I never thought it would do any harm, I mean, I once believed in Santa and I don't remember the world fell apart when I found out he wasn't real. Caleb already questions Santa which boggles me, he asks if Santa lives with Jesus in heaven. He also wonders if he's apart of Jesus's family. These questions get me. I don't know what to say! I tell him he lives in the North Pole. Caleb then states that the north pole is in heaven....right? ahhhhh. I don't know what to do. While chatting with some other moms at church, I'm left feeling guilty yet again, because they don't do the whole Santa thing. They don't "lie" to their children and they make Christmas what it's supposed to really be about, Christ's birth.
Well I make it about Christ's birth. The kids know that it's Jesus's birthday. They know that Christmas happens because we celebrate that God sent His one and only son to earth. This is only our second Christmas where each child will only get 3 wrapped gifts under the tree, just like Jesus got 3 gifts, one gift is from Mom and Dad, one gift is from their siblings and the other gift is from well....Santa!
It's hard to stick to only 3 gifts. The tree does look a little bare Christmas morning, especially when you compare what you see on tv and the movies, presents everywhere! But our kids have TOO much STUFF. We love to give to them, it's our nature to love on them with delighting them with new things. But, it can be too much.
You've all probably seen those pictures, Define Necessity. Well, I need to look at that everyday to remind me, that my kids have so much, when one precious child(along with millions) can't even find a piece of food.
So tomorrow, a little elf is going to move into our house. I'm hoping not only will it bring fun, but perhaps good behaviour too! December is here. Parties, food, presents, happiness, stress, birthdays, company, travels, joy, laughter, vacation time, snow, cold, beauty, music. I love this time of year!
What is your favourite part of Christmas?
2 comments:
We do Santa. Santa brings one present and fills the stocking. Thats all. I try to focus more of my decorating in and out of the house to include the nativity and stars and have hardly any Santa. There is a book called 'Santa are you for Real?' and it is about the real St. Nicholas who lived long ago and he gave gifts because he loved Jesus. We have LOTS of Christmas books. Some Santa, lots about Jesus and we've already started reading them. I try to read some that include Jesus every day.
I do 'truth in the tinsel' with the boys. This will be my first year doing the whole thing. Last year I didn't start it until part way through December. It is an amazing program for young children that has you read part of the Christmas story every day and there is a small craft (made up of things found around the house on the most part) to help the kids remember that part of the story, by the time Christmas arrives, the whole Christmas story is much more real to them and they are able to relate more personally to it.
We also have a wooden box with 24 doors. Inside each door is a little ornament that you hang on the top part of the box (which is a scene with a tree on it). In the past I put one chocolate in each one but this year CO's grandparents bought the choclate advent calendars.
I too try hard to avoid the 'stuff'. Just a few generations ago children in North America had very little in the way of toys and valued and looked after them. Rather than not care if they broke and left them everywhere because they knew that they had lots more.
I try to also help CO think about 'giving' this season. Every Monday in December we will go help out at the local Food Bank. We are also going to bake for the neighbours and make some crafts for the local senior home.
Hi Charlene - This woman wrote a blog post about Jesus, Santa, and Elf on the shelf - there is also a link within the blog to a post she did about Santa :) http://followinginmyshoes.com/life-as-i-know-it/mommyhood/jesus-santa-and-the-elf-on-the-shelf/
I didn't grow up doing the Santa thing, but we did take Sophie to see him a couple of weeks ago. I don't think we'll be making a big deal about him, but its still a fun part of Christmas. I'm not too big on Halloween either, but we'll still let our kids dress up (just nothing witchy or goblin-y, scary, etc) Some people get all hung up on the Pagan meaning behind some of these things, but for us, its just a fun day to dress up if you want :)
Amy
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