Does it seem to anyone else that the line between Halloween and Christmas is getting a bit thin?
People decorate for Halloween, and then they take down the Halloween decor and put up their Christmas decor, sometimes on the same day. Even in the stores, the Christmas things come out before Halloween is finished. This was the first year, however, where I noticed an actual “merger” of the two. One of my neighbours has a Halloween Santa, one that I have dubbed “Santa-Alloween”! Not a grinchy Santa, but a scary Santa, definitely more from the pages of Halloween decor than from the Christmas section of the store.
My first reaction was a bit negative. I’m not the biggest fan of Halloween to begin with, and I found it offensive that someone would try to tie the celebration of Jesus’ birth into Halloween.
My second thought, however, was a bit different. I don’t know how it is in the part of the world where you find yourself, but in my culture, Santa has definitely overtaken Jesus in importance when it comes to Christmas. Children all believe in Santa, while very few even know the name of Jesus. Children can’t wait for Santa to bring them all the presents and toys, because of course they have all been good little girls and boys, and that deserves to be rewarded. Right?
Meanwhile, Jesus’ story is very, very different. He blesses us with ultimate gifts, but not because we deserve them; rather because He loves us enough to bless us even though we don’t deserve them: “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” (Romans 5:8 NLT). All He asks is that we accept His gift. And if you think about it, though many of us don’t necessarily realize we need His gift, He is offering to wipe our dirty records clean so that we can stand before God as though we had never done anything wrong!
As I think about that Santa-Alloween, I realize something vitally important. The soft and kind Santa that so many revere in this season isn’t all that innocent at all. That “sweet” and “generous” Santa is teaching our children that as long as we are “good enough”, good things happen. As a result, it becomes difficult to make them understand that they can never be good enough on their own to stand before God. We all need the beautiful gift of Salvation, the one that we can never earn on our own.
Yes, perhaps the person who put the “Sanat-Alloween” in their yard, that scary, Halloween-ish Santa, had it right after all!
My prayer for this Christmas season is that we can all understand who Jesus — and Santa! — really are, that we will see the huge difference between them, and that we will help our children realize that it is Jesus they really want.
Remember: “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.” (Ephesians 2:9 NLT). Jesus gives us the real gifts, and we don’t even have to earn them! They are a gift from God!
In His love,
Lyn
Lynona Gordon Chaffart
Author, Moderator, Acting Director, Answers2Prayer Ministries
