You can include both .. I’ll never forget when my oldest son got let in on the Santa mystery - as he helped wrap up his brother’s Christmas presents.
The whole time he was doing it he had this wonderful smile on his face; and then all of a sudden he turned and looked at me .. “you’re Santa aren’t you ..??” As I smiled at him, I told him all parents are Santa Clause.
Actually, he learned that’s why some children get more presents than others. It’s not because the children are bad, it’s because the parents don’t have the extra money.
You can teach great lessons, you don’t have to make a jerk of yourself in a public place and shatter all the dreams of the children. They will grow up soon enough .. let them enjoy the Santa-years.
And .. my son’s journey through Santa-mystery never stopped him from receiving Christ .. nor did it stop him from graduating from a wonderful Bible School where he was trained to be a children’s Pastor.
Our firstborn figured it out on his own at the ripe old age of four. His mother and I were born again when he was two. We hadn’t made a big deal about Santa Claus before, and didn’t even speak of the tradition after that. But he still saw all of the “santas” while tagging along with his mother and grandma. This perplexed him: Why was there more than one? In fact why was there several in the shopping mall? And also others at the other stores across town?
Well, after seeing so many, he asked his grandma about it. She explained that the ones he saw that day were fake.
They came back to grandma’s house where his grandpa and I were, running in the house, laughing and happily telling us that “Santa Claus is fake!”
We didn’t try to change his mind after that day, and he turned out just fine.
He grew up learning that Jesus knows when we’re sleeping, and knows when we’re awake. He knows if we’ve been bad or good.
We taught him and his younger brother that Jesus is coming again,...through the air,....and that his reward will be with him.