Write a letter to Santa.
Feel free to call me Grinch or Scrooge, but I am not a big Santa fan. I have lots of reasons but I will try to be brief. Excuse me while I get up on my soapbox.
First of all, I am a BIG fan of make believe. Some of my friends' kids even look at me like I am nuts because I love to play pretend, but I like all the players involved to know it is pretend. I think that when you try to convince some of the participants that the make believe is true, it becomes lying. I have never told my kids that Santa is real and I never will.
Another reason I have issues with Santa is because he is consistently more generous with the rich kids. They already have mom and dad who buy them everything and then Santa brings them a Wii, complete with all the extras. He never brings that to the poor kids.
Yet another beef that I have with Santa is that he totally steals the spotlight at Christmas time. Kids, even my own kids, think of Santa and presents when they think of Christmas and Jesus is often an afterthought if he gets any thought at all. They behave when they are threatened that Santa won't come rather than out of love for God and their parents.
Santa also makes kids greedy. When I told Alyssa she couldn't have a dog she said, "I thought you'd say no so I'll just ask Santa."
We want too much and give too little. We are all out trying to get the biggest and best toys. We are so obsessed with it that we are willing to trample workers at Wal-Mart on black Friday to make sure no one gets what we think is OURS.
I know that Santa is "all in good fun" but he is a huge distraction from the true meaning of Christmas. So, I am sorry that I can not ask him for anything. All of my requests go to the "other big man". You know, the one that lives North of the North Pole. The only thing I want from Santa is for him to take a back seat to Jesus this year.
That said, I am sure you will all call me a hypocrite when you see pictures of Christmas morning. My kids get way too much for Christmas!!! I, like most people, want my kids to have the best of everything but ultimately it is most important to me that they know and love their Savior.
And Seth's letter to Santa. Well, he told me to just direct Santa to his bucket list.
11 comments:
amen. I've always been and will always be scrooge.
Perhaps that's why I am doing the AQ&S daily on my blog. To try to focus us a bit more on "What is Christmas?" and a bit less on "What am I getting?". I am so glad that you are trying to "train up a child in the way he should go" and that those children are our grandchildren!
You make good points.
That said, I am a huge Santa fan! We can't have everything in common right? I guess its because it was such a fun part of my childhood that I continue to love the idea of him and what he started as.
I am also trying to keep Abi thinking of Jesus though. She knows that the reason Santa brings gifts is to symbolize the wise men presenting gifts to Jesus and everything. I don't think you're a scrooge- we all have our things.
I thought you were going to hate on Santa from a decorating perspective. Santa decorations are always ugly...snowmen are way cuter.
Anyway, Luke says "Santa" now and it is really cute! After reading this, I think I'll teach him to say "Jesus" too!
Yikes!!! Dude, it's just Santa...
We are not all haters of the fat guy in the Johnson household. I don't think Santa posses that big of a threat to Jesus Christ. He has some good qualities... Some of my best Christmas experiences have come when I have played Santa, whether as a Secret Santa to someone in need or to my kids on Christmas morning. I never told Alyssa that her imaginary friends weren’t real, and I don’t think I will tell her that Santa isn’t either. She will figure it out soon enough. I remember when I found out, and it didn’t shake my foundation…. Besides, I don’t want anyone to egg our house for Julie’s grinchiness….
Awesome, I started a war in my own house! I am all for secretly serving other people at Christmas. I'm just not for making lists and lists of every greedy little thing we want.
I never told Alyssa her imaginary friends weren't real but I never told her they were real either. Plus, she knew they were imaginary. I am assuming she couldn't really see them. Santa, on the other hand, she thinks is a real guy that comes creeping around in kids houses, which terrifies her, but she endures it so that she can get her loot.
And please don't egg my house. I am not really out to "steal Christmas". I believe in Christmas miracles just not in Santa.
Also, don't worry about me and Seth. We knew going into this marriage that we didn't agree on this issue. I still love him and if he comes home from work tonight I will assume it means he still loves me too.
.....if I come home tonight....
Ive always hated that my kids have to beleive in Santa too, but mostly because Im selfish and think I should be the one getting the credit for all the presents their getting! Santa looks way better than we do! Give credit where credit is due! Its all us baby!
I love Christmas time, Santa and all, but I do have to agree that I dont like the greedy frenzy that comes over children and adults at this time. But another thing that annoys me is that people only think of the Savior at THIS time of year. It shouldn't just be Christmas and Easter that we focus on the Savior...but ALWAYS.
I kind of see your point, but with all the stuff out there in the world that REALLY makes kids greedy, and spoiled, and well crazy, Santa's not a big worry of mine. And I disagree with Val, I think it's those snowmen you have to watch out for. (I 'm not a big snow fan)
Well I definitely agree that we need to teach our kids and ourselves to focus more on Jesus at Christmas than Santa, but I just don't see how letting your kids believe in something magical is lying to them. It's not like they are going to be mad at you some day because you let them believe in Santa or the toothfairy. One of the fun parts of being a kid is that you do believe in stuff like that. OK, so that was my little rant, and it's probably only because Josh and I were just discussing this very thing. With that being said, I'm also trying to scale back on what Santa brings this year, because I know it is way too much and I don't want them thinking they can have everything they want.
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