I had a car magnet that said, "Keep Christ in Christmas!" I would stick it on the back of my car around Christmas until someone in a parking lot took it while we were inside the restaurant eating! I guess they didn't like the fact that I wanted to keep "Christ" in Christmas? Or perhaps it was their way of telling me that I am behind the times because Christ is no longer part of Christmas.
I have seen the signs coming for years now and little by little, year by year, Christ was being taken out of many Christmas celebrations.
It is impossible to not see it in the stores as everything is Santa, Santa, Santa! I had to really search two different dollar stores to find miniature nativities for a project I am working on.
I went down to the National Mall last year to see our Nation's tree and there was Santa's workshop, a massive train display, and lots of trees. I remember going there as a little girl and seeing the yule log burning and the LIVE NATIVITY! Of course, it is no longer there but they do have a smaller one but it is crammed in the corner and really you have to look for it and if you are going around in the circle to see the trees it is easily missed. I am pretty sure this is intentional after all the MENORAH is placed so it can't be missed! It is a subtle way of the government making sure they take "Christ" out of Christmas.
I see Christ missing from Christmas in the schools and in my daughter's Holiday show too. Sure, they want to keep it politically correct and so they have to sing some Jewish songs for those who celebrate Chanukah and you know I am totally fine with that! We have many wonderful Jewish friends and I want them to celebrate!
I am fine with all the Holidays being represented but what I celebrate is left out every single year!
Sure there are a ton of Christmas songs about Christmas and Santa but not one about the real reason Christians celebrate. There has never been a song about the birth of Christ in the shows I have seen.
This has really bothered me lately......maybe because there is a request for my daughter to wear blue and white at the Holiday show. Not, the traditional Christmas dress like we have worn for the past two years. So I have really been thinking about this and there really is one simple conclusion..........Christians have allowed Christ to be pushed out of Christmas by replacing him with everything else this joyous season brings!
I can't blame them because it is easy to follow what everyone else is doing and it is accepted. In fact, if you don't celebrate Santa......people make comments and really don't want your kids hanging around their kids for fear they will expose the truth and ruin the magic of the season!
So the school really thinks they are celebrating Christmas because that is what Christians have shown them that it is all about Santa, presents, lights, and treats! Baby Jesus is a part of a little devotional maybe at Advent, and at the Christmas Eve service it is all about baby Jesus but come Christmas morning once the bible is taken out and the Christmas story has been read ........ the main focus is the presents and Santa and from every mom I have talked about Christmas with lately their main focus has been keeping the kids believing in the magic of Santa and not finding the presents!
I was with a group of wonderful Christian moms recently and the conversation was all about hiding the "Santa presents" and children finding them and oh no, what will they do if they figure out this Santa story that they have been feeding children isn't real? The magic will be gone! Christmas will never be the same!
You know I like magic shows and I love the magic of Disney World......it is fun. But as a Christian around Christmas I really don't think we need to mix the magic in there with the truth. Kids are concrete thinkers so it is hard enough for them to understand the real Christmas story and we go and throw in a pretend story too?
There was no magic the night Christ was born in a dirty, smelly, stable or cave. Mary didn't have an epidural so I can promise you she was in great pain and discomfort. Mary had to feel so conflicted knowing her little sweet baby would be nailed to a cross one day and hated by so many! She would only have him for 33 years on this earth! I don't see that as magical at all!
I see it as a miracle! Miracles and Magic are two different things. One is real, one isn't. Just like the real reason for Christmas. There is a real reason, and then what my friends call "the magic of Christmas" with Santa and all of his reindeer!
Honestly, everyone that knows my family knows that hubby and have chosen to not make a big deal about Santa. Sure we love watching all of the specials like Rudolph, and Frosty but we have never told our kids that Santa is coming to house down a chimney to give them presents when I actually bought them. Amanda figured it all out on her own when she was three after watching a Christmas special she turned to me and said, "There is no way Santa is real because there is no way one man could fly in a sleigh around the whole, wide, world in one night!" I wasn't surprised by her wisdom because we hadn't fed the Christmas lie to her for three years. (She still wanted to put cookies and milk out and told me "I know it is you!" Sure it was fun I even wrote her a note and signed it love, Santa but she knew it was from me and laughed. It maybe wasn't magical since she knew but it was fun so I get the confliction of whether to lie to kids or not embrace the Christmas lie!
My Santa loving friend was shocked my daughter figured it out but I wasn't because at our house for the first three years of her life the focus is all about "Baby Jesus." I assumed that most Christians felt the same but year after year it seems the push for Santa wins out over the push for baby Jesus more and more each year.
This week after listening to my friends talk about Santa, I started to wonder if I had it all wrong? Should I have made a big deal about Santa and told my girls he is real. Have I ruin the magic of Christmas by not doing what everyone else does and telling my kids the Santa lie? After all, I grew up believing in Santa and he left me presents and filled my stocking and it was magical! How could I be a good mom and deny my daughter this same "traditional lie?" But it is a lie and to keep them believing I would have to tell even more lies.......did I really want that?
But I am starting to feel alone among other Christians at Christmas like I don't fit in all because we do not do Santa! Like we are evil no fun parents especially around other Christians. I am feeling like an outsider because we are choosing to keep Christ in Christmas. I feel like Santa and Christ are in a competition and feel like I am suppose to celebrate both because it is a "harmless lie" and "part of the magic" yet I really don't think Christ can win over a young child's heart over Santa sorry! It is either one or the other when children are young. Yes, I know there was a St. Nicholas and he was real but when I read the whole real story he wasn't Santa Claus that was a "magical addition" to a true story.
My girls were at a party a couple of weeks ago and Santa wanted them to sit on his lap and tell them what they wanted for Christmas. They took a picture with him and then ran. He said, "Don't you want to tell me what you want for Christmas?" They looked at him like you know buddy we know you don't bring the presents my mom and dad do and that is why I am extra good for them, not for you! Amanda told him she didn't want anything!
There has been a lot of excitement at school about Santa and Amelia came home and asked her dad, "Is Santa really real dad?" He told her, "No!" I immediately pictured all my mom friends from school, church, gymnastics. swimming, piano, drama, cheerleading, moms club and everywhere else we go hating me because I had visions of my five year old telling them that Santa isn't really real.
So I told her to not tell any of her friends because some kids believe and we don't want to be the one to tell them because their parents will get mad at us. She came home from Awana ( a Christian program we go to) the other night and said, "Mom, I told one of the teachers that Santa wasn't really real and they said, "SSHHH....YES HE IS!"
I told her she wasn't suppose to tell anyone the truth ( I know seriously, I can't believe it has come to this) and she said, "I didn't tell any kids like you said I told an ADULT!" "She said that Santa is real!"
I almost feel like I need to run out and get a sweatshirt that says, "Please forgive me in advance if my daughter tells your kids Santa isn't real!" It is almost like you are forced to teach Santa as a Christian because every other Christian is doing it!
I was with another group of Christians at a Christmas party and they were all talking about their traditions at Christmas and they all talked about Santa, where to hide the presents, feeling like Christmas wouldn't be as much fun once their children stopped believing....................Personally, I will never have that problem because since we teach the true meaning of Christmas and not Santa, there is no end to the story we have taught our kids so while they might not have the "magic of Christmas, they can always celebrate the "miracle of Christmas" because that miracle was real and grew up to be a man who died on a cross in my place, to pay for my sins, so I could have a Savior and live in heaven for eternity. I am sorry but He offers me way more than Santa ever could so now I can answer the question I have been asking myself lately........Do I regret not teaching my kids about Santa? Absolutely, not!
