Sunday, July 26, 2009

Jesus vs Santa


Yes, you read that right. It is supposed to be SANTA, not SATAN. See, the thing is, this debate comes up a lot at my house. Especially in the last year. Mostly because Tessa is getting old enough to really get excited about Santa. The argument is that Anthony doesn't think we should include Santa in our Christmas celebrations...and I do.

Now, let it be noted that I grew up in the kind of religion that denied Christmas as Jesus' birthday. It was considered wrong to celebrate Jesus during the Christmas Holidays. AT ALL. You weren't even supposed to sing the songs about Jesus that are associated with Christmas--even though we did anyway. So Santa was accepted with open arms at our house.

Let me just say that my ENTIRE family has been freed from that horrible binding religion. We are all seekers and lovers of God's word, but we no longer pervert it out of a sense of fear. Amen!

Anyway, so I grew up with Santa and the excitement that his "visits" brought. I listened for reindeer and left out cookies and milk. I found out the truth about Santa when I was 7, I think. I wrote a letter to my mom telling her I knew. I didn't want her to feel sad that some kid on the bus had opened my eyes sooner than she might have wanted.

Anthony also grew up with Santa. He remembers the Christmas excitement being a little more subdued at his house. He feels like he would be lying to Tessa (and later, Jack) if he said there was a Santa. He says his conscience would bother him. That Tessa would find out the truth and then get...I don't know...disappointed. He admits he didn't feel cheated or lied to by his parents. And I didn't either for that matter.

Now I believe in celebrating Christmas as Jesus' birthday. Why not? I also feel very passionately about making Jesus the focus of the holiday. I just think it would be sad and not as "Christmasy" if we didn't mention Santa. Mostly, I feel this way because my family loves to celebrate, and Santa was just part of the traditions we practiced. And if we need to get rid of Santa, why even have a tree? How far does this need to go to be good enough?
What do y'all think?

2 comments:

Mark Phillips said...

Wow! Christmas in July!

I still waffle on this one. The one thing that I do feel strongly on is that I won't lie to Lincoln. For example, if he asked, "Is Santa real?", I would not say "Yes". But, the shades of grade below a bold-faced lie are harder for me to determine. Am I okay letting my child believe in something not real as truth? Not sure.

I think ideally, he'd would understand that it is "just for fun" and then we could celebrate it anyway. But I want my child to know that no matter what, I will be truthful with him. I want that extra level of trust.

I guess we'll see.
Mark.

Cindy said...

we tell our children a myriad of non truths...example: sponge bob square pants, transformers, spider man, princesses, etc. we all grow up with these false characters being our heroes, but does it destroy our character? no. life is about progressing and changing from one stage to another. Santa is 'pretend'

i think where we cross the line is when we make santa omniscient, and use his omniscience to threaten our children, i.e. "you better be good, because Santa won't bring you any presents.." "Santa only brings presents to GOOD little boys and girls.." and the whole "He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows if you've been bad or good...." is a precurser to legalistic, fear based, works religion.

(by the way, the first paragraph in this comment is from your dad and the rest is from me, although he concurs)

I think the main thing is to keep the main focus of Christmas on Jesus, and give Santa the part he deserves..a supporting role. don't make him the star of the holiday - he's not.

tessa will no more mistrust you for entering into santa pretend, anymore than she will over the princess/prince pretend stuff.

mom

p.s. if tessa were to ask if santa is real, i would just open my eyes really wide and say "Oh no, Tessa. He's not REAL! He's just really fun pretend, like Ariel. Do you want to leave some cookies out for him?" bet she will say YES.