Christmas and Sants Clause.

[CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN]

What your belief in this area.I was tought that ,there was no such thing,as long as I can remember,Well I turn out fine.Do u allow your kid to believe or not,Why.My moms reason,Was there no such thing as Santa,I can see her reason.

 

[Mayzoo]

Before our daughter was born, we agreed to not go with the commercialized Santa story, but rather to emphasize Jesus' Birth. We were going to explain that we exchange gifts on Christmas to celebrate Jesus' Birth, but we give to each other since He is not on Earth right now to open the gifts. We also were going to discuss the true story of the original Saint Nick and emphasize the good of that story.

Our daughter has Autism, so even if we had changed our minds, I do not feel she would have done well with the imagination/fantasy versions of the holidays. We do not have the toothfairy, Easter bunny, etc... at our house. As it stands, she wants to hold and see her old baby teeth at least three times a month and she has so much fun looking at them, so that worked out well I suppose .

She does however, have a great imagination for the things she chooses to partake in such as pretending certain stuffed animals are alive, have feelings, and needs. And boy I tell ya, those little critters can cause a heap of trouble on occasion .

 

[Alicia_M]

My husband and I actually had a disagreement over this issue. Never feeling right about commercialized Christmas, I worried over reinforcing the "Coca-Cola" Santa. Fretting about potentially damaging their faith or how hurt they may have been when they discovered a lie, I told both my girls that Santa (as pop culture portrays him) isn't real.

Explaining the Nativity as the day we celebrate Christ's birthday, I went on to educate them about the symbology of all things relating to Christmas: the Christmas tree representing eternal life as it is evergreen, the star or angel on top (star of Bethlehem or the Announcement of Jesus being born into the world), the lights on the tree representing all the lights of God in the world (Christians), the ornamentations as the blessings of the Lord, gifts exchanged to celebrate the good news as well as charity between mankind, and also the candy cane in the shape of a Shepherd's crook representing the purity of Christ and the blood of His sacrafice (Passion). As to Santa Claus, I explained about Saint Nick and how we continue to honor that Spirit (Holy Spirit): giving to the less fortunate, spreading joy into the world. Basically, it's the same Spirit of Love passed down through the ages because God never changes.

When my hubby discovered this teaching in action, he had no more qualms over my decision to teach the children about the real Spirit of Christmas.

 

[twob4me]

We don't do santa in our house. Our daughter is now 13 yrs old and she has known from the beginning that santa claus is not real. I understand why people do santa and that's their choice. For us, we felt that it would be lying to our child by saying that something that she can't see is real.

We have also told her about God and Jesus. She can't see either one of them either. If we did santa and kept lying to her about him and then one day she finds out he's not real what would her thoughts on God and Jesus be? We felt it was best to be honest from the get go.

We have always taught her the reason we celebrate Christmas is for Jesus. She still gets presents for Christmas it's just that we don't include santa claus. She has a friend of hers thats almost a yr older than she is and this friend still believs in santa claus and her parents still do santa ever year. Our daughter has tried to tell her that he's not real and we've have told her that it's not her place to tell her friend that. If her friend wants to believe that's her choice. Sooner or later she'll know the truth.

For me, I wish people would push Jesus more and santa less. It's so heartbreaking to see santa being allowed to stay up but nativity scenes are being forced to be removed because some people have taken offense. So for us, that's all the more reason to not do santa in our house.

 

[savedandthankful]

We do Santa in the red suit and stuff, but I base it on the original stories from Europe that involved secret giving rather than the lie that he comes down the chimney with presents. So I guess we meet the Santa thing half way.

 

[Singermom]

We don't do the fat man in the red suit. We sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus, we open gifts (our saying is that, Jesus gave US the greatest gift anyone could give - the gift of Life and Salvation - so we give physical gifts to each other instead). The girls (ages 7 and 5) each pick a gift for Toys for Tots: one for a boy, one for a girl. This year they've also set up (already!) shoeboxes for Samaritan's Purse.

We all adore our church's candlelight service on Christmas Eve; for us, THAT is what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

The girls know the STORY of Santa, and know about St. Nicholas. They also know that some children think that Santa is real, so it would not be nice to say otherwise; that's for their parents.

Part of it is, as twob4me said, if they think that Santa is real, and then found out he wasn't, where does that put Jesus? Another part is strictly selfish on my part: I found out in a horrible, traumatic, publicly humiliating way. The biggest is that the whole "making a list for Santa and expecting to get everything" fosters unbridled selfishness and false expectations.

Our girls DO make a list of things that they want, with the understanding that they will NOT get everything. It's just to help us with choices.

 

[CrystalBrooke]

I grew up believing in Santa, as did my two younger syblings, we weren't damaged when we found out that the commercialized Santa wasn't real. I didn't feel betrayed or lied to and it never made me question the existence of God. St. Nick was indeed a real person and since my daughter goes to a Catholic school she will most certainly learn all about him but we still do the fake Santa. I think by the time children are old enough to figure out that Santa isn't real, they know the difference between him and Jesus.

I don't think it hurts children to let them believe in Santa and I don't think it hurts them if you tell them that there isn't a Santa. The only problem I'd have is if some kid who knew told my daughter that Santa wasn't real while she still believed.

 

[ChildByGrace]

I grew up believing in Santa, as did my two younger syblings, we weren't damaged when we found out that the commercialized Santa wasn't real. I didn't feel betrayed or lied to and it never made me question the existence of God. St. Nick was indeed a real person and since my daughter goes to a Catholic school she will most certainly learn all about him but we still do the fake Santa. I think by the time children are old enough to figure out that Santa isn't real, they know the difference between him and Jesus.

I don't think it hurts children to let them believe in Santa and I don't think it hurts them if you tell them that there isn't a Santa. The only problem I'd have is if some kid who knew told my daughter that Santa wasn't real while she still believed.

I agree with this. I was told about santa and it never made me doubt the validity of Jesus. We do plan to do the santa thing in our house but we will always put a major emphasis on Jesus' birth.

 

[Jilly123]

Before our daughter was born, we agreed to not go with the commercialized Santa story, but rather to emphasize Jesus' Birth. We were going to explain that we exchange gifts on Christmas to celebrate Jesus' Birth, but we give to each other since He is not on Earth right now to open the gifts. We also were going to discuss the true story of the original Saint Nick and emphasize the good of that story.

We do the same thing. We exchange presents, talk about the birth of Jesus and how Christmas the story of Saint Nick and DD knows not to "spill the beans" to her friends. We do the same thing with the "tooth fairy" and the "easter bunny" - she knows they are both not real and it's really mom and dad who hide the eggs and put money under her pillow, but we still enjoy the "fun" of these things.

 

[TaterFaith]

we have never lied to our children about Santa... I would like to share some info we just found out about the other day.. I am disturbed but relieved to know the truth..I hope I can post this, please watch all 9
no one "loved" Christmas more than I.

This guy gives some detailed information about the origins of Easter and Christmas.​

Truth or Tradition by Jim Staley ~ Featured on God's Learning Channel.​

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Part 1 YouTube - eschatos7's Channel​

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Part 2 YouTube - eschatos7's Channel​

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Part 3 YouTube - eschatos7's Channel​

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Part 4 YouTube - eschatos7's Channel​

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Part 5 YouTube - eschatos7's Channel​

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Part 6 YouTube - eschatos7's Channel​

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Part 7 YouTube - eschatos7's Channel​

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Part 8 YouTube - eschatos7's Channel​

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Part 9 YouTube - eschatos7's Channel​

 

[£amb]

My family grew up believing Santa and we were a fundamentalist christian home. It was a tradition that was passed down through the families and we have done it in our own home. It did not take away from our belief in Christ. One of our traditions is to read the full story about Mary conceiving Jesus through to the birth. My children are older now and know that Santa is not real, but it did not affect them in any way shen the found out...they admitted that they enjoyed the tradition and actually still like to do some of the things they grew up doing.

 

[Jilly123]

we have never lied to our children about Santa... I would like to share some info we just found out about the other day.. I am disturbed but relieved to know the truth..I hope I can post this, please watch all 9
no one "loved" Christmas more than I.

This guy gives some detailed information about the origins of Easter and Christmas.​

Truth or Tradition by Jim Staley ~ Featured on God's Learning Channel.​

Part 1 YouTube - eschatos7's Channel​

Part 2 YouTube - eschatos7's Channel​

Part 3 YouTube - eschatos7's Channel​

Part 4 YouTube - eschatos7's Channel​

Part 5 YouTube - eschatos7's Channel​

Part 6 YouTube - eschatos7's Channel​

Part 7 YouTube - eschatos7's Channel​

Part 8 YouTube - eschatos7's Channel​

Part 9 YouTube - eschatos7's Channel​

Interesting links. I watched the first few and I agree with a lot of what he has to say. I was just talking about it with a friend of mine who is a teacher at a school where half of the children are Muslim, and even those children celebrate Christmas. There is certainly nothing Christian about it.

But having said that, I think people can get quite legalistic about something like this. I know that Jesus was not born on the 25th of December, but that is when our family chooses to celebrate His birth. I'm sure Jesus doesn't mind whether I celebrate His birth in December or during Sukkot, or whenever. If others feel convicted about it, and prefer to celebrate His birth when it was more likely to have happened, that is absolutely great. It is just a date, what really matters is the heart attitude.

I have heard about 5 different origins of Christmas that are all pagan. Honestly, it doesn't bother me, because *I* am celebrating the birth of Christ, nothing less, nothing more. Same goes for Easter.