Jesus Versus Santa Claus

Jonathan and I are right smack dab in the middle of the Santa Claus issue.  Before we got married, we had decided that we would not "do Santa" with our children, and up until this year, it hasn't been that much of an issue.  However, this year is different!  This is really the first year Emily has been "into" the whole Christmas season, and oh my!  We are being suffocated with the commercialism of the holiday.  I think we have asked each other over a dozen times "where did she get that from?" when she tells us what she wants Santa to bring her, how the toys get to our house, and on and on.  Now, if you know us, and if you have ever met our daughter, it is not that we discourage imagination.  Right now, she is playing that she is rescuing Bambi from the lions (i.e. our two dogs) with her imaginary friend, Diego, using pixie dust so they can fly away.

Yet balancing Jesus and Santa is a chore!  It seems that once a year a figurative character is given God-like status and I often feel like the proverbial Grinch when I say a hundred times a day that we celebrate Jesus birth and giving to others at Christmas, be it at the checkout line in Walmart when she sees a Disney toy she asks if Santa can bring her or when someone asks her if she has written her letter to Santa yet.  Truthfully, I cringed yesterday when a random stranger at the mechanic's shop told Emily she needed to be good so Santa would bring her lots of presents.  I feel like all my parenting of teaching Emily how to make wise decisions because of right and wrong based on the Bible has flown out the window.  Why on earth would a child, mine or not, want to learn to recognize sin, confess, repent, and bear the consequences when a few weeks of "acting nice" creates the illusion of reward?

However, it has opened up the door for more learning for her (yes, we turn everything into a life lesson).  I have enjoyed teaching her the background of Saint Nicholas, and giving to those who need more than we do.  In her Sunday School class we are leading up to Christmas with focusing on part of the Christmas story each week with our homemade paper Advent wreaths.  We are planning and making gifts for family, church friends, and neighbors and trying to show her what a joy it is to give.  It doesn't have to be money (and we don't have much to give), but it can be love, time, relationship, and even our home.

Who knows what she will remember twenty years from now, but we are trying our best to follow the advice my mother gave us when Emily was born:  to make a difference against the world we live in, we have to parent radically.  Does that mean I have to repeat myself about celebrating Jesus next time I'm in the check out line?  Yep.  And please, don't think I have all the answers.  We don't.  We are very much not perfect parents.  And the Jesus vs Santa debate will go on in our home for years to come.  But something must be sinking in a bit.  She's been known to jump on her bed singing her made-up song "Praise Jesus, Praise the Lord!" very loudly so Santa can hear it at the North Pole.

That's my girl.  Hopefully it will sink in via osmosis to Ethan, right?  :o)