This is an interesting thread, since it is something that I have been discussing with my wife. We're expecting our first child at the end of May, and we've been talking about whether or not we'll include Santa in our Christmas celebrations?
First, a little background: I wasn't raised in a Christian home, so I have plenty of pleasant Christmas memories surrounding my father leaving cookie crumbs for Sunday morning and rining bells on our roof so that we thought reindeer had just landed. The fact that we were later told that Santa, the Tooth Fairy and other assorted characters were make-believe wasn't inconsistant since we were also told that Jesus was make-believe. My wife grew up in a Christian home where Santa wasn't included.
We've dedided not to celebrate Santa, largelly because of the inconsistancy above. How do you explain to a child that we were playing make-believe with one supernatural being, but that another was real and could be trusted?
I hadn't thought about giving us God's characteristics of omnipresence, omniscience, and perhaps immortality, to Santa, as the poster above mentions. However, I have heard people make the parallel between the God of the Bible, and Santa, as God as we'd like him to be. Santa is always happy, never angry, always bestowing gifts and never bestowing judgment. Although Santa keeps a list, there's no nashing of teeth involved in the threat of a lump of coal left in your stocking.
Having said this, there are Christian couples at our church who include Santa in their Christmas celebrations, and I wouldn't want to 'major in the minors.'
