Santa Claus is coming to town!Now, Andrew and I have always been pretty much set on not doing Santa in our house. We didn't want the focus of Christmas to ever be presents or being good for Santa. We want our kids to obey because the Bible tells us so, not because Santa does. And we want to celebrate Christmas as Jesus' Birthday, not the day Santa travels the globe bringing presents. This is all easier said than done...Santa is everywhere and we have to explain that to our questioning children. And while it's tempting to complain about the evils of Santa destroying the true magic of Christmas, we've always felt that we didn't want to force our views of Santa on others. So now we have to tell our children, "there is no Santa and flying reindeer but other people like to pretend it's real so just play along. It's fun!" And we've made a point to tell them there really was a man who gave gifts to needy children so it's good to remember and honor him just as we would St. Valentine or St. Patrick or Martin Luther King, Jr. Well this year we spent Christmas in Virginia with cousins. Their parents have never made a big deal about Santa one way or the other but preschoolers got to their oldest and Mina believes! We agreed to play along and even went so far as to make his favorite cookies, write a note, leave carrots for the reindeer, and check his flying status on the internet (he was somewhere over Europe at that point). Staring at the computer our poor Jason became completely confused as he declares, "Santa IS real?" Ugh, why does this have to be soooo confusing! We said nothing at that moment but were sure to clarify the truth back at home. Sometimes I feel like a bit of a scrooge. It was actually very sweet to think my almost 6 year old is still innocent enough to believe in such fantasy but I remember - "Make sure no one captures you. They will try to capture you by using false reasoning that has no meaning. Their ideas depend on human teachings. They also depend on the basic things the people of this world believe. They don't depend on Christ." Colossians 2:8 I want my family depending on Christ, not Santa.
1 comment:
Cute story. We don't do Santa either, but Caleb has been telling us this year that Santa IS real. I tell Caleb point blank that he is not, but Caleb told me it's really Santa who gives him presents, not Mommy and Daddy. sigh.
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