YEA Lesson Library
God’s Gift
About This Lesson
This lesson teaches that Santa is a fable and that we shouldn’t celebrate days that don’t tell the truth.
Scriptures
Deut 12:4, 30-32
Jeremiah 10:1-6
Matthew 19:17
John 1:1-14
John 3:16
John 8:31-32
James 1:17
Words to Know
FABLE - an untrue story that is made up
The Lesson
Chad rushed into the house crying. Mommy wanted to know what was wrong. Chad told her that Brad, his friend next door, had told him that Santa Claus didn’t come down his chimney and bring him gifts because he was a bad boy.
Mommy pulled Chad up into her lap and told him that he was not a bad boy. “You go to Sabbath School every week. You always learn your memory verse. Your daddy and I kneel with you every day and we all pray. You feed the dog every day and give him fresh water. You make your bed and help with the chores every day. Chad, I think you are a very good boy,” Mommy said.
“Then why doesn’t Santa come down my chimney and bring me gifts,” Chad asked.
Mommy explained to Chad that Santa isn’t a real person, that he is a fable.
“Mommy, what’s a fable?”Chad asked. Mommy told him that a fable is a story that isn’t true. There is no Santa and he doesn’t go down Brads chimney either. His mother and daddy give him the gifts he thinks Santa is bringing him. The men you see in the mall or on television, who are playing like they are Santa, have great big fat bellies. They’re much too fat to come down a chimney. The chimney would be so hot they would get burned.
“Mommy, since Santa isn’t real, is it wrong to play like there is a Santa?”
Mommy answered, “Yes Chad, it’s wrong because that would be saying that an unreal person gives you your gifts. That’s not true. God gives us everything we have. God gave you the trike you got last year at the Feast. He gave you all the toys you have in your room. He gave us feast days to celebrate that tell the truth and make us happy. We shouldn’t celebrate days that don’t tell the truth. God is so good! Isn’t He Wonderful?
Daily Devotions
Sunday - Deuteronomy 12:4
Monday - Jeremiah 10:1-6
Tuesday - John 8:31-32
Wednesday - John 1:1-7
Thursday - John 1: 8-14
Friday - Matthew 19:17
Saturday - John 3:16
Objectives
At the end of this lesson, children will be able to:
1. Explain that Santa Claus is a fable and not a real person.
2. That he does not bring gifts down chimneys.
3. That God gives us every thing we have.
Topics & Themes
Christmas
God’s Love
God’s Provision
Holidays, Christmas
Holy Days
Loving God
Obedience
Truth
Materials Needed
Bible, YEA students’ and teacher’s books, CD or cassette tape, music player, songbook, balloons, markers, gifts, boxes, gift wrapping paper, thimble, marshmallow
Preparation
If the children in your class don’t go to mother’s day out or to a day care, they may not yet have experienced major problems with Christmas. The Christmas season is probably the most difficult of the pagan days our nation celebrates to help little children through. Most of their friends will likely be celebrating Christmas. It has an emotional appeal and physical beauty about it that is difficult for adults to resist, let alone children. Stores appeal to all of the senses and make keeping Christmas seem attractive to gullible customers.
The chronology of John the Baptist’s time as High Priest to the time when Jesus was born, leads one to conclude that Christ could not have been born on December 25th, rather in the autumn–probably at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. Long before the birth of Christ, pagans held a feast to Baal in Egypt and Syria. “The celebrants retired into certain inner shrines, from which at midnight they issued with a loud cry, ‘The Virgin has brought forth! The light is waxing!” The Egyptians even represented the newborn sun by the image of an infant which on his birthday, the winter solstice, they brought forth and exhibited to his worshipers. The Virgin who thus conceived and bore a son on the twenty-fifth of December was the great Oriental goddess, whom the Semites called the Heavenly Virgin or simply the Heavenly Goddess” (The Golden Bough, p. 358, abridge edition).
It is important to start early teaching children that God is the giver of every good and perfect gift, not that some mythical character of pagan origins is their provider. The Bible tells us not to use pagan traditions in our worship of Him (Deuteronomy 12:4,30-32).
“The Christmas festival is the Christian revision of the Roman day of the winter solstice. The fathers of the 2nd and 3rd centuries such as Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Piphanius, contended that Christmas was a copy of a pagan celebration. . .” Encyclopaedia Britannica). Lead the little children to understand how much better it is to celebrate God’s Holy Days.
Review Questions
1. Can you tell me who Santa Claus is?
2. Is he real or just a fable?
3. Can he come down a chimney and bring gifts to you?
4. Who gives you everything?
REACH Activity
Letter: G
Words: God, good, gift, guess, game
Sentence:
IT IS NOT A GAME. NO GUESSING HERE: EVERY GOOD AND PERFECT GIFT IS FROM GOD.
Song
“God is So Good” is on page 98 of Kids Classics Collection.
Closing Prayer
Lead the students in prayer thanking God for giving us every good and perfect gift. Ask Him to help us to always remember to thank Him for the good things He does.
Printable Pages
