I didn't miss him.
Santa.
We don't 'do Santa'.
I know, we're jerks and will ruin our children's Christmas and maybe even your children's Christmas.
yada yada.
Here's the deal.
We have just chosen to not do it in one more attempt to instill into our girls what Christmas is all about, really....even if those roots are from pagan descent ;-).
I thought if we 'did Santa' that it would consume most conversations about Christmas and would cause them to sit and wonder for hours what 'he' might be bringing them, instead of causing them to sit and wonder who this little baby is and what He's all about.
We're not ogre's about it.
Polar Express was the #1 asked for movie this year, they have pictures in Santa's lap from a Christmas party at Jake's work and we did talk about him....a lot.
We don't decorate with him, I don't buy his merchandise (Polar Express was gift ;-) but we do enjoy his picture!
We take the stand to "Pretend Santa is real" so as not to ruin it for the rest of the crowd.
and
Here's what I found.
The girls found themselves 'believing' no matter how many times I said 'Santa is just pretend', 'just for fun' or 'brings toys to children who don't have any' (from the Saint Nicholas story).
I think I spent just as much time convincing them that he wasn't real as parents do who try and convince him that he is real!!!
This made me giggle.
I don't dwell on it too much, I don't care what you do in this area and I will continue to remind my girls that Santa is pretend but Jesus....now HE is real, but the fact that I have to convince them of Santa's true existence wasn't something I was thinking would be an issue.
Keepin' me on my toes this year, that's for sure!!!!
We open our families presents tomorrow, New Years Day.
the Benton Christmas was early Nov, the Panter Christmas was on Christmas Day and now ours will be tomorrow -
now try and tell your kids why 'Santa' would have come to our girls THREE times???
(they are that 'good' but is Santa?)
The Mommy and Daddy
(aka Holly and Jake, but only sometimes)
Our Lydia
Our Samantha
Our Lenora
Our Sophie
7 comments:
Yep - we totally do the same thing!
I hear ya sister...
I would agree that in the future my girls (hopefully not) will ruin another child's Christmas with they saying "Santa is pretend!"
We didn't miss him either ;-)
Eric and my parents call me "Scrooge" because I do this same thing. They totally get into baby Jesus and the birthday and so that's good. I'll take what I get because they don't believe me when I say that I bring presents...not Santa. The Russians (and you) have it right....Christmas is a religious holiday, New Years is the "present" holiday. Maybe I'll have more luck next year...but at least it wasn't ALL about Santa this year!!! ugh!
In fact Amber is the only one who got to go see a santa because the deaf kids got to go on a city-wide field trip to see a signing santa...that was pretty cool.
We don't do Santa either, and as for the presents we give the credit where it is due...the Grandparents! I refuse to let Santa take credit for the dollars spent. I want my kids to be thankful to the givers.
My kids are still too young and sheltered, Santa wasn't even a blip on the radar this year. I used to try to do the picture thing, but then I decided to stop the insanity of standing in long lines to pay $20 a pop for pictures of my kids screaming at a stranger dressed up as an icon I don't want them to idolize. I had a much easier preChristmas thanks to that decision.
Something I'm going to try next year is a Jesse tree. I read about it on Focus on the Family. It looks like fun.
I will be the odd one out and say that, yes, we do make Santa part of Christmas, but he is a small part. I think it would be confusing to the kids for him not to be a small part of Christmas and I like to have him in our house and make him part of the spirit of Christmas, not the biggest part, but still there. Mostly he just fills up stockings in our house. And, I love to do stockings so that is more fun for me than anything. But, no, he does not give the kids their big gifts, I agree with another comment on here on that issue, I want the kids to know those are from us, not Santa! Jesus can still be the big reason for the season and Santa can play a small walk-on part in our home.
Amen Holly! :)
Hey Holly--was out of town and had trouble getting a turn online. Just catching up and wanted to let you know we don't 'do' Santa either. My oldest got it that it was all pretend, my middle still tries to convince me I'm wrong and the youngest is (quite frankly) a little scared of him and doesn't care if he's not in her home. Ha! We still have stockings, but they know that us & grandparents fill them.
I tell them every year that I promised not to lie to them and so I won't lie about Santa. We also agree to not tell others so they won't be sad.
Same goes for Easter bunny & tooth fairy--although they get money under their pillow anyway for a tooth.
Don't let others try to bully you about it. It's a personal choice. One we made 11+ years ago and we've been happy with our choice.
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