Sunday, December 4th, 2011
Doesn’t she know?
Yesterday, I wrote about how we think about Santa at our house. It boiled down to this primary goal: Helping our children understand God as much as they were able at whatever age they were.
I hadn’t realized what a hot topic this would be. I really meant it when I said I’m not on a crusade that has good guys and bad guys.I meant to be clear that I was simply telling you how we think about it at our house for our family.
Some of you raised questions that I expect to be thinking about in future posts. In the meantime, let me complete the thought I began yesterday.
Here are some encouraging effects we observed (at different times with different children) of not including Santa in our celebration. These aren’t really reasons to make a decision one way or the other, but more like side effects.
First, I think children are glad to realize that their parents, who live with them all year and know all the worst things about them, still show their love at Christmas. Isn’t that more significant than a funny old make-believe man who drops in just once a year?
Second, our children know our family’s usual giving patterns for birthday and other special events. They seem to have an instinct about our typical spending levels. Knowing that their Christmas gifts come from those same people they love, rather than from a bottomless sack, can help diminish the “I-want-this, give-me-that” syndrome.
And finally, when children know that God’s generosity is reflected by God’s people, it tends to encourage a sense of responsibility about helping make Christmas good for others.
Our oldest, for example, worked hard on one gift the year he was 3. On Christmas morning, my husband stepped around a large, loose-flapped cardboard box to get to his chair at the breakfast table. “Where’s Karsten?” he asked, expecting to see our excited boy raring to leap into the day.
Sitting down, I said, “He’ll be here in a minute.” I nudged the box with my toe. Karsten threw back the flaps and rose to his full three-foot stature. “And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them . . .” He had memorized Luke 2:8-20 as a gift for his dad. Karsten knew Santa wasn’t the one to depend on.
In fact, a few days later, he and I were walking down the hall at church. One of the older ladies leaned down to squeeze his pink, round cheek and asked, “What did Santa bring you?” Karsten’s head jerked quickly toward me, and he whispered loudly, “Doesn’t she know?”
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Taken from my book, Treasuring God in Our Traditions. |
9 Responses to “Doesn’t she know?”
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I very much appreciated your post on santa. It is so refreshing to read a blog of someone who is like-minded. Praise be to God this Christmas season.
Thank you for posting this. Praising God for what he has done this Christmas!
Anonymous
Such a relief to hear some one explain my concerns in a straight forward and logical way! I learnt about St Nicolas as very young child living in Germany where they’ll be celebrating his day tomorrow – you probably know this yourself). I’ve encountered some real hostility over this one, I think people think I’m a real Bah-humbug! But I felt distinctly uneasy after I become a Christian encouraging children to believe in a fictional character; Jesus is far more exciting, and real. I’d happily teach children the story of St Nicolas. It would interesting to get the old bishops’ whole take on the thing!!
Shhh…don’t even tell my kids that other kids believe Santa is real. They think he’s a fairy tale and the whole ‘gifts from Santa’ thing is sort of like the Easter Bunny bringing eggs…it never happens. (I have enough trouble getting one gift each for the pack – imagine if i had to shop for ‘Santa’ also!)
Thank you for sharing this. We did the same thing in our home, and for us it came down to something pretty simple: Santa Claus is not real, and we could not tell our children He was because it isn’t true. We wanted our children to know that they could depend on us to tell them the truth about God and life. However, we did not villify Santa, but explained the story to them as a fun make-believe story. We wanted them to always be confident of who the ultimate source of good gifts is….God and no other!
My husband and I are doing Christmas the same way with our kids. They know the truth and we focus more on Christ. My mom thinks we are crazy and always tries to talk about Santa bringing presents with my kids. It’s funny. My oldest just laughs and says he knows the truth ;)
Thank you for your thoughtful posts. We decided from the start that we were not going to lie to our kids…. No Santa, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, etc. all of which we were raised with. It was always our desire to be trustworthy and felt that if we had told them made up stories about those things the kids could rebel later on about thing of God.
Also, we wanted them never to experience that first disappointing Christmas after you learn Santa isn’t real. They can have the same joy every year for their entire lives. And isn’t that better?
Our kids know that this is when we celebrate the birth oh Christ and that it’s important because He has to be born in order to die for our sins. The first ornament on the tree is always a cross followed by three doves and no ornament is allowed to hang higher on the tree. The youngest (of 9) is 4 this year so we won’t have to explain it too many more years. It has been a joy and an honor to share the Gospel with my children each and every year!
Hello Noel, I have enjoyed the discovery of your blog in the last week. Thank you for sharing your family traditions. Ours are similar, and we’ve chosen to not include Santa either. I especially appreciated you pointing out that Santa’s gifts are for “good boys and girls.” So thankful this year that Jesus’ good gift of salvation is not based on my good works!
May you and yours experience His presence and joy this season!
I sent your post yesterday to our oldest 4 kids and my mom and sister. All your reasons were also why we didn’t “do” Santa, we just couldn’t explain our thoughts so clearly. Our oldest child (21) just sent an e-mail thanking us for not having Santa and telling us we are good parents~~good to hear on those days when our 5 and 6 year old forget how to behave! Jesus is alive and real. Merry Christmas.