The Great Santa Debate

This time of year, it seems that 'Santa Claus' is nearly equally polarizing as the names 'Edward' and 'Jacob' in a cafeteria filled with 6th course girls.

The thing is, I understand, respect, and capeesh both sides of the Santa debate. Those who don't include Santa choose to make Christ the centre of Christmas while those who practice simply want to incorporate a fun childhood tradition with their own children. This mail is not intended to sway anyone i mode or another. It is actually written for my own sake…to procedure and organize my thoughts about incorporating Santa into our own Christmas celebration.

Upwardly until this year, I accept been happily ignorant of the whole upshot. Both my husband and I grew up in homes where Santa Claus was part of our celebration. We both have treasured Christmas memories that involve Santa.

So when we celebrated Big Brother'due south first Christmas 3 years agone (when he was 11 months sometime), we didn't even think nigh whether or not we would include Santa. It was a given.

It really wasn't even until this year that I started assessing whether we really should exist including Santa in our Christmas celebrations…by and large from other bloggers and writers also as  comments on my Facebook folio whenever Santa was mentioned. I didn't really come up to any earth-shattering conclusions after I began pondering this topic, but here are a few things I've realized:

Equally parents striving to heighten our children to dearest the Lord, nosotros celebrate Christ (his life, death, and resurrection) each and every day of the twelvemonth. Nosotros talk well-nigh God throughout the day, nosotros read Bible stories, we pray regularly with our children. That's not to say that we shouldn't set up aside special times to celebrate more attentively every bit well (as God himself commanded His people Israel to do in the Former Attestation), just our daily, lifelong focus is to be on Christ.

If Christmas is the only time that y'all celebrate the nascence of Christ, I would conclude that there isn't whatsoever room for Santa in that celebration. 25 days (the length that we typically end up "jubilant" Christmas) is style too short to focus on the whole story of Christ AND Santa. But because we try to make Jesus the focus of every day of the year, having fun with Santa for a few days of the year won't take away from Christ being the center of our lives or even our Christmas celebrations. Simply yesterday I asked Big Brother, "What is Christmas about?" Without any hesitation, he replied, "About Jesus' birth!"

In our home, Santa is included simply non emphasized. Our kids take pictures with Santa (mostly because Mama wants it for the photo album), nosotros read a couple books here and at that place, and we have a few Santa figurines. But nosotros read Fashion more books near Jesus' birth, have nativity sets prominently displayed, and we focus WAY more on the real meaning of Christmas.

We talk about the story of St. Nicholas and we don't go out of our manner to embellish the fantasies surrounding Santa. Our boys are too young to ask whether or not Santa is "real", but I would venture to judge that when the day comes when our children enquire united states point-blank, "Is Santa Existent?", we won't lie to them. We are especially vigilant not to portray Santa as "God-like." We don't talk near the myths such as "He sees y'all when you're sleeping…He knows when y'all've been bad or skillful"  (unless, of course, "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" is playing on the radio). Last year, Santa (aka my dad) visited our business firm while the boys watched from the staircase. Even though this does "feed" into the myths most Santa just a little bit, in my mind it keeps him from being God-like because they can really see  him delivering their gifts and makes him more of a character (like Mickey Mouse or Elmo) and less of a deity.

The fact of the affair is, whether we like it or not, Santa is all around u.s.a.. Nearly every time we have left the house in the terminal two weeks, someone has asked ane of our children something about Santa ("Is Santa going to come to your house? What did you inquire Santa to bring you?"). We can't even walk into a store without being bombarded with images of the jolly old elf.

So, we accept a choice. Nosotros tin can either avoid Santa birthday (which is especially difficult to do in the American culture), we can go all out and embrace all of Santa (myths and all), or we can include Santa for a curt time in our daily commemoration of the nascence of our Savior. The of import thing is that we, as the parents, are intentional in every human activity of parenting (including our vacation celebrations) and decide what is all-time for our families. For our family unit, this ways the latter.

What about you? Does your family include Santa in your Christmas celebration?

(I appreciate your comments and feedback. Delight note yet, that any annotate constitute to exist rude or offensive will exist deleted immediately. I know this is a sensitive effect, but delight recollect to be respectful.)

Interested in reading a bit more about how Santa can be included in our celebration of the birth of Christ? I recommend reading this mail past the authors of When You Rise also as this postal service by Mark Driscoll.

And if you're looking for some resources on including Santa in a Christ-centered celebration, I would highly recommend:

Why Do We Call it Christmas? DVD

Veggie Tales:  St. Nicholas

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Source: https://www.icanteachmychild.com/the-great-santa-debate/

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