Because it would be plagiarism to just copy and paste everything I want to, just go to Jon Acuff’s blog Stuff Christians Like and read it all.
He has the gift of writing, the gift of insight, the gift of just saying it. Plainly. With wisdom. And humor. (Lots of humor.)
Like this one: #634: Having “This is weird, but …” moments.
Or this one: #664: Not Knowing What to Do About Santa (Have we discussed this? Cause we won’t be doing the Santa thing in our house.)
Or this one: #649: Rooting for Tim Tebow (Hate the Gators. Love that Tebow!)
But most of all, go read this one: #672: Pretending We Have Boxes
Plus, he’s a North Pointer, so I’m obligated to like him from the get go.
We won’t be doing the Santa thing either. My question is, how do we prevent our someday kids from ruining it for their friends?
The writer of that blog is my dental hygienist’s son–small world!
We debated about what to do about Santa and ended up telling our sons about St. Nicholas – who is after all the real “Santa.” My sons have vivid imaginations and play make believe. They understand that the Santa at Christmastime is a fun thing to play pretend about. No fear in wrecking it for other families because “Santa” was real.
My sons also know unequivocally the real reason for Christmas. We always read the Christmas story in Luke and remember to say “Happy Birthday” to Jesus on Christmas day. Our Advent calendar is a Nativity scene – so everyday of December our boys are reminded of the true meaning and the real reason we celebrate.
In our home – the more we vilify something the more tantalizing it becomes. Especially something like Santa and elves. The more we can communicate with our children and explain the whys and whats the better understanding they have of what other people celebrate and believe and the less interested they are.
That is what works for us (so far that is)!
My parents did “Santa,” but my mother would answer any and all questions about Santa’s dubious mythological existence by saying “He’s the Spirit of Christmas.” This sounded like mumbo-jumbo to me, and my 1st-grade-self called BS pretty quick. I took it upon myself to inform my entire class that Santa was both a farce and a conspiracy. Imagine how thrilled my teacher was. I earnestly thought I was doing all my little schoolmates a big favor by letting them in on the sham. Grown-ups! They think they know so much!