Disclaimer: No children under the age of 10 should be reading this post.
I'm not sure why it has been on my mind but I've been thinking about the whole whether or not to tell your children about Santa question.
I remember my older step-siblings ruining the surprise for me. But I don't remember getting all upset or bent out of shape at my parents about it. Still, for some children - I imagine it can be heartbreaking to find out . . . well . . . what's really going down.
For those of us that are Christian. We're supposed to be focusing on Christ right? Christmas commercialism has gotten way out of hand - like the Wal-Mart working that was trampled the day after Thanksgiving. Very much NOT the spirit of Christmas . . .
So Santa and presents and all that shouldn't take the place of teaching about Christ.
My step-mom put things pretty good though. They had neighbors that didn't let their kids "do" Halloween. Like at all. And she said, Isn't it really about the kids dressing up, getting out and having a good time? This is a kids holiday!
And she's right. Santa and Reindeer are about children and giving and the magic of the season. And we can still teach the importance of Christ and the gifts he gave us. And when they find out who's really putting those surprises under the tree can't we teach about the Santa living in our hearts, the Spirit of Christmas and the importance of giving to others without their knowledge?
I'm not sure if I'm getting my thoughts across here - but I guess what I am trying to say is being Christan and including Santa in your holiday are not mutually exclusive.
We plan on including Santa in our holiday, by the way.
Still, what have you decided to do and how does your family handle this?
We're doing the Santa thing, but a bit different. We didn't want to "lie" to our children about it, it just didn't feel like the right thing to do for us (to each their own). So we told our little guy about Saint Nicholas - who he was, what he did and that now people play the part of Santa because they love us and want to give us gifts. When we go see "Santa" we tell him that someone is dressing up like Santa and we remind him who St. Nick was. We're going to put a present out and say it's from "Santa". So yes, we feel good about this. He still gets the excitement of Christmas but he knows the real story.
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