Christmas/Santa

richdog

My husband and I both got presents from Santa when we were little, but we are thinking of not having Santa presents for our LO. Is anybody else considering the same? It's not that we had a bad experience or anything. We just think that maybe we should focus on teaching her that she doesn't just get EVERYTHING she wants and that Mommy and Daddy work hard for what we have and God allows us to buy things. She would still have plenty of presents on Christmas and a stocking. We would still tell her the Santa story, have her picture taken with Santa, etc. It's just that we would always tell her it's a fun make believe story. Kind of like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, etc.  Any thoughts? Please, be nice.  

crsanchez87

I don't think its a bad idea if that's what you feel would work best for your family. 

I, personally, feel as though they have such a short time in their lives to believe in imaginary stories and fill their head with little bits of wonder and magic that I will be telling my child about Santa as a real story, we will leave out cookies for Santa and He will bring him one-three gift/s that he will get to open in the morning. The gifts from mommy and daddy (aunts, uncles, etc) will be opened Christmas eve, as is our family tradition. 

We wont be doing Elf on the shelf though, that thing creeps me out. 

SMac2013

Check out this article. https://batonrouge.citymomsblog.com/why-my-kids-only-get-3-gifts-for-christmas/

Pumpkin91407

I struggle with the Santa thing too. I was raised in family that did not celebrate Christmas but my husbands family does. I have no problem with celebrating Christmas and plan to keep it with his family but I struggle with "Santa" because I feel like I'm lying to my kid. I never believed in Santa, Easter bunny, tooth fairy etc. so It's a bit of a foreign concept to me. My husband doesn't get my issue with it and says its just make believe like fairy tales. I see his point and have no problem with fairytales and playing make believe so I will probably just go with it but plan to tell lo the truth as soon as he is old enough to start questioning. Not really any advice but I comiserate lol!

myjessesgirl

Both my husband and I grew up in Christian families that focused much more on Jesus' birth than Santa. That being said, we both also had a version of Santa that was involved in our childhoods. I think there definitely needs to be a balance. My family opened all our gifts except one on Christmas Eve. That one gift was from Santa and opened on Christmas morning. My husband only opened gifts on Christmas morning during his childhood, but only a few were labeled "from Santa." I don't think either of us ever truly believed in Santa, but I can't remember being told by my parents that he was imaginary. I think there can be a fun balance between the custom of gift giving and the story of Santa, combined with an emphasis on the season being about giving and family and loving one another. (I think that even without a Christian emphasis, you can still focus on those positive things). I was very interested to read all the answers so far. It is a thought provoking topic!

Even so, I certainly don't want my kid being the one to spoil it for her classmates when they start talking about their beliefs in Santa and she corrects them all! :P

Disneygeek77

We are also Christians but we do the Santa thing.  I believed in Santa when I was a child and have many fond memories of looking up at the sky on Christmas Eve waiting for Santa to come to my house.  It truly was magical and I wanted my children to have the same experience.  In our family, Santa stuffs the stockings and brings one maybe two presents.  The rest are from mommy and daddy.  We ask our children to make a list for Santa but they also understand he doesn't bring everything from the list, only one or two things.  I also told them that sometimes Santa brings them exactly what they wanted and other times he gets them something else.  But if Santa gives it to you, it means he  picked out that toy especially for you because he knew you would take good care of it.  

That being said, we do try to strike a balance between the religious and secular side of the holiday. Yes, we do Santa and take pictures with him but we also go to a local shrine and look at their light display and go to a local church for their gigantic interactive nativity display.

As far as lying to them is concerned, I'm not really too worried about it.  My ILs give us a hard time but I figure we are lying to them when we tell them Jesus was born on December 25th too, so why not just do the Santa thing.  Once they become older and ask questions, we will tell them as delicately as possible and then let them share in the secret that is Santa Claus.

richdog

In Kindergarten, one of my classmates told me they set a trap for Santa to prove that he wasn't real. I think I began to question the whole thing then. When my husband's family told him Santa wasn't real, he was very upset they had lied to him and cried. My main concerns are 1) I don't like the idea of lying to my kids, 2) We believe in Jesus, and I don't want my kids to confuse real (Jesus) with make believe (Santa).How do I make sure they understand the difference? 3) I struggle with celebrating Jesus's birth as a Christian along with the commercialized holiday our country celebrates.  

crsanchez87 I agree about that elf. Besides...why do I need to make more messes to clean up?!

myjessesgirl

All great questions! I have no idea how to answer them, so I'll leave you with these two articles, which each come to different conclusions on the Christian/Santa issue. Seems like your concerns are fairly common among Christian parents!

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/thinking-about-santa

https://www.christianitytoday.com/women/2011/december/why-santa-belongs-in-your-kids-christmas.html?paging=off

richdog

@AGM0616 Thank you!

SharLovesAlex

@AGM0616 You are one of the most helpful people on this message board. Not putting anyone else down or not giving credit to all the other ladies, but I honestly look forward to your responses! This wasn't a post I made, but I found your answer helpful.

I was raised Christian, but in a home where anything make believe was frowned upon. My stepfather was very strict. Christmas was always a fun holiday because my mon encouraged and nurtured the whimsical side of the holiday (when he wasn't around. Long story that doesn't need to be told here.) Santa movies and the story of Saint Nicholas along with the story of Jesus' birth were part of our traditions. I always felt that if my stepdad hadn't been so against it, we couldve enjoyed these things openly as a family and had fun with it.

That being said, we've agreed we'll tell Alex about Santa, along with the story of Jesus birth and how His gift gave Santa a giving heart. We'll make sure we tell him both were real men, and that both of them have now given us a heart and spirit of giving to him! I don't think that's harmful.

You do whatever you feel comfortable with. And if you don't feel like introducing Santa at all, that's fine too!