Perhaps Christians should focus on the spiritual meat of Christmas and cut away the fat. Perhaps the better witness would be for families such as mine to put into practice the meaning of the incarnation of God. Perhaps we should concentrate on being bearers of light and life into places of darkness and death, on bringing the good news of God in humble forms, on giving ourselves to live and to sacrifice and to die for our fellow men. Sometimes it is better to put off the fight for your own rights, in order to work for the blessing of those less fortunate.

My wife and I were already contemplating the Santa question. I am choosing not to perpetuate the Santa myth in my own family, not because I don’t want my daughter to conclude that I will lie to her about invisible things (although that too is a concern), but because I wish that our society in the Christmas season would turn away from Santa and Macy’s and, yes, tendentious legal battles that serve only to alienate non-believers, and would focus instead on the story of a magnificent Creator God who so loved the world that He sent his son to live and teach and sacrifice and suffer and die and rise again amongst us. And if I wish that our society would do these things, then I should begin the change in myself and in my family.