Approaching the idea of 'Santa' with kids...

[Joyful Mama]

I am just about to have my first child and given the time of year I've been thinking a lot about the tradition of Santa Claus/Father Christmas and children receiving presents from "him" etc.

On one side, I feel like it is quite a silly tradition. As a Christian, for me Christmas is about the birth of Jesus. I feel that if I carried out the Santa tradition with my children, it would be taking away from the true meaning of Christmas. I also don't think it would teach them much about gratitude/giving if they are seemingly receiving free presents from a random guy every year. I also wouldn't know how to address things like how Santa doesn't visit some children (i.e. poor families, or families who don't celebrate Christmas). It seems like a very difficult and pointless tradition.

But on the other side, as a kid I did the whole Santa tradition with my parents and I loved the magic of it. I think I realised pretty quickly that the presents were actually from my parents but I still loved playing along. I also think it would be hard to raise a child without the whole Santa thing in a society where most children are a part of it.

What are your thoughts? I really don't know where I am going to stand on this as a parent! What do you do with your children?

 

[Odetta]

We did Santa. Looking back, I might - might - not have done it had I known that at his age of 13, I'd have to actually tell my newly diagnosed autistic kid that Santa isn't real. However, except for that I'm glad we did it. There are ways to do Santa without minimizing the Christ in Christmas. Free gift from Santa? How much better is the free gift of salvation through Christ. Instead of reading The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve, you read the Christmas story from the Bible. Do advent. That sort of thing. My autistic boy knows that God and Jesus are real, even though Santa isn't.

 

[Darkhorse]

That's very similar to our case. My wife and I planned to minimize the Santa stuff when we had kids, but the grandparents went full-bore with it. We didn't contradict them, but just continued to emphasize Jesus rather than Santa.

They're both in their 20s now, and both have autism issues, but they believe in Jesus and not in Santa.

 

[Joyful Mama]

Thanks for the input guys