Hellobee

I didn’t grow up here so Santa was never incorporated, so we are just mostly sticking with celebrating Jesus’ birth! We are not bringing her to take pictures with Santa, but I’m totally fine with DD learning about secular traditions and deciding as family what to incorporate, as long as it conveys and celebrates Christian values!

hi – a fun way to incorporate the Christmas story is “Star from Afar” – which is kinda like Elf on a Shelf, but has the Christmas story woven in as wise men search for the Star.

My DH is the son of a pastor and he asked his dad at 3, “so dad, who is real: Jesus or Santa?” His dad couldn’t lie and said Jesus!

Not sure what we’ll be doing yet in our house but this story always makes me laugh!

Love the post because it has consumed my mind so much too (and I’ve been working on a post too). I didn’t grow up believing in Santa (and neither did my husband) but with Lil’ Pizza being 2, it seems fun to sprinkle in a little Santa. Still figuring out what we want to do exactly but I guess they are young enough that we will figure it out as we go. We are going to do a bday cake too!!

@teawithpaloma: well that really puts a point to it, right?

we’re navigating this as well this year as DD1 is almost 3, so she gets it…. kinda. we’re doing an book advent calendar and i started with the christmas story and explained that we’re counting down to the celebration of jesus’ birthday. i grew up loving santa, but knew he wasn’t real by 1st grade. christmas wasn’t really about jesus for my or DH’s family, so DH and i are making it up as we go along for our girls.

I grew up with Santa, but DH didn’t (he actually grew up in a very anti-Santa household) so we’re still trying to decide what to do about the man in red. But I love the idea of keeping Jesus the center (and I love the idea of a birthday cake!) and focusing on the history and symbology of Santa. We always read The Night Before Christmas and the Christmas story from Luke on Christmas Eve, so I’ll probably continue that tradition.

@birdofafeather:

I was sort of against doing anything Santa related for reasons related to lying and trauma. But my mom always used to say “there is a lot of magic and Christmas” and I think I’ll just let the kids create their own fantasies as opposed to directing them.

But then, I saw this video and literally cried real, big tears at he magical sweetness:

http://www.msn.com/en-us/video/watch/santa-surprises-kids-in-uk-car-servicing-shop/vp-BBnauI1

Great post! I grew up in an anti Santa household. DH and I think there’s no reason we can’t celebrate the birth of Jesus and have Santa come to our house. I love the idea of baking a birthday cake.

I think like you said we let Santa be Santa. We have taken Santa pictures. This year at age 4 is the first year she expects Santa to bring her a gift. He will bring one thing and the rest will be from mommy and daddy because we love her and work hard so she can have nice things (aka in real life presents don’t just appear). It seems to be working out well for us.

We do a count down calendar and the Christmas story with our kids as well as the advent wreath.

We don’t do the Elf on a Shelf, but we do have a big red phone, that the kids have told me I use it to talk to Santa so I haven’t corrected them since they came up with it on their own.

I have always loved the idea of Santa and never found him to be creepy nor did I feel betrayed when I found out. It was a revelation that people have felt that way and I feel badly for that.

On thing I have in my back pocket for when we get inevitable questions about why did Friend1 get more stuff from Santa is this: I remind them that different families have different rules and then will mention that Santa works with the parents and and he follows the rules of each house.

One weird thing I am having to get over is giving Christmas presents to my kids. Growing up we got Santa presents but never anything from my parents and I never thought that was odd or that I was missing out. Even when we all knew it was always Santa gifts and not gifts from my parents. I wanted to do the same but my DH was against it, since he grew up with gifts from both. It was a hard compromise but certainly for the best.

@T.H.O.U.: this is our approach, too. We are going to enjoy Santa, but minimize his importance a bit. And we are incorporating Advent to try to bring Christ back to the center of the holiday.

I love this post! Advent and St. Nicholas Day were always big for us growing up, so we’re going to incorporate those traditions into ours. Also, DH bought me a statue from Jim Shore that plays a very prominent role in our celebration. It’s a figure of Santa kneeling at the creche. It makes me very happy, and we hope to use it to teach that the spirit of Christmas is all about celebrating Love incarnate.

In case anyone is interested, we have this one: http://www.amazon.com/Shore-Heartwood-Creek-Enesco-Figurine/dp/B001HNVZ80

It looks like that particular one is no longer sold, but there are others that convey the same message: Santa helps us to celebrate Jesus.

This is such a big topic! DH never really did Santa and it was done minimally at our house. So far we just aren’t talking about Santa. In the past we thought we would just talk about how Santa is pretend, but I also don’t want my kid to be the one to ruin Santa for other kids.

We don’t have an exact plan, but I think we are leaning more toward celebrating St. Nicholas’ Day and 3 Kings Day. We’ll see.

We haven’t had this issue so much, I guess. Santa is based on St. Nicholas, & historians agree that yes, he was a real man with a reputation for great kindness. So, I see no reason to be anti-Santa, so long as we play up the “St. Nick” part more.. We celebrate St. Nicholas Day, do Santa pictures, sing the Christmas songs with Santa in them, etc— but we also light Advent candles and do a Jesse Tree, put up nativity sets and talk up it being Jesus’ birthday. It feels like a good balance right now– but who knows what the future will bring.

I grew up with Santa and not alot with the bible. We think Christmas is magical without santa so we won’t be doing Santa or anything like that. We still have fun with Advent calendars, stories of santa and about baby Jesus. I’m also all about truth telling so telling my children santa brought gift we purchased bothers me. I’m not anti it for anyone else just as a personal thing.

@Mrs.Maven: I’m with you! All of our presents came from Santa and not from our parents. It never struck me as weird either. I just asked DH how they did it in his family and he wasn’t really sure and didn’t have an opinion about what we should do either way.

The one tradition that I love and will use with our kids is that the gift tags don’t just say the name. Instead they give a clue as to who it’s for and everyone needs to guess. To be honest, the tags weren’t ever signed as from Santa or from our parents so maybe that’s why I never questioned or thought it was weird that they were all from Santa.

My DS learned about Santa at school, but we have played his role down at home. DS was in love with Santa at 2 and 3. I am very lukewarm on the subject; I have let him continue to believe, though I will absolutely be honest if/when he ever asks me if Santa is real. Lately, at 4, though he still loves Santa, DS has been angry with him. We did OCC, and since he learned that kids in orphanages often get no gifts or OCC shoeboxes for Christmas, he’s livid with the Jolly Old Elf.

I’m working on this balance as well. I think for now we’re going to include Santa, but downplay him. I came up with an advent list to balance holiday traditions along with service and giving, and I’d like that to be the main focus of the season. I also told them that mommy and daddy fill the stockings and Santa brings the tree presents. So it kind of lays a foundation for parents doing the gifts. It’s an interesting balance! And not what I expected to have to put so much thought into

@tlynne: I’m sorry, but this made me LOL. I adore OCC, so I can see why that would get little man fired up.

This is SUCH a timely post! My son is 15 months and our nephew is 17 months and their grandmother (my MIL) is Christmas OBSESSED. Like, a 10 foot tree, train that goes around it, every kind of Christmas decoration imaginable, and multiple gifts for EVERY single extended family member plus stockings every year. Its the biggest, most consumerist Christmas situation I’ve ever seen. And even in our 30s, she still gives us gifts from Santa in addition to Mom, Dad, the cat, and whoever else.

I wasn’t really raised with Santa – like I knew about him and the stories about him, but my parents never really said he was real except for my first Christmas in America when I was 4. They said elves dropped some stuff by and I thought it was cool, but I think by 5 they were too lazy to do anything and it was never brought up again. DH was raised with Santa and he knew pretty early on it was fake but pretended to believe Santa was real FOREVER just so he could get more presents.

As adults, DH and I are far more religious than most of our family and we really want to keep Christmas about Jesus, the gift of grace and salvation, and showing our love for others in that same spirit through gifting. So we’re really struggling with how to manage our MIL’s crazy consumerist Christmas ambitions, especially now that she has grandkids, and our nephew, who I’m told will be raised with Santa. I think we’re probably going to talk about St. Nicholas and why he was so kind to children and the poor, and then explain the whole Santa mythology (North Pole, elves, sleigh, reindeer, etc). We wont lie and tell him its real and he wont get gifts from Santa, but we might say some people believe its real, while others think its just really fun, and there are other reasons people celebrate this time of year (Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, etc.) so in the spirit of a joyful holiday season for everyone, we will be as respectful and happy for them as possible (i.e. don’t ruin Santa for your cousin). DH explained that he would like Santa to be more like the Easter Bunny – like a mascot for the holiday that brings treats, as opposed to this giant made up conspiracy.

I never grew up with Advent, so I’m really excited to incorporate that as a Christ-centered way to build up the anticipation for Christmas. Would love to see some blogger bees post on Advent ideas!

I have been giving this a lot of thought also… Trying to let the kids direct it… I really like the birthday cake idea and we read the Christmas story as well. We have a plastic nativity that the kids like to set up and play with through the season. Thank you for all the ideas I will definitely reiterate Santa as the helper of celebrating Jesus’ birth. Love that idea.

I had to come back to this post because I read a different blog post regarding Santa and Christmas for Christians. As I read it I think that is part of the reason as a Christian I am not offended by Santa the essence of the post is how it was treated in my family.

This is an excerpt of the post that I find very important “This holiday tradition is not going away culturally, and for good reason. Behind the elves, reindeer, flowing white beard, and red suit lie messages about faith and redemption. The story of Santa is one of generosity and blessing. It encourages children to wish and hope for things that normally are totally out of reach. Santa also helps provide a reason to consider how they treat others.”
Source blog here http://tinyurl.com/pexqaj7