December Newsletter...The Sneak Preview

Merry Christmas Everyone! How will you celebrate this year? Will you decorate your home with green and red? Will you pull out your Christmas tree and decorate with all your special ornaments from the years before? Christmas time is filled with all kinds of family traditions. That’s one reason that Christmas time is so special. One thing that my family does that my kids always enjoy is the reading of the Christmas Story while playing with the nativity scene. On the night we decorate our home my husband reads the Christmas story out of Luke, and the kids get to act out the story with our little nativity scene. Its fun for everyone and it reminds the kids that we celebrate Christmas because of Jesus.
Here’s another tradition of ours that may not bring you fuzzy feelings like the last one. This is a topic that you may or may not enjoy reading about, but please don’t beat me up after church! If you don’t like what I’m writing about this month talk about it to the Lord and see what He says. Well, here it is…We “Don’t Do Santa”. I can almost see you gasp for air with your hand over your mouth with shock and unbelief! How could a family with five children be deprived of Santa? Before you feel too much sorrow for our kids listen to our reason.
When I was pregnant with our first son my husband and I talked about how we would raise our children. Soon enough we made it to the topic of Holidays and we began to discuss the whole idea of Santa Claus. It didn’t take long for us to realize this tradition was not for us.
What do you remember more as a child? Is your vivid memory of Santa what “he brought you” or is it of finding out that he wasn’t real? Both of our memories were of finding out that Santa wasn’t real. I remember my Aunt telling me and my Mom being mad at her for a long time for telling me. Randy’s memory was of his sister telling him. I also remember being at Kmart as a kid at Christmas time and my brother and I convincing our youngest brother to pretend like he still believed in Santa because as long as he believed in Santa my brother and I would continue to get extra gifts.
So, with that in mind we have lying, conniving and selfishness all tied up in a pretty ribbon called Santa. Not so pretty is it? As parents we teach our children that when their teeth fall out a fairy comes and brings them money. We teach them that the Easter Bunny brings them a pretty basket of candy. We teach them that when they go to sleep on Christmas Eve Santa Clause comes down their chimney (even if they don’t have one) and he gives them presents. We also teach them that Jesus Christ came to this earth as a baby, died on the cross for their sins, and God raised him from the dead, and if they believe in Jesus that they will have eternal life.
All these people/characters the kids have to believe in. They cannot see the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, Santa Clause or Jesus, but they are told to believe in them. Soon enough in every kids life an Aunt, Sister or some kid on the playground tells the truth about Santa. Then the kid is left with wondering what else is not true? Randy and I decided that the fun of Santa wasn’t worth the lying that it takes.
Recently, a friend of mine was talking about her “freakish Aunt” that didn’t ‘Do Santa”. She didn’t know my view about the subject when she brought it up. The thing is that her Aunt didn’t decorate, didn’t buy presents, and didn’t sing Christmas carols. This is not what I’m talking about. At our house Santa is not the Devil! Our kids can sit on his lap at the Mall if they want to. They can color pictures of him at school. They can say his name without having to wash their mouth out with soap. We just don’t tell our kids that Santa brings them presents when they go to sleep! Why would we? He doesn’t. We do tell them that Jesus came to this earth as a baby, died on the cross for their sins, and God raised him from the dead, and if they believe in him they will be saved. Why do we tell them that? He did. BELIEVE in Jesus!