My Anti-Santaism: Praise and Worship

Image by Oren neu dag [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

This is another topic that is very sensitive to me. The second commandment tells us not to have idols, yet that is exactly what Santa is. He is the idol of Christmas. People send their requests to him instead of God. People sing the praises of his name, and people line up for their chance to see him going so far as to wait in the cold for hours for their 5 minutes of his time. People decorate their homes and yards with his image. Then they wait while he ‘visits’ them at night, hoping that they found favor in his eyes. If that isn’t idolatry I don’t know what would be.

Exodus 34:14 says Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. How are we suppose to worship God? In prayer and in song. Yet come Christmas time, the time that has been set aside to celebrate the birth of our Savior, we submit our requests to someone who is not God, and then we sing praises to him and about him. We even sing that he will hear us (Jolly old St. Nicholas lean your ear this way…). We sing about his appearance (Must be Santa) and we sing about pleasing him (Santa Claus is coming to town).

Most people devote more time and money to presents and decorations than they give to charity or church throughout the entire year. In Luke 16 verse 13 says “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” Do you give more money to God or to Santa? Has Santa became an idol that is stealing time, money and praises from God?



I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving. ~ Psalm 69:30

My praises will go to God, my thanks will go to Him, and I will glorify Him, not the idol that Santa has become.


I would love for you to join me by posting your favorite Christ centered Christmas song. My personal goal is to post a different Christ-centered Christmas song each day between now and Christmas. (The only rule is that it has to be Christ-centered. Obviously no songs about Santa, Christmas trees or whatever...)

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