Santa is a wonderful way to show the joy of this special holiday and celebrate giving. Yes, he is a "fictional" person but the spirt of Santa is so amazing. He is a person filled with happiness, love, forgiveness, and giving. He spreads Christmas cheer across the world, adds more celebration to the birth of Jesus Christ, teaches us how to be good people, and to believe. With the assistance of Santa children learn if they are good through the year they make the "nice list" and are rewarded with gifts on Christmas morning. Sounds similar to the teachings of Jesus - if we are good here on earth and follow his teachings, we are rewarded by being with our holy father in heaven for eternity. Santa's reward is a much smaller scale but one that children can understand at a very young age. He also teaches us to believe - in something you can't see, in people around you, and in Jesus and God. Believing can be a hard concept for children to understand but they see the proof and therefore start to learn what believing means. Santa is so much more than just the parents filling a roll of placing gifts in stockings or under the tree - he is the magic, love, and humanity of this special season.
My children love seeing Santa and hearing that he will bring gifts, but they also love that we will celebrate Jesus' birthday! In our family we balance the true meaning of Christmas with the magic of Santa. Christmas is truly about giving - God gave us his only son but how easy is that concept to understand for a young child? Why not put this wonderful gift into a way that they can understand? Bryce and Zoey are learning about giving to others and what that truly means. This year they each chose a child off our church's angle tree, went to the store to pick the gifts, and took them into the church to deliver them. We wanted them to be a part of this so they could experience giving to someone else. However, the joy the had about the entire process was so much more than I could have anticipated. They were beyond excited to do something for children who may not otherwise have gifts during the holidays - not once during the shopping trip did they ask for a single item for themselves. They were truly happy to be buying items for these friends and were proud of the gifts they chose. At mass when they saw the gifts surrounding the tree they lit up: "mom look at all the gifts for the friends! They will be so happy." They are absolutely correct, those children will be happy but more importantly my children learned how to give in such a joyous way and have built a foundation of a giving heart.
Bryce and Zoey are in such an impressionable age; an age where the magic is real and an age to learn and grow. It isn't just Santa - they learn from everything around them but especially from things that are magical and exciting: sibling love from Frozen, how to explore their world from Dinosaur Train, the alphabet and reading from SuperWhy, and so much more. I love that they can be excited about and learn from an old man with a white beard who brings joy and gifts on Christmas. We choose to add Santa as part of the ways they learn about the birth and gift of Jesus Christ and the wonderful gift he is to us and the world. So yes, as a Christian family we "do Santa" and choose to continue because there is nothing more beautiful to us than kids learning to give, believe, and have joy. One day Christmas wont be as magical, but until then we will go visit Santa, feed the reindeer, and sing all the Christmas songs we can! Christmas in our home will always include learning about Jesus' birth, playing with nativity scenes, and singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus, even with Santa around.
.katherine.
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