Santa or No Santa?

Let me first begin this post by saying that we do not judge either way.  I am just going to explain to you our decision as a couple for OUR family.

Early in our marriage we began discussing how we would raise our children including whether or not we would do Santa.  We agreed that we wanted Christ to be the center of our home, no matter the cost.  We wanted our children to grow up knowing that the Lord was absolutely, no doubt the most important thing to us, even more than our marriage or even them.  We also knew that whatever decision we made about Santa, the same would be true for the Easter bunny and tooth fairy too.

Jay and I both have always had a broad world view and acknowledge that things in other countries aren't as they are in the United States.  To be honest, the US overall lives in plenty and kids in general grow up not appreciating much (me included).  We have been overseas MANY times and feel as if most people living outside the United States have better relationships, appreciate what they have and work for everything.  We always said we would love to raise our kids outside the United States.  And just maybe someday we will.  Knowing that is a possibility for our future at some point, that played in to our decision.  Why teach our kids about a fictional character to take them to a place where Santa isn't commercialized like it is here.

Also we wanted our children's view about truth/lies to be in proportion.  We try to teach our children about an "invisible" God that can meet their every NEED and then to tell them there is an "invisible" guy named Santa who brings them what they WANT doesn't seem to give a healthy view considering God is the Lord of everything and Santa is...oh yeah...not real.  To a kid, what does that do to their view of who God is?  Just a thought.

So, we decided that we would not demonize Santa, but we would not have him in our home.  Santa wouldn't come down the chimney and bring presents for them.  The presents they get on Christmas would be wrapped up from mom and dad.  We are not against getting pics taken with Santa or the discussion about the real Saint Nick, in fact we discuss him whenever the name is brought up.  We just don't make a big deal out of the fictional Santa.  Instead, we discuss the reason we celebrate Christmas and it is a birthday celebration for someone that we invite and honor in our home, Jesus Christ.  We usually have some sort of birthday celebration and always read the Christmas story before opening presents.  We don't go above and beyond in the gifts, just 3 a piece.  Sometimes small gifts that are alike are wrapped together though.  They get PLENTY though and are happy with it.

I will say that I did grow up with Santa and turned out just fine. :) I had very Godly parents who always talked about the real reason for Christmas, Jesus' birth.  And so did Jay.  Neither of us have any negative feelings toward our childhood regarding this and have fond memories of Christmas.

I will say that we have had to handle this issue differently with each kid to protect the knowledge of other children.  Karis has known for quite some time that Santa wasn't real.  In fact we never really told her until she figured it out herself.  When she would ask, "Mom is Santa real???"  We would answer, "What do you think Karis?" And she eventually figured it out and told us he couldn't be real.  Since then we have discussed it with her and she KNOWS she is NOT allowed to talk about it with other kids.  This year in Kindergarten, they are doing the "elf on a shelf" thing and she comes home and tells me all kinds of things about what crazy thing the elf "supposedly" did.  She gets a kick out of the fact that her teachers "still believe in Santa!"  Haha  :)

Brayden on other hand, we have just ignored the topic.  We will not discuss in detail with him until we can trust him with the information.  He is in the asking stage, "Is Santa real?"  And we answer with the same thing, "What do you think?"

So this is our decision about Santa.  It may not be what you choose and to each his own.

Here is a great article from Mark Driscoll about how his family deals with Santa.