We're now into the second week of Advent. Two candles are lit on the Advent wreath and preparations continue. I have to be honest though, this can be a tough time of year for my family. In particular the kids and how they interact with other people. Anywhere you go with children during the month of December it seems like the subject of Santa Clause comes up. In the weeks before the big day, children are constantly asked . . .
"Are you looking forward to Santa coming?"
"What did you ask for from Santa this year?"
People ask children these questions . . . all. the. time! Once again this point was proven when "K" and "M*" were with me at Walmart this past week. We get to the checkout. The young lady behind the register was so sweet, and out came those questions toward my two girls. "K" and "M*" both looked at me. Their expression said it all. "Really? Again?" To prevent my daughters from explaining this again I fielded the question. I said very nicely. "In our family we choose to celebrate Jesus. We don't do the whole Santa thing." Very nicely. Very matter-of-factly. You would have thought I had just ran over a baby deer with a monster truck right in front of the store. The young cashier looked at me wide eyed, not knowing what to say. She shook her head quickly and just started ringing up our groceries once again. Not another word. In the car I asked the girls how they felt about that exchange. They are comfortable with the way our family chooses to celebrate Christmas, but it's hard for them to answer questions about it.
Here's my feeble attempt to ease that for them:
We do not use Santa in any of our celebrations of Christmas. We never have and we never will. I promise, my children are not missing out on anything. For us, Christmas is strictly a celebration of God becoming incarnate in Jesus Christ. Jesus being fully human and fully God. This being said, we do not judge others for celebrating with Santa. Truly . . . I believe that every family should make their own choices in how they want to celebrate. Our choice just happens to exclude Santa. We have several reasons for why we came to this decision years ago.
1. Santa Claus is fiction. Jesus is non-fiction. I don't ever want my children to confuse the two. Celebrating with Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, the Easter bunny, etc. has parents playing up a fictitious being as real. I do not want my children thinking Jesus and God are just one more of the long list of things that ended up just being fairy tales.
2. Santa has a naughty and nice list. Those on the nice list are showered with gifts. The naughty ones receive a lump of coal. That's not how Jesus works. Each and everyone of us sin and are on the naughty list. Guess what!?!?! . . . Jesus loves us anyway. He died on the cross to save us from our sins. God loves each of us no matter what!
3. Santa is a stranger that comes into your home in the middle of the night. Really . . . don't you find that creepy?!?!
4. The commercialization of Christmas and the play up of Santa creates an atmosphere of the "haves" and "have-nots". With Santa there are expectations that children will receive gifts regardless of a family's ability to provide such gifts. Some horrible segregation can happen when children return to school and talk on the playground about what they received from Santa (and from their parents). Christmas is Jesus' birthday . . . not ours. I never want gifts to be the focus of our celebration.
So there you have it folks. There are other reasons as well, but these are the highlights. If you choose to celebrate Christmas with Santa I wish you the best. There is no judgement towards how you want to celebrate. However, I hope this may dispel some of the judgement we receive from people when they hear that we omit Santa from our Christmas celebrations.
Have a happy second week of Advent!
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