mrsnschneiter - Not Doing Santa

twister22 · November 2013

You asked on U/O Thursday what type of traditions/celebrations we do since we don't do Santa, and I knew it was going to be a long post, so I thought it would be easier to start a new post. We have a DS(5) and DD.

Starting December 1st we do this Little People Nativity Advent Calendar:

Each day the kids will unwrap that day's LP, as well as a Christmas book. (Some of the Christmas books we have are; Little Star by Anthony DeStefano, Itsy Bitsy Christmas by Max Lucado, My Christmas List by Amy Parker, The Sparkle Box by Jill Hardie, What Is Christmas (board book) by Michelle Medlock Adams, Happy Birthday Jesus (board book) by Michelle Medlock Adams, God Gave Us Love (board book) by Lisa Tawn Bergren, The Legend of the Candy Cane coloring book, The Gift of Jesus Dot-to-Dot coloring book, The First Christmas coloring book, My Christmas coloring book w/ stickers, and The Story of Christmas Activity book.) Each year we'll need to replenish the coloring books, and we may update some books as the kids get older, but otherwise we'll reuse the books.

Starting either the day after Thanksgiving or December 1st we will start doing The Christmas Angel.

It is loosely comparable to Elf on the Shelf, but with much deeper meaning. The mission of the Christmas Angel is to teach that the greater blessing is to give rather than receive. Each morning the kids wake up and find The Christmas Angel, with instructions for an act of service to do that day. People can get as creative as they want in regards to "staging" the angel; I will have the angel with the supplies needed to complete a project (i.e. if we're baking cookies for a neighbor then I'll have out the ingredients, baking supplies, container, etc.) or posed for what we're supposed to be doing (i.e. in the play cart with play food if we'll be buying groceries for the food pantry.) Each day I will also include a Bible verse that ties in either literally or figuratively.

We have the book The Sparkle Box

The book comes with an actual sparkle box, which we'll have sitting in a prominent place (for us, it's the mantel.) Each day I will place in there a slip of paper of what act(s) of service we did that day. Christmas Eve after dinner we will have a birthday party for Jesus - balloons, cake, etc. We will read from the Bible the story of Jesus' birth, and we will talk about the significance of His life. We will open the Sparkle box, and we will read to our kids the acts of service we did throughout the season, and that that is our gift to Jesus. A small gift in comparison to what He gave us, but a gift nonetheless.

We also visit a live Nativity near us each year.

The decorations in our home are typical Christmas decorations; tree, wreath, garland, lights, etc. Our tree has mostly Christian ornaments on it, and we have several nativities.

Now, I am not so anti-Santa that I won't let DS watch movies that have Santa. We have the Veggie Tales movie "Saint Nicholas: A Story of Joyful Giving," which goes into the origins of Santa Claus. That movie doesn't really talk about the modern day Santa though. DS knows the story of Santa, but he knows that Santa's pretend, just like superheros and Disney characters are pretend. DH & I took DS to see "The Guardians" in theater last year, and we thought it was adorable. My parents have the Rudolph and Santa movies, and DS watches those at my parents' house. Obviously when DD is old enough she'll be able to watch the movies too.

DH & I worried about our kids "ruining" Santa for kids whose families do it. We understand that Santa isn't for us, but obviously a lot of people still do it, and we don't want to ruin another families traditions. However, DS has been really good about never saying anything. He knows that those kids believe Santa's real, and that their parents will tell their kid it's not when their ready to hear it. Hopefully DD and future children will be the same.

To expand on that since other people asked what we would do if one of our kids tells a classmate - DS really knows not to say anything. There are certain conversations we have had with DS, the Santa one included, that he understands different kids are ready to hear different truths at different times. He knows it's not appropriate to tell someone something like that, because that child's parents may not be ready for their kid to hear that.

Sorry, I'm sure that's way more than you wanted lol. I was just on a roll

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