I know. I know. Touchy subject and everyone has an opinion so why add another opinion? First, I never intended to write about something with such controversy. I’m a peace maker at heart so stirring the waters isn’t my comfort zone! But this week has really got me thinking about a few things regarding Christmas traditions especially with two little boys and one getting old enough to really start to understand. So please bear in mind, I am not on either end of the spectrum of Santa opinions, I find myself sort of in the middle and still sorting it all out in practice!
Let me start with giving you a couple backgrounds. My husband grew up with Santa. I did not. In fact, when we first started dating and I had Christmas with his family it honestly jarred me that he was an adult and still practicing Santa traditions. I knew people did, but I just wasn’t expecting it for some reason. Santa was never a part of our family growing up, sure we knew who he was, and we respected other children’s beliefs without dashing them, but we certainly did not believe in the magic of Santa. My husband’s family knew that he wasn’t actively real, but they still kept the traditions of Santa at Christmas.
When we began thinking about our family, well you can imagine the discussions. I struggled with Santa giving gifts as well as parents because I knew that there would be many years that we could not afford to give many gifts and I did not want us to go into debt because of it. Plus, I wanted our children to learn other values at Christmas other than just what is Santa going to bring me. My husband loved the magic of the season and fun that went with it and also the story of the actual St. Nick. So, we did find a great compromise in that we would teach the history of St. Nicolaus and what he did but that we would not teach the magic of Santa or believe in him.
However, this week something much bigger has been at the forefront of my mind that I cannot shake. Christmas is just that CHRIST-MAS…more of Christ. Much more of Christ. Christ blown up in big proportions! But…when I look around, I see not Christ blown up but Santa! We want pictures with Santa, we want literal blow ups of Santa, we decorate with Santa, we sing songs about Santa, we see his picture everywhere, we talk about Santa sending his elf to keep an eye on us, we use him to bribe or keep kids good…Santa is HUGE. Christ…He is a small little manger scene somewhere in our houses. We make Santa out to be omniscient and possibly even omnipotent and omnipresent (especially in several movies) that he is starting to sound like a seasonal god to me. While the true omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent One is reduced to a sweet story that we tell throughout the season and do some things to tell His story. He’s not big. He’s not blown out of proportion (although you can never blow God out of proportion). The way our holiday has become I sometimes look around and think why people even call it Christmas when it just seems to be a time of adoring and celebrating Santa.
I don’t want that for our kids. I want Christ to be so much the forefront that they live and breathe every waking moment knowing that this season is celebrating HIS birthday and it is so exciting!!! And I want the same when it comes to Easter. All throughout the year I want our kids to know that we celebrate every day because of Christ but, yes, Easter and Christmas are extra special because of what happened around those times. Santa will be the little story that we tell because he is a great man that we do tell stories about just like we do in celebration of St. Andrews day or St. Patrick’s Day etc. We want our children to see examples of other godly men and women who demonstrated God’s love in unique ways but that’s just it, they followed God’s heart—they were not the heart of the holiday.
Practically I haven’t figured out all the ways I want them to experience the joy of the season yet, but my husband and I have thought through some traditions so far that I’ll be happy to share in a follow up post. But before I share those, I just want to challenge you with the heart first: who is at the center of your holiday? Who shines the biggest? Is it Santa or is it Christ? And do you really want more of Christ in your season or is it more like Santamas? Who do you celebrate at Christmas?
