Sunday, November 20, 2011

Santa Claus on a Sunday Morning

Our kids have coughs, I have a slightly sore throat and a headache, and there's some bug going around at church/in our community in general so KOJ decided we should stay home today to avoid being sick on Thanksgiving.  I appreciate that a lot so he didn't get an argument from me.  So that leaves me time to sit and muse.  To ponder something that I've been pondering.

Santa Claus.  Now as a disclaimer let me say that this post is a reflection of a struggle that *I* myself am currently having and not a passive aggressive jab at any person(s).

I grew up believing in Santa Claus.  And once I was old enough to intellectually know that he couldn't possibly exist I still maintained his existence aloud for the sakes of my younger siblings.  I knew that Christmas was about the birth of Jesus.  And of course we sang songs about that and learned about that at church.  But Santa and all the movies on tv about Santa, and all the songs about Santa, and the gift exchanges as "secret Santa" just created this environment of magic and awesomeness.

But now I'm a mother.  A mother who is doing her best to swim upstream in a downstream world.  I'm trying to teach my children values that they can hold tightly onto for the duration.  And I have a six year old monkey who asks questions about EVERYTHING.  We had a conversation about whether or not angels are real last week.  And that has brought me to ponder how I would respond if in the next few weeks he asks me about the authenticity of Santa.  I have decided that I cannot lie to my son.  If I want him to trust me and trust what I say to him for the long haul of his life that I cannot lie to him about this if he directly asks me in the same way that he asked about angels.

In our home I have really tried hard to keep the focus off of Santa and onto Jesus.  This year I'm striving to keep the focus off of receiving and putting it back onto GIVING!  We don't give because Santa gave.  Santa is merely a symbol of the true GIVER - Jesus.

Starting the Monday after Thanksgiving our family is going to do 26 days of giving leading up to Christmas.  We have picked a different person/group of people/family to do something for each day for 26 days.  I'm going to be blogging our journey so feel free to join us.  I'm not good at fancy download things but I'll see if KOJ can help me link our list so you can print and use it too if you'd like.

So how do you feel about Santa?  Personally, I still LOVE all those corny Santa movies and the warm idea of him magically delivering small bits of joy to children all over the world.  But when it comes right down to it how *I* feel about a mythical symbol of giving cannot affect what truth I tell our son.  And like I said before - this is a post about me.  It is the journey I've had the past few days while thinking this issue out for myself and our family.  And the conversation will only happen if he brings it up to me.  I'm not going to run amok ruining Christmas for the children this year.  I promise!

3 comments:

  1. It's so hard with the commericals, malls, and santa sitting right in the middle of the mall. We had the girls at the mall and my 6 year old asked if "that was santa" I said yes.. she said "that guy totally creeps me out" I almost died laughing.

    http://afamilysetapart.blogspot.com

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  2. Yeah, I have the same misgivings and have come to the same conclusion that I cannot lie if they outright ask me and then expect them to trust me. Thankfully, mine are still very small so I won't be crossing this bridge anytime soon (I hope!). Great post.
    -mightymarj from CMF

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  3. We don't do Santa in our house. I was not raised believing in Santa, and I think I grew up just fine :)

    I know that my opinion isn't very popular, but it is what I truly believe. In order for your children to believe that Santa exists, you must lie to them. I am not into that. In a child's mind, if I lied to them about Santa, what else might I be lying to them about? Perhaps...God?

    Also, it seems to me, that Santa is put on the same level with God. He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake. Really? Sounds like God to me...

    We also don't do the tooth fairy or the Easter bunny. We do have the kids put their tooth under their pillow, and they do get $ for it, but they know who is doing it. Same with the Easter basket, just a bunny didn't give it to them.

    My girls are growing up just fine without believing in Santa. I think what you are doing is great, focusing on giving, rather than receiving :)

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