We just had the awesome privilege of celebrating Christmas. In our home it is the day that we recognize as
the birth of Christ, even though most people believe that Christ was conceived
sometime in December and not actually born then. (BUT, I am not doing this post to go into the
details of church history and how it swallowed many Roman/Gaelic holidays and
incorporated Christ into them). This
post is in direct response to what happened to us this week.
As parents we made the decision to NOT have Santa
Claus visit our house the year that Maggie turned one. As a matter of fact we decided then that the
Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, and Santa Claus would not be visiting our home. We also chose to not have our children
participate in Halloween. This was a decision
that we made as parents, believing that we are making the best choice for our
children based on our personal convictions and for our own reasons! From this announcement, 12 years ago, we have
received ridicule, flack, disrespect, comments, and in general disdain from
people who DO choose to have these traditions acted upon in their families.
In our house we purpose to keep the focus on what
is important to us. We try to teach our
children that Christ is the reason that we celebrate Christmas. They each receive three packages under the
Christmas tree from US, their parents on Christmas Eve and their stockings. We chose this because the Bible teaches that
Christ Himself received three gifts from the Wiseman. We use the three gifts to showcase that we
believe that we are no better than the Son of God, the very creator of our
universe!
As parents
we use this time of year to encourage the ideas of giving to others. The children shop for each other, shop for
children that we have never met through the Angel Tree Prison Ministry, the
local Care Center gift giving ministry, and OCC. In our family we take this as an opportunity to
showcase that there are people who have needs at Christmas and all year. We do not teach our children that gifts are
given based on their behavior (as in Santa’s naughty or nice list), but based on each person being
of intrinsic value and worth because they were made by God and in His image
(see Genesis 1 and Psalm 139: 13-14).
Yesterday we received an anonymous letter (return address
simply said North Pole), that was addressed simply to the Best Children. Being the Mama that I am, I opened the
envelope. Without a specific return
address I was NOT about to hand the envelope to one of my children to open. Inside was a copy of the newspaper article,
Yes Virginia There Is a Santa Claus.
Needless to say this information was NOT shared with our children. As a matter of fact, it was immediately
thrown out. WHY? I’m so glad you asked!
We DO NOT CARE if you have Santa visit your
home. Please, let me restate this, WE DO
NOT CARE IF YOU HAVE SANTA CLAUS COME TO YOUR HOME! If this is your conviction, than please feel
free to have fun with it enjoying the joy that it brings to your family. However, this is NOT something that will be
done in our home! The remarks continue,
the disdain for our parenting choices continue, BUT it will not change our convictions
or make us change the way that we teach our children. We do not feel that the true spirit of
Christmas in embodied in the essence of a sinful man (and we have discussed the
REAL St. Nicholas and how he put gold into stockings of families whose children
were to be sold into slavery, but this is more about church history something that
I said that I was NOT going to get into now), but in the essence of Christ and
why He came to earth as a baby. We
choose to take Christmas to celebrate and focus on this aspect of the
holiday, what we feel is the most important. We do Chrismtas in our own way and
without pushing our beliefs on others.
All we ask is that people treat us with the same kindness. Sadly, they don’t!
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