According to a 2020 YouGov survey, 75% of Americans that year believed they were on Santa’s Nice List. Thirteen percent admitted they were probably on his Naughty List and deserved a lump of coal. An additional 12% said they didn’t know – they would leave that up to Santa.
Which list do you think you’d be on?
Interestingly, the original legend of Santa Claus contained no lists, spreadsheets, or surveillance cameras.
The earliest stories about St. Nicholas said he left coins or small gifts in the shoes of well-behaved children, while those who misbehaved received lumps of coal or small twigs – a warning of possible punishment.
In 1821, an anonymous poem called Old Santeclaus with Much Delight took the idea of reward and punishment even further. It specifically stated that “good” children would receive “rewards,” while “naughty” children would receive a “long, black birchen rod,” which their parents could use to punish them.
Yet, there was still no mention of any list.
That didn’t appear until 1934, when Eddie Cantor first sang the song Santa Claus Is Coming to Town. “He’s making a list, checking it twice,” Cantor crooned. “Gonna find out who’s naughty or nice.”
Since then, parents have used Santa’s list to encourage good behavior in children. Everyone wants to be on Santa’s Nice List. No one wants to end up on the Naughty List.
I’m actually on both.
Of course, I know no such lists exist – but if they did, I’d be on both. In a way, you could say that God keeps his own Naughty and Nice Lists. Scripture says he has books in which are written everything we have ever thought, said, and done, and that on Judgment Day, those books will be opened (Revelation 20:12).
According to the evidence found in the book of my life, I am guilty as sin. I was naughty as a child, but as an adult, I am really no better. My name has never left the list. Not one day in my life has passed in which I haven’t sinned.
Yet – amazingly – my name is on God’s Nice List. Though I haven’t been good enough to earn it, the baby born in Bethlehem – the real reason for the season – was perfect in my place. Though the list of my bad behaviors could fill volumes, that baby’s blood would one day erase it all.
Santa checks his list twice. Jesus erased mine once and for all.
Because Jesus was born in Bethlehem to die on Calvary for me, my name that should forever remain on the Naughty List is now on God’s Nice List. Martin Luther famously said it this way: “We are at the same time sinners and saints.”
I am a sinner who sins every day. Yet, God declares me innocent through faith in Jesus. I have been washed clean in his blood. Because of that baby born 2,000 years ago, I am a saint in God’s eyes.
The truth is, I’ll always belong on the Naughty List. I won’t ever stop being a sinner here on earth. But Jesus took my place there, so my name could be written on his Nice List forever.
And that’s the only list that matters.
Pastor Andrew Schroer has been a pastor for over 25 years and is currently serving at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Edna, Texas. You can find his latest books, “364 Days of Thanksgiving” and “364 Days of Devotion,” on Amazon. com.
Andrew Schroer Pastor at Redeemer Lutheran Church
