It's that time of year again. Santa Claus, presents, snow, red and green decorations, food, baby Jesus... I love Christmas, it's probably the only thing that I look forward to about the winter (besides my birthday)!
This time of year is when Julia gets asked, "What do you want Santa to bring you?" "Did you get to sit on Santa's lap?" etc. I try to be as gracious as possible and just respond, "We don't do Santa."
Some people understand why, but those of you who don't, read on.
First of all, let me begin by telling you why I didn't have Santa growing up: My dad tells the story of one Christmas Eve when my oldest brother, Shane, had a present under the tree for a friend of his. My dad told him they needed to take it over to this friend's house to give it to him. Shane responded, "It's ok, Dad, Santa will take it over there." It was then that he realized that Shane was believing a lie, really and truly trusting in Santa to take that little boy his gift. He didn't want it to be that way, so he decided from then on, he wasn't going to teach the rest of us to believe in Santa.
At my mom's house, I would pretend to believe in Santa because my stepsisters did, but I always knew who really put the presents under the tree. It was still fun, and I actually got to be thankful to people that really existed.
A couple of cool traditions that we had growing up were, we watched It's a Wonderful Life (my favorite Christmas movie to this day!) and each got to choose one present to open on Christmas Eve. We had others but those were probably the most memorable!
Not once have I ever wished that my dad had taught me about Santa. I don't feel like I was deprived, and I'm glad that he chose to be honest with me.
I want that kind of relationship with my children. I want them to trust me, and know that when I tell them something, it's the truth. If I tell them there's an Easter bunny, Santa Claus, and the tooth fairy, only to tell them it was all a lie, who's to say they won't think one day, "Jesus probably isn't real either."
Yes, my kids will still get presents. Yes, we will decorate our home and celebrate with family and friends. Yes, we will play in the snow. Yes, we will remember the birth of our Savior. Yes, we will make new traditions and do fun things that the kids will remember for years to come. No, they won't be missing out. "All good things come from above!"
See I am totally with you! I am torn about wanting to tell Elise there is a "Santa Claus"... But my husband of course is all "let her have some childhood" blah blah blah.. I like christmas and the season and the traditions, but never understood the whole making up some man to come deliver presents haha
ReplyDeleteI completely agree! I was just about to blog about something along these lines. Anna's too young to really understand the SantaClaus thing right now anyways, but I was just telling Matt that I want to start some Christmas traditions with her, even though she's only 16 months old. And Santa is not one of them!
ReplyDeleteI did not know that about you and your childhood on not believing in Santa Claus. My parents told us about Santa Claus and allowed us to believe in it until one day they told us that he wasn't real. I think children sometimes needs to have imagination at some point in their lives because they grow up too fast. One min. the are pretending and the next min. then the come to the reality of life and it is no fun. I love to see my Lily show me her money that she received from the tooth fairy. There will come a day when she will only say that she lost her tooth and that is it. When it comes to Jesus there is no pretending about him. He is 100% the real thing.
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