So it didn't hurt my feelings when, as a my then fiance, Daniel told me he didn't want to tell our children that Santa was real. He was devistated as a child when he found out that Santa wasn't real...never fully recovered if you ask me. Good. One less thing, right? One less charade to put on. Great chance to emphasize the real reason for the season, right? Well, yes....and no.
As long as we stay in our little world here at home, it's great. But when we leave and are bombarded with "Holiday" ridiculousness it seems like all the Baby Jesus talk becomes pointless. And because we haven't played up the whole Santa, elves and naughty or nice stuff people look at me like I'm the grinch that stole Carter's Christmas. Don't get me wrong, he knows that Santa is the one in The Night Before Christmas book who says "On Dasher, on Dancer..." and that he has a white beard. But we are keeping him as that...a character from books and movies. But the cashier lady at Target gave me a scornful eye when he didn't respond to her Santa questions. And relatives look at ME when he doesn't answer the question "What do YOU want for Christmas?" It's like they think he's less intelligent because he doesn't provide the appropriate response to those questions. And I've found that people's view of holiday traditions are similar to every other part of parenthood...very personal. And everyone has very strong opinions one way or the other. So instead of snapping back with "Actually we are choosing NOT to focus on shiny material things and what we can get get GET from some fat man in a red suit, thank you!" I will be practicing my dismissive shoulder shrug and winning smile as if to say "oh well."
All that being said, I'm trying my best to find other ways to make
-Decorating the tree together while listening to...
-James Taylor's Christmas album
-Making homemade christmas cards or ornaments
-Sugary confections!! Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, peppermint patty brownies, chocolate covered pretzels (chocolate covered anything really), made from scratch hot cocoa, haystacks, and I'm fairly certain there will be some sort of jello mold- because Aunt Tammy's Jello Santa complete with whipped cream beard was always my favorite.
-A kid friendly, touchable, unbreakable nativity. Got one as a gift last year (another shout out to Tammy) and Carter loves it. Plus, it helps to....
-Tell the story of baby Jesus. Been using his toddler bible and it is way fun.
-Make wrapping and giving gifts just as fun as getting gifts. I let Carter put on the gift tags, hold his finger in the bows while I tied, and he even learned to tear the tape from the dispenser (we are working on appropriate tape length).
-Advent calendar
-Charlie Brown's Christmas (for Daniel)
I'm sure this list will grow and include things that I never thought would be traditions. And I'm excited...Santa or no Santa.
This is a great post! I've often wondered about the affect of lying to our kids about Santa. One one hand, it all seems like innocent fun, but on the other hand, it's one of the first lies that they are ever exposed to. What kind of example are we setting by lying to them like that? In EMS we talk a lot about why pediatric calls are so different from adult calls. The reason is innocence. Children are innocent from the ways of the world. But yet, when we do something like this we are showing them that the world in not innocent. And I wonder, what will that cause them to think? Obviously we can't keep them sheltered forever, but at the same time maybe a couple more years of innocence doesn't hurt either. I applaud your decision to swim against the water fall of Christmas marketing and consumerism and the spreading of false ideas! I know that can't always be easy, in a culture that is so full of it's self and buries the true Christmas story in a tomb blocked by the almighty dollar. Keep your chin up cuz; job well done!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE THIS! Justin and I dont have kids yet of course, but we also decided this year that we wont be doing Santa. We want are Children to be excited over Jesus. I think that can happen. Anyways, I was not prepared for the reactions we got from people when we decided to share this. haha. No one thinks we will follow through because it's "SO MEAN". And we too have been called Grinch. We dont get what the big fuss is. Santa was a real person. And we do plan to teach our children the history, but yeah..the guy in the red suit that brings are kids all the gifts we bought. No thanks. They can be appreciative of mommy, daddy, and a savior that loves them.
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