As a follow up to my post about how to have a Christ-centered Christmas, I thought I'd share what our family does about the jolly guy in the big red suit. I've had several people ask me whether or not my children believe in Santa, so I thought I'd just share it here. Before I do, let me back up a bit...
Growing up, the only kids I knew who didn't believe in Santa were the older ones who thought they were "too cool" for Santa. I didn't know any families who actually did not get visited by Santa. Once I was older and knew the truth, my mom still did "Santa" for me every Christmas. I would wake up every Christmas morning to find that Santa had visited while I was asleep…even when I was in college! It was fun, even as an adult; and I thought this was how it was for everyone. It wasn't until I was in college that I found out that there were families who did not include Santa in their traditions at all. I was shocked! No Santa? Really? Then, when I heard their reasons, it made sense: They didn't want Santa to take away from the real meaning of Christmas.
Hmm…interesting. This revelation really gave me cause to stop and pray about what my family traditions would include once I was married with children of my own.
I really struggled with the decision. On the one hand, I did not want ANYTHING to take away from Christ, NOTHING! I wanted Christ to be FIRST and FOREMOST in our hearts and minds. Also, I did not like the idea of lying to my children, especially as they got older and started asking the "probing" questions, seeking answers and truth. I wanted them to know that they could trust me to always tell them the truth. Finally, there were a few blogs and articles being shared about the time I was making my decision, and some of the reasons they gave for NOT including Santa made a lot of sense to me.
On the other hand, though, I loved the "magic" of Christmas through a child's eyes. I will never forget the anticipation of lying in bed on Christmas Eve as quiet as a mouse listening for sleigh bells and reindeer hooves or the thrill of running into the living room on Christmas morning to find that Santa had, in fact, come while I was sleeping and left me EXACTLY WHAT I ASKED FOR! Sure, the gifts were great, but it was the mystery of Santa that made it all magical. Once I knew the truth about Santa, though I still got gifts and still have wonderful Christmas memories, it was just not the same. While I tend to be a bit of a realist, not really playing into "magical" things, I didn't want my children to miss out on that excitement.
The question was, could we have both? Was it possible to include Santa in a truly Christ-centered Christmas - not just one where we do whatever worldly things we want and say it's all in the name of celebrating Christ, but one where we truly focus on WORSHIPPING and CELEBRATING HIM?
It took many conversations with God and with Craig before I could envision a Christ-centered Christmas that included Santa. After MUCH prayer and discussion, we decided that we could include Santa in our traditions as long as he didn't take away from the ONE Christmas is about and as long as we didn't compromise what God had laid on our hearts as higher priorities at Christmastime. The message on my heart was the same as in my previous post ("How to Have a Christ-Centered Christmas"): as long as we honored God first and nothing got in the way of that, we were free to celebrate in any way. (Besides, I don't think non-Christians should have all the fun. ;) We Christians can have - and should have - more fun than they do because we have true joy under all the extra fluff! Don't you think they should see that in us? Hey, those guys love Jesus, and they look like they have more fun at Christmas than we do!! What are we missing??)
So, how do we include Santa without taking away from Jesus? Well, here are a few stipulations that we placed on our Santa inclusion:
- We talk about Jesus 365 days a year. We figured if we only talked about Jesus in December, we were going to have a hard time convincing children who believe in Santa that Jesus is any different or any more special than Santa. However, if Jesus is celebrated 365 days a year - if we read about Him in our Bibles and talk about Him as we work and play and praise Him with our mouths and serve Him with our hands and worship Him with our lives every day of the year, He will be a much bigger deal than just a guy we talk about at Christmastime. Then, Santa can be the character who only comes out at Christmas...just another fun guy like Mickey Mouse or Peter Pan. We just don't make a big deal out of him.
- As stated in my previous post, we strive to honor God first, before including any other traditions. That means our toy nativity comes out before our Santa hats. We will make a big deal out of doing mission projects and doing our advent scripture readings every night and planning our Birthday Party for Jesus. The Santa stuff can fall into place when it's convenient, but we won't make a big deal out of it. We will devote our excitement and attention and energy to Jesus stuff!
- We will be INTENTIONAL about Jesus. Santa can pop in when it's convenient. Not the other way around. We make a big deal out of Jesus. We don't make much of Santa at our house. We don't talk about him unless our kids ask. We don't harp on what our kids want for Christmas. We don't even send a letter to Santa. However, we DO talk much about Jesus. We bring Him up as often as possible. Most of our conversations are about the manger or the angels and shepherds or Baby Jesus or the wise men. Most of our decorations include nativity scenes and Bible verses. We have several children's books about the manger and several Christmas movies that talk about the real meaning of Christmas, and we are INTENTIONAL about choosing those throughout the month of December. Sure we still have a few Santa decorations. We also have books about Santa and reindeer and movies like The Polar Express. When our kids ask to read those or watch those, we do; but we are not intentional about those like some are. For example, we are intentional about reading our advent scriptures every night, not reading a Santa story every night. We are intentional about reading the Christmas story from the Bible on Christmas Eve instead of Twas the Night Before Christmas.
- Santa will give gifts for the same reason we give gifts - to show Jesus' love and to celebrate His birth. If we can give gifts at Christmas with a heart of love for Christ, then Santa can, too. We tell our children that we give gifts to our friends and family to show our love for them and to celebrate and remember Jesus' birth, and Santa gives them gifts for the same reason.
- Santa will not have any God-like characteristics. He doesn't see you when you're sleeping. He doesn't know if you've been bad or good. Which brings me to my next point…
- Santa gives gifts to show Christ's love which is not dependent on whether or not you are good. We will not use Santa to manipulate our children into being "good."
- We will not lie to our children. This one gets a little tricky, and you might call me liar if you wanted to get technical. When explaining Santa, I always say, "My mom always told me…" or "The books say that…" I even say, "I don't know how he does that! I've never seen it." When that is no longer sufficient, when they start probing (whether they're 5 or 15), we'll tell them the truth. (If you know my oldest, something tells me this will be sooner rather than later with him.)
- Santa will not give so many gifts (or such large gifts) that he overshadows everyone else. Santa fills our stockings and leaves one small gift for each child or sometimes one larger gift for the 3 of them to share. This year, Landon is getting a small lego set. Carson is getting a $15 pop up tent. Anniston is getting a baby doll. That's it! We try not to go overboard on gifts anyway because our kids have so much already, and they get so much from our extended family. However, even if we did give them lots of gifts, the larger ones or the majority of them would come from Mom and Dad, not Santa.
- If Santa ever takes away from Jesus, he's gone!
So far, this is working very well for our family. Every year, we will re-evaluate and pray about God's best for our family. My prayer is that we will always please Christ and bring glory and honor to Him with our celebrations, whether Santa is included or not.
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