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Under threats of disowning, I hereby re-enter blog land.
For at least a day.
It feels good just sitting here staring at a blank screen. I'm warming up my writing juices. They're frozen from under-use.
And, we DO live in Minnesota, so they freeze more quickly up here.
Speaking of Minnesota, you know I can't go a whole blog post without talking about how flippin' freezin' cold it is. It snowed 6 inches today, and tomorrow it's supposed to be blowing around at about freeway speed.
We have family from San Diego coming in a few days.
Muwahahaha. Snicker snicker.
So. It's Christmas time. Time for some holiday cheer.
I have a confession. I think Santa is creepy.
Call me a fuddydud.
But, we celebrate Jesus' birth on Christmas, and what more amazing fabulous thing is there for us to be celebrating? And Santa has a way of upstaging Jesus at His very own birthday celebration. That bugs me. Really bugs me.
So, last year, I was all about telling my kids that Santa's just a pretend man. They never thought he was real, so we never dashed their hopes. Case closed.
Case closed, right?
Fast forward 12 months to yesterday. Out of the clear blue, Corene brings a clay snowman up to me and says, "I'm going to give this to Santa".
(Rembmber, this child isn't one of those story-teller types. She's my black and white child. She doesn't do imaginary pretending unless she's saying, "Let's pretend ___fill in the blank___". She's serious about this.)
Me: Really? How?
Corene: I am going to put it on a plate by the fireplace next to his cookie (!!!!!!) and put a sign that says, 'For Santa'.
Me: Huh. (thinking... do I dash the imagination? Or do I let this go on?)
Me: We used to put out cookies and milk for Santa when I was a kid.
Corene: (Eyes LIGHTING up) REALLY? Cookies and MILK? Can WE do that, TOO? Does Santa LIKE milk?"
Me: I don't know. I think it was always gone on Christmas morning.
Corene: (Thinking....) But, Mom... what if Santa's allergic to milk??
Me: (Laughing) Should we give him some of your soy milk, just in case?
Corene: But he drank your milk when you were a kid.
Me: Yes, I guess he did.
Corene: So I think it's ok. Let's give him some regular milk.
Me: (Big sigh) OK. That sounds good. (Gulp) I think he'll like that.
Corene: (Big, big, beautiful smile) Me too.
Well, my big conviction of no Santa just went kaplooee. Right down the drain. Something about her sweet belief in something just so utterly unbelievable (reindeer on the roof, and a rather large man coming down the chimney?) warmed my heart and made me smile. I just couldn't spoil the fun.
But, Christmas day? It's a birthday party for Jesus. Birthday cake and all.
How do you make the day about Jesus?
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8 comments:
first of all. the word verification for my comment is "gosati" which my brain instantly read as "go, satan," which is really close to "go, santa"
just saying...
o.k. i feel your pain. my parents did the santa thing, and i didn't totally miss the point of christmas. i don't know how much i could have absorbed. for the first time in my life, tonight, at church, i was simply lost in amazement at the thought of a newborn king...a sovereign, everlasting, holy, fully God newborn. stunning. may your children be amazed with Jesus in new ways every year until they see him face to face.
Welcome back!
And AMEN, it's dang cold here, lol.
I was really torn on whether or not to let my children believe in Santa, because Christmas Is about Jesus. So we put the Christ in Christmas and have a little bit of Santa fun; letters, cookies & milk. It works for us, they'll grow up soon enough anyway...
Blessings, Carolynn
I don't worry about it. We talk about Santa for 25 days in December. We talk about Jesus 365 days a year. I think Jesus wins.
So far I haven't had to worry about it, as Anja's too young. I don't plan on perpetuating the myth. If she asks, I'll tell her the truth. We don't have stockings, but Grandma does, so I guess we'll have to play it by ear. We already read a book about how Jesus is the reason we give gifts at all at Christmas...sort of like little reflections of The Big Gift.
Ahhhhhh, yes - lovely MN winters. You know, the last FIVE years we lived in KS and traveled here for Christmas....it was ALWAYS sunny and a balmy 25'ish degrees....so what thanks do we get for actually moving back here??? 50 BELOW before Christmas....not to mention 2 feet of snow/ice. Lovely.
Anyway - yes, I totally agree with you about not wanting to "spoil" such innocence with your daughter....especially since you teach the TRUE meaning of Christmas, too. :-)
Welcome Back! I've missed your posts!
Yesterday at the mall we realized Allie has no idea who Santa even is...to the rest of my family's chagrin. Oh well. I guess we don't really talk about Santa much...which wasn't intentional on our part at all, but just kind of happened.
We have an advent calendar that doubles as a nativity scene where each day we read a verse and put up a nativity figure. That has been the highlight of every day for the past 21 days for our kids!
Ok...now I'm a little perturbed...my word verification is "porkess" PORKESS?! Is someone trying to tell me something I'm already very well aware of?! Good grief.
Cold? Is it cold outside?
Interesting.
I can't provide any input on the Santa question. Our kids have never even wanted to pretend He was real.
But if you want to talk about the Tooth Fairy....
Well, first off, welcome back to bloggyland. Sorry I am late. Had some stuff to um, take care of. SO, Lee and I plan to do it how we were raised (me with your STRICT Christian grandparents). We got up early and put on the white beard and red hats and loved coloring pictures of Santa, etc, but we never believed in Santa. We always had Santa stuff (books, etc) and I even had a Santa puppet. On Easter we got easter baskets and did a big egg search BEFORE we went to church to hear of the resurrection and the tooth fairy made many appearances. But I never thought a bunny stopped by with those baskets and I knew that my tooth fairy was way cheaper than my friends' tooth fairies, so....
These are MY parents once again that we are talking about, so I take that as a testament that you can do this stuff and not lose focus on the Lord. I think as long as you don't perpetuate it too much that she will figure it out soon.
love you. see you for your next blog post in January. >:(
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