I have been doing a lot of thinking yet I don't have time to blog all of my thoughts. Here are a few questions to get some feedback.
What does your family do about Santa?
I personally will not encouraged my children to believe in Santa. I refuse to lie to my children and have them believe a lie. The words that come out of my mouth to my children will be truth. I am on a journey to build a relationship of trust with my children. My goal is to teach my children God's word. I will gladly teach them about Saint Nicholas. But, I refuse to share the celebration of my savior & King with Santa. We will not take pictures with Santa - as festive & fun as that feels. It's not going to happen in this household. I guess I am a "kill-joy."
How does your family keep Christ in Christmas?
This one I am still working through. And I want to hear yours thoughts. We read our "Christmas" story books every night. We sing songs about Jesus. We are trying to learn "Away in a Manger" right now. As my children get older - we probably will be able to do more activities. We are going to have a birthday cake for Jesus. Emily will love this and it will really work for her age. :)
"We give gifts to celebrate the greatest gift." That just doesn't seem very substantial to me. Hmmmm....... Should we take everything and spiritualize it? Driving & look at lights - Jesus is the light of the world. Gifts - Jesus is the best gift. etc.etc.
What are you giving to Jesus this year for Christmas?
5 comments:
I'm responding to your questions on my blog tomorrow, but I'd encourage you to read the book Treasuring God in Our Traditions by Noel Piper. I like to know the reasons behind our traditions -- sounds like you do too. You'll appreciate this book -- even more as your kids get older.
BTW, all our traditions should point to just that, Treasuring Jesus.
In our world we were not kept from knowing about Santa Claus or enjoying stories or pretend. But it was presented at the same level of "reality" as the fairy tales, Clifford books, and Berenstein Bears stories - we knew it was just something fun to pretend. Like building a fort outside and defeating the dragons...we knew they didn't exist but it was seriously fun to pretend. So we talk about Santa, and always secretly laughed at people who really believed. I mean, they must have also thought Peter Pan could fly! (we had never seen the movie, but had certainly read the book)
So we enjoyed ALL the "fun festive" songs and stories of Christmas as a sort of addendum to the real reason which was what we knew.
How we knew/kept the real reason?
Advent calendars of many different kinds, Advent candles at devotional times, Always a (home built) manger in front of the tree, and always always keeping it in our minds/mouths.
So, if you ask me now - I'll tell you I believe in Santa, the exact same answer I would have given at age five or six - and I mean it the same way. I believe that Santa's even more fun than a lot of other stories that are around...
(I don't have kids - but when I do that's my plan because I believe it worked well for us.)
I'm with the Lazy Philosopher... couldn't have said it better about the pretend stuff. My husband is a great believer in imagination and creativity, so while I didn't grow up with much of that, I enjoy my children pretending and the joy they receive from it. I appreciate it more after living with someone for 8 1/2 years who is highly creative and grew up that way. He's just easier to live with :>)
I don't think it sounded harsh! :)
We do a birthday party for Jesus at the church (and I might with my own kids because it helps make a connection with the littlest ones), and we discuss how giving presents to each other is symbolic (makes a memory) of the wise men. And because we talk about communion making a memory of the last supper I can remind them of that and help them find a connection to Jesus in the tradition.
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