Do they go with the Santa Claus myth/lie?
Do they just celebrate it as the birth of Christ?
Do they do a combo of the two with some different traditions?
I know I don't have kids yet to do Christmas, but I would like to be prepared.
What do you do or plan to do?
I would love to hear your opinion.
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9 comments:
I love Santa! I think it is fun and whimsical! My parents were great and did both. They were very aware of teaching me that Christmas was about Christ. On Christmas Eve we alwasy read in Luke about the birth of Christ. We also left a plate of cookies for Santa. We made cookies for the neighbors and people who were homebound and sang carols with them/to them. They did a lot of with us. We had fun believing in Santa, we learned the real importance of Christmas, and learned to GIVE. I am no parent yet, but I am hoping I can do the same thing!
We have found a way to balance the two at our house. I'll be blogging about it later this season and I'm too lazy to type it out now, but feel free to stalk (err...read) my blog for more info as it gets closer to Christmas. :)
Juan and I have talked about doing "El Niño Dios". In Latin American countries, it's the Baby Jesus who brings gifts, not Santa Claus. And then the Three Wise Men come bearing their gifts, too.
I like incorporating these traditions because so many times kids associate believing in Santa with believing in God - because parents teach them about it. When they grow up and "mature" they stop believing in Santa, and God.
If Jesus brings you gifts through your parents at Christmastime, there's no crisis of faith. As kids get older, they can learn that God gives good gifts - often through the people around us.
What do you think?
Miss you girlie, hope to see you soon!
Love, Cita
I'm an adult now, but when I was younger, my parents totally did the Santa thing. We got gifts from Santa, we went to see him in the mall,and we made cookies. We celebrated Christmas as a religious holiday, but included Santa. When I was around 10 or so I would ask "is Santa real, is the tooth fairy real?" and my mom would never say yes or no, but would say "what do you think?" and for a while, I was like "yes, they are real", then after some time I came to the conclusion on my own that they weren't real...it wasn't traumatizing or anything.....but my parents still gave gifts for Santa, and we still made cookies and everything...I got gifts from Santa into my 20s...the magic of Christmas never left and things weren't different, but my parents allowed me to decide if I personally believed in Santa.
I can't really tell you what I do with my kids since I don't have any, but my sister and I are 24 (her) and 21 (me) and we still get presents from Santa. The only difference between when we were younger and now is that Santa tends to come early to leave presents under the tree.
Dude what are you saying? Santa claus myth/lie? What?! Oh man, I gotta go call my mom...
Wait, what does this mean for the Tooth fairy?
Oh, I have a hard time with this! We really value honesty in our family. We also value imagination and wonder. How do I balance the two?
So far, we've not said a word about Santa in our house. We've not had to. Others around us and our culture get the message out to kids. When Joshua asks questions about Santa, I always preface my reply with, "In the stories I've always heard / read about Santa . . . " When he comes out and asks the big, "Is Santa real?" question, I plan to share the sotry of Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of children, who was known for secret gift giving and tell Joshua that our modern Santa is a representation of that spirit.
In our home, we try to keep the emphasis on celebrating the birth of Christ, celebrating love and peace, celebrating family, and celebrating generosity. Santa is a real sidenote.
We'll do both...Santa will bring the gifts, but the celebration is for Jesus' birthday.
We celebrate the birth of Christ and do the Santa thing. To me, that's part of the magic of childhood. The real world can be rough, so I want my kids to have as much of the magic as the can while they are small. I also like to take them to Disney World. I love those magical moments with the my babies!
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