At our house we don’t do Santa Clause. Never have. Our reasons for doing so are simply because we didn’t want to take away from the reason for the season.
What about you? Santa Clause or no Santa Clause?
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No Santa for us. 🙂
jessicafeuser at hotmail dot com
We do Santa at our house. My kids are too old for me to all of a sudden take it back, but now I wish we had done things differently. My how the perspective changes as I grow older and wiser.
No Santa for us. We just never really talked about Santa much and some how along the line the kids figured out that Santa wasn't real and didn't mind.
Deb
[email protected]
We decided early on that we would do Santa… but from the standpoint of St. Nicholas. Letting our kids know there really WAS a "Santa", just different than what is now so commercialized.
~Danelle
theandresfamily(at)yahoo(dot)com
We do Santa. It was a hard decision for us though. We finally decided that while we enjoyed parts of Santa when we were kids, we did not enjoy not knowing until we were "old." We tell our 2 year old that Santa is just a story, and the Santa gifts are small and in the stockings that were handmade and covered in sequins by grandma. When asked who comes at Christmas, our 2 year old says "Jesus." And we're working on saying "Christmas is a birthday."
Santa does visit our home. I don't think there is a right way or a wrong when it comes to Santa. Our children go to a Christian Day school and know what CHRISTmas is really all about and why we celebrate it. I just feel that Santa adds and strengthens the childs imagination. We also have seen Santa figurines that kneel the the baby Jesus and and our kids thought that was way it should be. Yes Santa brings them extra goodies at Christmas but even Santa knows our Savior.
We do Santa here, but he only brings one "big" gift & usually it's for all the girls to share.
pinkebody(at)yahoo(dot)com
Like you, we didn't want to detract from the story of Jesus by adding in Santa. So my kids (6, 4, 3, 1 years old) are told that Santa isn't real. He's just a fun thing to do around Christmas. We've talked some about St. Nicholas but not as much as we should. We do stockings but they are very low key and the kids understand we are the ones giving the gifts.
We have told our kids the story of St. Nicholas and that he is now dead. they know Santa/reindeer is made up. we do stockings, but they know it's all from us.
It's great fun when someone asks my kids if they are being good for Santa and they reply… "Santa is dead!" (true story)
I am interested in seeing the comments posted here.
My husband and I are new Christians so we are building our own traditions and will be celebrating Christmas for the first time with our 3 year old and 7 month old daughters. So far we have not introduced Santa at all and I think we won't do so in the future. We have a Christmas storybook describing the birth of Jesus that we have been reading to our daughters. Our older daughter has really enjoyed this and has begun requesting the story! 🙂
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We've read about Saint Nicolas (along with reading other stories that involve Santa like Twas the Night Before Christmas) – but focus on the fact that altho St. Nick was a real man that we can learn from- the character of Santa is just for pretend. We do have fun sprinkling Reindeer food (oatmeal) on the front lawn though 😉
Amber
[email protected]
We don't really do Santa. I have a 3-year old and twins that are 2. Since it is hard to avoid Santa and they aren't quite old enough to try and explain everything, I just downplay Santa as much as possible. The Christmas books I got from the library don't have anything to do with Santa. They aren't all religious, like a Sesame Street one, but for the most part they are. We do have some movies that have Santa like The Polar Express and a Winnie the Pooh Christmas movie. If my 3 year old says something about SC bringing gifts, I tell her not at our house – mom and dad give you gifts. And they definitely know that Christmas is Jesus' birthday. I plan to have some kind of little cake for Christmas Day.
Lauren
pianogal39 at juno dot com
We do Santa at our house . We read about St. Nicholas.
We don't do santa. That is how I grew up and we've continued that with our son. My husband thought it was odd at first, but when he heard my Mom's reasoning, it made sense to him. She didn't want me ever to doubt God when she one day told me "oh wait santa isn't real" if she had been telling me for years he was. (Which I have heard a boy ask his Mom this very question.) I feel very strongly about this and how crazy people act making sure their kids continue to "believe." Our son is in school now and we've told him the truth about how some parents tell kids he brings presents. We've told him not to tell other kids about it, that it's something their parents have to talk with them about when they are ready.
We've always done Santa, but on a small scale. Only a couple presents from him. But this year, when my youngest turned 8, we sat down to a devotion about the originals of the real St. Nicholas, and that eventually got around to a conversation about Santa being commercialized from that story. There were really good things to learn about many of our traditions from the St Nicholas story, so it was a great family devotion, and we can finally be done with Santa.
No Santa here. I feel like as a Christian you are lying to your kids if you tell them Santa is real. If you want your kids to believe in something then have them believe in the ONE who is real – Jesus!
Mindy
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We do Santa, because I always enjoyed Santa as a child and so did my husband. We never forget the true reason for Christmas. We have a birthday cake for Jesus every year and read the "real" Christmas story from the Bible. As the kids get older, I'm sure the fun of Santa will be spoiled by kids at school, so it's fun while they're little.
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Just a couple of weeks ago, I posted on my blog about this very topic.
http://shanemerrittfamily.blogspot.com/2009/12/dear-mrs-claus.html
We don't do Santa Claus either. We have told the boys from the very beginning that, although they see and hear about Santa EVERYWHERE at Christmas, he is just like any other character in the books or movies–just pretend. We do have some fun, like going to the local library to do the 'visit with Mrs. Clause' day, and the boys enjoy that–but they understand that Mommy and Daddy are the ones that bring presents, not Santa Claus.
After talking with a couple of older Christian parents, we felt that trying to explain about Santa–a man who lives in a place that we can't see, someone who returns 'our good' with 'gifts', someone who is filled with good, etc.–and Jesus, who shares a lot of those same characteristics in ways–was too similar. Some day, when they find out that Santa isn't real–and every child does at some point, and for some it can be a traumatic thing–they will come to realize that Mom and Dad have been lying to them all these years. What is to cause them to continue to believe in Jesus then? If we lied about Santa, we might not be telling the truth about Jesus either–and then we have created doubt in the minds of our child as to whether or not they can trust us about ANY other subjects. This is only our personal preference, and we do not push our beliefs on anyone else, but we feel pretty strongly about it!
Plus, there is the more simple fact of NOT taking away anything about Jesus during this time of year.
{And, also, we do caution our children that not all mommies and daddies tell their children about Santa at the same time, so we tell them not to say anything to other children about Santa not being real. :)}
Great discussion Jill!
Devin
[email protected]
(also a google reader subscriber)
Santa–I love the tradition. There are many Christians who feel like you are lying to your children when you have Santa at Christmas but I think that it is just as much about pretending as any other make believe you play with your children. Whatever your decision is for YOUR family–please do not JUDGE those of us who enjoy the traditions of Santa. Granted our version of Santa will follow the real lines of St. Nickolas. To each their own!
Tawnda
[email protected]
We don't do Santa. When our kids were litte, we would read the book "Santa are you for Real?" to help the kids understand the tradition and to not view Santa as "Bad." We didn't make such a big deal about it, so the kids wouldn't say things to their friends or be judgemental in any way. Strange thing to…our middle daughter insister there was a Santa. So, we played along (left out cookies, etc). Again, not making a huge deal out of it; but we didn't want to squash her thinking and we still focused on the Jesus. Now she has come to her own thinking that their isn't a Santa – mainly 'cause how can one person deliver all those presents. I think it's funny, but her personality as well – her own thinker that's for sure! When my son was in second grade and his teacher was having them write letters to Santa, he raised his hand and asked "What if you don't believe in Santa?" I was worried that I would have 30 parents calling me that evening. He said that the kids were just worried he didn't get any presents – he told them he gets them from Jesus 🙂
Deb
[email protected]
We do Santa. I grew up doing it and never realized that some people don't until I had a friend who didn't do Santa with her children. For me, I was never confused, so I don't think it will be confusing for my kids. I love the tradition!
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We have chosen not to add Santa to our Christmas traditions – even though Santa was a part of my childhood. I know what Santa meant to me, and I wanted my children to have that kind of excitement for Jesus. No matter how I looked at it, I could not see how it would do anything but detract from Jesus – the reason for the season! We have a wonderful time celebrating Christmas, and my kids aren't missing out on anything. We have a birthday party for Jesus on Christmas Eve, complete with cake and everything. Then we celebrate His birthday sending out our little "wise men" to search for the hidden baby Jesus and once He is found, we read the Christmas story and exchange our presents. Christmas morning they go hunting for their stockings and write out a gift they are going to give Jesus this year and leave it in our special Jesus stocking.
Who needs Santa with all that fun:o)
~suzanne ([email protected])
We don't do Santa for the same reasons as your family Jill, although my kids get stockings, but they know it's from us. Actually, we started a funny tradition a few years ago and that is that each present in their stocking says it's from an imaginary character, like "from The Grinch", or "from Sponge Bob", or "from Barbie". My kids think it's hilarious!
We read about St. Nicholas though and have told them how the whole Santa thing started. We've also told our kids not to go around saying, "Santa's not real!", and it can upset kids and it can really upset their parents!
Jill,
I think this is our final year of Santa Claus for our youngest! We remember the love of this part of the holiday and I like to remember the joy of where the spirit of giving truly comes from. Jesus has always been the cause of our celebration and we rejoice in the giving of gifts much like the wise men did when meeting Jesus as a baby.
Love and Hugs ~ Kat
We do Santa, but "he" only gives one big gift to each of our boys.
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we do something similar to santa but not. The kids all get stockings which are from "Santa" but if you ask the kids who he is they will tell you that he was bishop who loved helping people because Jesus tells us to help and give to people. They dont believe the christmas movies we have about santa although we watch them. They have been used to discuss the real Santa Claus and they will all tell you that the Red suited Santa is a product of amongst others great marketing by Coke Cola. We tell them that everyone is a Santa when they give and are generous. They look forward to their stocking so much and even more to the bible stories about Jesus and how He changed peoples lives by His generosity. Our youngest is almost 5 and knows the truth but we still say Santa brought them.
I think it depends on your defintion of "Santa" so a question of do you "do" santa will have so many different meanings to many different people.
Blessings
Dirkie
[email protected]
We do Santa but it is for the smaller gifts and the stockings. We have a big age difference in our children, the first 5 are close in age and we always told them Santa can't do big expensive gifts because he has so many children to take care of. Now we have carried that on with our 6 year old. The older kids love that they get to play up Santa for her. She has such a Christmas spirit and it is so fun to watch the excitement on Christmas morning, but we read the Christmas story and on Christmas morning we say Happy Birthday to Jesus and we make a birthday cake for him. She helps make and frost the cake and my other children did this as well when they were young. My older daughter when she was about 4 started the cake tradition. She didn't think it was fair that we got presents on Jesus' birthday so we started baking a cake and singing happy birthday. We think Santa is a fun added excitement to an awesome day spent with family and friends.
Have a Merry Christmas!!!!
Gwen
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We do Santa, it is just part of the fun of Christmas. We like to put out "reindeer food" too. But when my kids ask, I don't lie to them. I made our stockings and I love that they tell the real story of Christmas, or even Easter, as my son did one year.
Shelly
ehough(at)windstream(dot)net
We do Santa at our house. The kids get one big gift from him. I grew up not doing Santa and was just fine with that, but my husband grew up doing Santa and really wanted our kids to do it. So I compromised on that. But they do know the real reason for Christmas and I don't like to decorate with Santa.
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Hello,
I'm writing from Hungary, Europe. Our country's Christmas tradition is that the baby Jesus is the one who brings the gifts on the eve of the 24th. We also have Santa Claus (called Mikulás), but he comes on the 6. of December. He is the same as Santa, and brings small gifts like chocolate, banana, orange (the latter two were rarities and you only could buy them in the winter back in the communist era).
As a Christian I think that the main problem about baby Jesus bringig the gifts is that if people grow up with that idea they always will think of Jesus as a baby – not as Lord and Saviour. Second, sooner or later every kid realizes that the gifts are from their parents – and – just like Santa – baby Jesus doesn't exist.
So our children know that the gifts are from us, and really it is the Lord Jesus Christ who gives us the greatest gift: eternal life with God.
I like the idea of making a birthday cake, it helps you remember who and what you celebrate.