A friend of mine from church posted on her facebook today that she’s trying to decide what to do about Santa in regard to her 2 year old daughter.  Do they go the traditional route, and pretend Santa is real until she’s older, and one day has her sweet childhood reality ripped to shreds by a classmate, or do they tell her from the start that Santa isn’t real? 

I grew up believing Santa was real.  Every Christmas Eve, Santa (who sounded an awful lot like my grandfather) visited our family in person, with a gift for each child.  As we grew older, Santa’s voice changed (puberty?), and he started to sound more like my uncle.  But he would visit us each year, give us our gift, and then go back on his way.  Overnight, though, he would drop off toys and fill our stockings for a nice surprise in the morning. 

I believed, for the most part, until I was 6 or 7.  My bedroom window was at a 90 degree angle from our family room window, and I remember sitting up, looking out my window, and seeing my mom and stepdad stuffing stockings and putting santa presents into each of our piles.  I suppose it wasn’t much of a shock – I had suspected as much (thanks to the kids at school, and having MUCH older brothers), but that confirmed it.

I became a parent at 19, and I will admit – I was on a mission to keep all of those little charming childhood mysteries alive for my daughter as long as I possibly could.  When it was just the two of us, it was easier, and I delighted in every little tradition (including the long standing family tradition of Santa visiting on Christmas Eve!).  After our family grew to 4 children, we tried to maintain it, but the older kids did eventually spoil it for our youngest son.  However – now we have BonBon, and the question of what to do comes up again.

We were driving home last night, just Cheesecake, BonBon, and me.  A few of the houses and shops around our neighborhood have their Christmas lights up, and she delighted in each, yelling “KWISSMAS TWEES!” every time we passed one.  I asked her, Chloe, why do we have Christmas, and she yelled “SANTA!”  Yeah, not exactly what I was hoping for.

So it’s a decision now…do we keep that childhood fantasy going (as the world would say), or do we drop that altogether, and focuson the real ‘reason for the season’.  We want her to know Christmas is about Jesus – the greatest gift ever given to those of us in this world. 

I think what we are really against is promoting Santa to further the “Getmas” mentality.  We don’t want Christmas to be all about what we want in the physical.  While the real story of St. Nick, the original footprint for Santa Claus, is debatable, one of the common stories is that he was a young man, from a wealthy family, whose parents died, leaving him a wealthy young man.  Through various acts, he gave away his wealth, trying to remain anonymous, to help others in need.

THAT is a concept I would like our children to understand and embody.  Giving to help others – with the credit going to God’s provision.  I don’t see much in modern Christmas that shows that.

So what will we do differently this year….

Well, the bigger family Christmas will be the same – I can’t change them, but I can change what we do for our own family.  I think we will still have the children make out their Christmas list, but rather than just a big list of ’wants’, we will divide their lists into 3 categories - NEEDS, Wants, and wish.  Three things they need, 2 things they want, and 1 wish.  I also want each of them to research and present to the family one new tradition they would like us to do as a family – something that we can do each year to make Christmas time special for all of us – and hopefully that will carry on to their own families. 

I struggle with how Christmas will change, as the inevitable happens with my Grandmother.  In some ways, it will be freeing somewhat – it will be time to start these new traditions with my children.  But I will mourn the old traditions. 

And I will look forward to the new ones, and to the little girl who is going to be so excited over everything she gets to discover this Christmas – in particular that it is the day we celebrate the greatest gift we were ever given…Emmanuel.  God with us.