miss your good writings. You are such a blessing to so many.
I thought Santa stood for “Satan”? And somewhere along the line I was informed that Jesus wasn’t born on Christmas. Like July or Sept.? I believe this pagan holiday is just for consumption of things not needed and advances the corporation’s profits. As I research many things I have found that most everything we were ever taught has been an outright lie. My 6 yr old granddaughter told me that they couldn’t say “Jesus” in school (indoctrination) and when she told her teacher santa wasn’t real, I guess teacher got upset. So, the indoctrination of this nation is destroying our children. As are the many other things that are happening in this world that no one is paying attention to.
I double-checked my Spanish and it does mean “saint or holy (feminine form). And yes Jesus was probably born in Sept.-Oct. Please read: Was Jesus Born on Dec. 25th? Christmas is a pagan, mostly Catholic, holiday. It originates from “Christ” – “Mass”. And the reason “Santa” is feminine form is it probably has something to do with the Catholic veneration of Mary. However, as pagan and commercial as the day has become, it is at least remind many around us of the real meaning when the Saviour of our sins was born into this world.
Amen Brother, a thousand times Amen! That is great preaching!
Somehow…I would like to claim I was super spiritual, but I wasn’t, some way, my wife and I correctly chose to opt out of the Santa Claus nonsense before it ever got started with our kids. What a dreadful lie to tell your children..and carry it on during their tender years. What a seed to plant, a seed of doubt!
Just the other day, we were listening to this song somewhere and I had my daughter stop it and listen to it again. My kids were laughing at the references it makes in the verses.
Now, I am sure there are those that were sold the Santa Claus myth and made it just fine, but as for me and my house…we will reserve this praise and this trust for Jesus himself.
Thank you for this very timely and helpful post. Glad to hear that there are peculiar people everywhere.