Enter the great Santa debate. Truth be told, I never believed in Santa. My Mom never put much emphasis on it and by the time I was old enough to ask questions my older sister made sure I knew it was a scam. There was no crushing conversation or devastation but on the same note there was never any element of excitement or curiosity about the big guy.
Up until this year I haven’t thought much about it because Moses’ memory only went back a few hours but now he is much more curious and retains a LOT more information. Fun fact for my memory bank: Moses told us a detailed story about Uncle Danny setting off fireworks on July 4th just a few weeks ago; as in he is holding onto memories 6 months back. I’m sure his memory will only get stronger that is why this year I feel so pressured to figure out how we are going to do this Santa thing.
What I do know is as a Christian I want him to understand Jesus is the ENTIRE reason we celebrate Christmas; I want him to understand it’s like a big birthday party and we are celebrating the birth of our Savior. I want him to look forward to the Christmas eve church service and really understand. But more and more as an adult I’m hearing how much people loved believing in Santa as a child. The excitement of thinking he was coming to bring presents, leaving milk & cookies, and finding the gifts Santa brings; I don’t want to take that away from him. Ok so simple enough, we say Santa dropped off a few of the gifts and that be it? Not so fast.
What about when he asks me questions about Santa….I REFUSE to lie. There is no way I’m carrying on a lie and snowballing the thing until it turns into this scaring moment when he’s 8 and finds out it’s Daddy’s paycheck that really brings the gifts. I would be comfortable just smiling as he talks about Santa or expresses his excitement but there is no way I could make a remark like “Santa’s watching so you better be good”. So here I sit, unsure.
I’d love to hear your thoughts; what you experienced as a child, what you tell your kids, how that effected them.
And if you’re wondering, we are still sticking by our views last year about keeping things simple. There will not be 100 presents for 1 child under our tree and we did not go broke buying for each other. I even went as far as telling the grandparents PLEASE do not buy the boy more toys because if you peaked inside his playroom you would see we have been BLESSED with way.too.much as it is.
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4 comments:
As a kid, I know I believed in Santa, but I don't remember anything about believing. My mom would have my grandma write From Santa so I wouldn't recognize the writing, and we left out cookies. But even when we all knew the gig was up, we still write From Santa on a few and leave a snack that one of us will eat watching TV or nibble the next morning. It was never really about Santa but about the magic of the season and giving without the expectation of a personal thank you. Giving because you wanted to give the person something special. Anyway, that was just us. My hubby says it's crazy I'll still write From Santa on a gift to myself. I say it's fine.
I really liked the perspective in this article about the Santa vs. Jesus debate. I don't have any kids yet but I'm leaning heavily in this direction. http://blog.marshill.com/2010/12/13/what-we-tell-our-kids-about-santa-pastor-mark-for-the-washington-post/
We're not a religious family, but the way we do Santa is that he gives gifts that an elf could actually make. That way the "Good" gifts such as video games and such are from the parents, so the child can learn that's where the money is coming from. We still leave cookies and milk out for him also. We like that idea for our family.
Like you, we refuse to lie to Jonah. We plan on telling him about Santa as a fictional character, about St. Nicholas as a historical figure, and keep Christmas as Christ centered as possible. I never want to run the risk of Jonah equating Santa with the Christmas story and deciding they are both shams!
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