the guy in the red suit - take 2

It's that time of year again. Where the stores, our tvs, children's thoughts are taken over by the guy in the red suit, yep, santa. I feel the need to post about this again because he is everywhere and it is truly a shame.

I don't think our families were very excited when we told them santa would not be welcome in our house anymore. I mean, we grew up with santa and it was fun for a few years, so I understand how it is hard for people to understand.

I seem to be hearing of more people getting rid of santa and focusing on Jesus. This makes me very happy, and I 100% believe that this makes our Lord and Savior very happy too.

But while I'm hearing about more people giving santa the boot, I still also hear people saying (when they find out we or someone else is not "doing" santa)"well, as long as your kids don't ruin it for mine" or "well, as long as your kids don't tell mine" - tell them what? The TRUTH? It's a horrible delimma for those of us who want our children to grow up with complete focus on Jesus-no sharing.

But guess what? We, the ones who don't invite santa into our homes, typically raise our children to be respectful of what others do in their homes about the not-real santa. But we can't guarantee they won't speak the truth, because after all, they are raised to tell the truth.

However, last night at Church in RA's (the boys group) some kids started talking about how santa isn't real and the teachers were getting on to them to not ruin it for the kids who believe. WHAT? Cade told me he did not get involved in it even though santa is NOT real. So you see, people who are worried about OUR kids telling your kids the truth and ruining Christmas, you need to be more worried about the kids who believed then found out the truth, because they are the ones who will be telling your kids the truth more often than not.

I don't judge anyone for using santa (we did with Cade, but our hearts changed) and most of my close friends use santa but those of us who don't are getting tired of hearing, "your kids better not ruin it for my kids, etc".

For us, as we try to completely focus on Jesus and to enjoy giving more than receiving, it's hard to explain why we need "Angel Trees" if there is supposedly a santa and it's hard to explain why we need to send boxes of presents to children in other countries. Why does santa not give to the orphans? Really? Are we going to lie about that?

Do I believe that you can do santa and your children still learn what Christmas is really about? You bet! One of my best friends' daughter put on her Christmas wish list - water, food, and money to give to the Sweet Sleep mission fund at our Church (to build beds for kids in orphanages). That kid GETS IT! and they do santa.

We don't do santa, you do-the world hasn't fallen apart. Let's be a little more tolerant of each other during this Christmas season, showing God's love, being a light to others and focusing on the reason for this beautiful season.

Christmas 2010

Some pictures from Christmas. We had Christmas without Santa this year and it was a huge success! The kids were still enchanted by the presents and excited about the day. Jenna never mentioned Santa, not once. She did a couple of weeks before Christmas. We had already decided we would neither confirm nor argue about the truth. There was already a small "belief" there and we would simply change the conversation after saying something like "you think so?". Our lives never missed a beat and they missed out on nothing. Even with Santa everywhere, I thought it was amazing how little it was brought up in our house. Every commercial had Santa in it because he is the marketing tool of the Christmas season and the only thing Jenna would say was, "that's Santa". We still watched "Santa" movies and "rudolph"-they are just movies with fake characters as are all other movies. It was never an issue. If you don't make it an issue, then it doesn't become one.

We didn't make a "happy birthday Jesus" cake-maybe one year we'll start doing that. My mom's birthday is Christmas Eve and I just don't want all of that cake in my house! We made a sugar-free cake for my mom (tasted pretty good) and Jenna decorated the whole thing, except for writing the name, but she did tell me what she wanted on there. She was so proud of herself! You'll see a picture below.

Blessings,
Lauree