Some Christian groups are quite vocal this year for everyone to "put Christ in Christmas." They are offended by Santa Claus. Years ago I even heard people say that Santa is an anagram for Satan.
There are blogs about removing all Santa from your holiday expressions. Oh, excuse me. I mean Christmas celebration.
What I have found out is that neither choice - Santa or no- is more moral or right than the other.
Refusing to "do" Santa did not make my older children any more holy and pure. While it made us more acceptable to fellow Christians, it did alienate us from some non-Christians. Most non-Christians didn't care, but they certainly were not more drawn to us or our faith.
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| lovingly hand-knit by Grannie |
So what now? Now we visit many different families, of all cultures and churches. We enjoy going to Christmas tree lightings and Santa parties with them. We even go to Hannukah parties. We haven't lost our faith. I tell you, if this "faith" in Jesus requires brainwashing then how is it faith?
Santa will be bringing the kids' gifts this Christmas morning. We even transitioned from "playing a Santa game" in the "tradition of St. Nick" to just flat out telling the baby that Santa was bringing her gift. We have a lot of fun- all the children who never had Santa especially think it's a huge hoot to take the littles to see Santa, help them write letters to Santa, and just plunge into the wonder of it all.
It's not like Christmas is even a particularly Christian holiday anyway- how exactly is it like Jesus to spend the month shopping, decorating with baubles and hoping for stuff? It's an American holiday, and America uses Santa in it.
3 comments:
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Two things here stand out to me that I'd like to comment on -- first I, too, have heard MUCH about keeping CHRIST in Christmas and it's kinda starting to bother me because it DOES seem aimed at secular Christmas. Here's the thing,... why would expect secular Christmas to look any different, how could we expect non-Christians to celebrate Christ? As a reminder to Christians to not lose focus it's fine, as a battle cry to American, secular Christmas it makes no sense.
And the other thing is that I completely agree with the fact that a lot of how we (as Americans, as a whole) celebrate Christmas doesn't exactly honor or reflect Christ.. and that's where the admonition to keep Christ in Christmas WOULD be appropriate.. to remind Christians not to get caught up in all of the traditions and preparations and forget WHY you're doing it. We keep our spending limit low (and thereby our shopping frenzy low,) we choose our traditions carefully and we try not to overplan. There's several things we can do to not be overwhelmed by all the STUFF. Thanks!
I jumped over here from Chloe's blog, ironically (how come you don't post that you've updated on Facebook?? but I digress). Anyway, all that just to say...my husband is going to alienate *me* if he follows through on his impulsive thoughts of telling our youngest two (almost 5 and 7) outright that Santa is not real. "It's a lie," he says. "So is 95% of what we call Christmas," I say. And the time to decide this should have been before we started playing Santa, not after. Sigh.
Andrea/AndreaBT
Thanks for this, Amy. I'm emerging from my religious cocoon and finding my way out into the world and following your trailblazed path.
We do Santa and my dd11 refuses to entertain the idea that "he" doesn't exist. Dd7 is full on into "asking" Santa for things even though we've only hit the mall Santa once like 4 years ago. Dh and I enjoy the stocking thing and the excitement with the kids and aren't about to stop Santa, ever. My mom still did stocking stuffers for me and dh up until her last Christmas when I was 27.
The problem occurs with our Christian friends who expect my family, led by a non-Christian man to abide by their standards. I'm grateful for the freedom I now feel to turn back to them and reply that I don't hold non-Christians to Christian standards.
And really, I didn't feel much Christ in this Christmas and that felt sad. But I felt a lot of family togetherness, love and resourcefulness and (hold onto your hat) gratitude from a 'tween!
As for me and my house, we will continue to leave cookies and veggies on the hearth for the man in the red suit.
Brenda/Mrsborch
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