I Believe In Santa Claus

We spend a lot of time at our house thinking endlessly about home school, media, natural child birth, ideas, thoughts, traditions. Because I don't want to just do things because that's the way they've always been done or because that is how everyone else is doing them.

So we have long discussions (read as: Taylor listens to Kristi's monologue) to decide what we believe and what we will do. Not that Taylor doesn't have opinions, he just reaches conclusions with a lot less talking than I need.

Earlier this week Hannah made the "boat Santa" statement to which my SIL responded with the comment that her daughter calls Santa Noah. How did Hannah learn about Santa? We have a few Christmas books about Santa and the boys talk about him occasionally (we're not big lap people so no visits for a couple years) so Hannah has learned old guy with a white beard equals excitement. James didn't know much about Santa as an only child at age two.

I've kind of always (as a mother) had bad feelings for Santa Claus. Because naturally I want to focus on the true meaning of Christmas, Christ's birth, and think my children should have an innate desire to do the same. And Santa is the bad guy. Right?

So I started my inner debate about what my stance will be on this issue. Because I like to know what I think about life, the universe and everything.

And last night I came to the conclusions that Santa is not the enemy. He doesn't take away from our focus on Christ. We spend a good portion of our holidays singing hymns, talking about Christ's birth, playing with our toy nativity, reading scriptures, thinking of Christ.

The commercialization of Christmas can be laid at the feet of large corporations, toy companies, advertisement, the media, and our own prosperity and/or greed. Santa isn't the culprit. He's just an exploited image. Traditions surrounding Santa Claus date back hundreds of years and are rich in meaning and culture. Christmas is what we make of it. Santa is who we want him to be. We can focus on the Savior and His gifts to us. And we can still do that while we believe in Santa Claus and are grateful for his gifts to us.

At our house Santa is a kind, happy man who fills our stockings and slips on to the next house. He doesn't leave gifts under our tree. And this works for us. Most of our traditions center around Christ and family. And food. It's a happy, wonderful, glorious time and I don't mind if Santa is a part of it.

Now the pedagogical debate about lying to children is a whole other issue...