I remember around 7 or 8 years old sneaking down stairs Christmas eve and watching my mother wrapping all our Christmas gifts and stuffing our stockings. I remember thinking to myself that my suspicions were confirmed... there was no Santa Claus.
As a parent myself I have always wanted to put the emphasis on celebrating Christ's birth on December 25th (even though Jesus was probably born in April, a great month!). I don't decorate with Santa at all. I decorate with Nativities and Snowmen (just cuz Snowmen are so cute!). We make a Birthday cake for Jesus (its been banana bread with cream cheese frosting) and we light candles Christmas morning and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus.
Still I do talk about Saint Nick. I have told my girls that Saint Nicolas was a real person and we like to honor his generous loving heart by hanging stockings and pretending that he comes to fill them like he filled the children's stockings when he was alive.
I don't think I ever told her that Santa was still alive and lived at the North Pole but somehow she really thought he was. She understood that he lived a long time ago and that he did good things for people back in the day... but she also though that he was still alive and just really, really old.
This year she asked me how Santa was going to get in our house and leave things in our stockings if we didn't have a fireplace. I was torn.
I love the magic of Christmas... really I love the magic of childhood and imagination. Wow, I'm the first in line when it comes to dress up, imagination or pretend play. Take me to a Renaissance Fair and I will dress up and have a blast being just a little wild and crazy (with in reason... Ren Fairs can get really wild if you want to go there). (M... if you're reading this I still have the pic of you at the Ren Fair, you looked beautiful and we had so much fun!)
Pic of me and my sis... on our way to a Ren Fair... not a full pic of our costumes
but I don't know where one is off hand. (Sorry for poor scan.)
Anyway, so I love the magic of pretend but at the same time I do not want to lie to my child. Deep sigh. So I had to sit her down and explain how it is wonderful to pretend that Santa is real, just like it is fun to pretend Unicorns are real (she shares my love of unicorns). But as much fun as it is... and as much as we may want these things to be real they aren't.
I told her that we can still pretend that Santa comes to fill our stockings. But she says, "No, Santa isn't real anymore". And I feel a little sad inside. Still I feel I made the right choice.
Here is an article that I just found on FB that talks about the same kind of thing. Reading it confirmed to me that it was a good choice and I hope that as time goes on that Haven will be able to enjoy the pretend part of Santa while honoring the memory of Saint Nick.
**Article** <---- Click on it if you want to read it.
I have a Santa dilemma as well.... We don't want to "do" Santa Claus at our house, yet at the same time, I don't want my kids to be the snotty better-than-thou kids that ruin it for other kids who do believe. (That snotty kid that ruined it for me actually became my sister-in-law.)
ReplyDeleteSo far, my solution has been to avoid it. I tell Nathan, "That's Santa Claus," when we get a card with him on it, but haven't explained who he is. Not the best way to handle it, but.... That's how it's been. He just turned 3 this fall, so I really don't think he "gets" it anyways, especially since we don't go out much; he's not bombarded with Santa stuff everywhere.
Excellent article, by the way. I bookmarked it to discuss with my husband.
Oh, and - I'm with you on the snowmen decorations!