Mom horrified to find 'Santa is fake but Jesus is real' note in toy she bought from Walmart: 'Stop lying to children'
WASILLA, ALASKA: An Alaska woman was horrified to find a piece of paper inside a Christmas toy from Walmart that stated, "Santa is fake but Jesus is real."
Brianna Ridge recalled how she was confused to see a paper sticking out of a toy doll her mother bought from a Walmart in Wasilla.
She pulled the paper out, only to discover a lengthy message about Jesus that warned parents to stop lying to their children about Santa and instead "teach them to get on their own knees and cry out to the God of the Bible for the things they need."
"HEY KIDS!! Santa is fake. But Jesus is real," the front of the note reads alongside a picture of Santa, KTVA reports.
Meanwhile, the back has a much longer message in bold type and with several underscores.
"Santa Claus is not real!!!!" it reads. "Santa is fake. The World has lied to you. He isn't real. There are no flying reindeer or elves making toys at the North Pole. The gifts you get at Christmas come from your parents."
"Christmas is actually about a real man, Jesus. Even though we don't know exactly what day Jesus was born on, we chose December 25th to celebrate His birthday. That's what Christmas is really all about," it continues. "Jesus was born 2,019 years ago in a manger in Bethlehem."
The message then tries to explain how Jesus came to earth as a baby and eventually sacrificed his life to "satisfy God's justice for sin".
"So if you are sorry for doing bad things, like lying to your parents or stealing, you can tell God you're sorry and that you do not want to ever to bad things again and if you believe in your heart that Jesus died for you and rose from the dead then you will be forgiven by God and you can be saved and go to heaven," the note goes on.
In conclusion, the message advises parents to "stop lying to your children about Santa at Christmas and tell them the truth about Jesus Christ".
"Don't teach your children to sit on the knee of some stranger in a costume and ask him for what they want but teach them to get on their own knees and cry out to the God of the Bible for the things they need. Like forgiveness and salvation," it adds.
Brianna has an eight-year-old son and a two-year-old daughter. She was not at all amused by the unsolicited advice.
"It’s super-upsetting, super-worrisome. I already have gifts under the tree wrapped," she said. "It adds a little bit of anxiety because I know it would be super-disappointing and devastating for my kiddos. It just wouldn’t be fair."
"This certainly doesn’t help that message and certainly doesn’t draw people in. It just pushes people away," Brianna added.
A Walmart spokesperson later told Yahoo Lifestyle that the "incident seems to have been part of a broader, non-Walmart related effort in town."
"Once they were made aware of the concern here, they took action and did discover and remove fliers from a very small handful of items," the spokesperson explained. "They have had no issues since — that they’ve been made aware of — but encourage customers to let management know if there are any future issues."