In the last two years, I have heard of a whole new concept, "Simply Christmas". Parents are not letting Santa come to their house and not giving their children lots of gifts in order to focus on the reason for the season, Jesus. I get this part. I do. Our family does try VERY hard to do a Christ centered advent activity every night. We also repeatedly pound into our three year olds head, "We have Christmas because it's a birthday party for Jesus". I GET that society leaves our Jesus and that it's our job as parents to teach our children the real meaning, but to leave out Santa in order to teach? Here's my take on that.
For me as a kid, Christmas was MAGICAL. I couldn't WAIT to see what Santa brought me. Was I interested in those presents that had been under the tree for a few weeks, sure, but what SANTA brought was WAY exciting. I also remember going to visit Santa and wondering if I would get THE REAL Santa or one of his volunteer elves. One of my favorite family memory was driving around Christmas Eve looking at lights and wondering if the red light in the sky was in fact, SANTA! See, Santa gave me the "Christmas feeling". He made me excited for Christmas. Watching Santa movies to this day can bring back that "Christmas feeling". I love that feeling. And I honestly don't think I would have gotten that feeling as a kid had it not been for Santa....Waking hour after hour Christmas Eve, sleeping with my brother in the same bed and whispering, "It's MORNING!" and waiting on my mom to start "Do You Hear What I Hear", our cue to come on out. Seeing my dad in his reindeer hat, and running to see if Santa liked the snack I put out. Just typing this makes me excited for my kids.
As I grew up I was able to comprehend the real meaning of Christmas more and more. The "Christmas Feeling" was later felt during Candlelight services, or while serving dinner with my dad Christmas day. Silent Night sometimes chocked me up. All when I was older and it even happened with Santa visiting.
For me, I just don't know if I would have gotten as "into" Christmas as an adult without experiencing the magic of it as a child.
So, Simplify Christmas to Josh and I has a little different meaning. Three years ago we had TWELVE Christmas celebrations of one type or another, two for work, one for church, then nine for family. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Oh, and three days later, C had a birthday. THAT my friends is too much. Josh and I are trying to simplify the CELEBRATION of Christmas. Call me selfish all you want, but I want my kids excited for Christmas morning rather than burned out from opening presents and traveling all around. This year we are down to four. One per parent and ours. Still too many, but what do you do when you have divorces...
I would like to suggest we Simply Christmas for the ADULTS rather than the children. Why in the world are so many WORKING adults spending money on gifts for other WORKING adults? It's unreal. Gifts for co-workers, bosses, teachers, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters. THOSE are the gifts that stress ME out. I don't know what to get most of them. And I hate giving crap. Those gifts also add up financially, quick. I'd like to make it this simple. Buy for YOUR children/grandchildren and parents/granparents. Send the rest a card. I honestly wouldn't mind if my parents and grandparents stopped buying for me, but there's no chance of that. They want to. I am their child/grandchild after all. My husband and I have decided to not buy for each other. We can buy things we want/need anytime, we are adults. We decided to focus on our kids.
I know this will most likely ruffle some feathers, but honestly asking Santa to not visit ruffles mine. This world is a scary, hard, and mean place why can't we let our children enjoy some simple magic and be kids?
So, this Christmas Eve, we are going to put out our reindeer food, snacks for Santa, read the Christmas Story (from the Bible) AND the Night Before Christmas, watch Christmas Vacation, wake up and see if Santa came. Open WAY too many gifts, play, and then go to church.
Hi Kendall - I'm glad you wrote this. We are super "into" Christmas around here - we have dancing reindeer on the yard & watch all the old movies & make the cookies - but we have never felt good about making Santa a big deal & never gave the kids gifts from Santa. We don't say "he's not real," and we do put out new presents overnight on Christmas eve, but the kids know they are from us. I am really torn about this. On the one hand, I want the kids to have that magic feeling. On the other, I do want the focus to be Jesus. Something I read that was really convicting was basically an atheist questioning why Christians needed santa to make the holiday "magical" - isn't God born in a manger as a baby with magi following a star to find him magical enough? We must not really believe the story if we need something else to make the day special. I genuinely don't know. We're totally on the fence about the whole darn thing. Enjoyed adding your thoughts into my ongoing mental conversation on the subject...
ReplyDelete~Katy H
Kendall and Katie, very well said. For me it's not a either or, but a both and. The magical moments are the l(ast fantasy in a world where children grow up way too fast. As long as there are moms like you, Christmas will survive. I'm.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure it would without the magical moments we have with our children.
I love that you wrote this. I have similar feelings on the matter. I think we can let the kids feel some 'magic', AND remind them what Christmas is really about. While we may have gone a bit overboard for our children this year, it's the first year we have ever been able too do so. And we've made sure that our children know that our material blessings would not be possible without the grace of God. There has also been a lot of focus this year on helping others. My children helped pack "Operation Christmas Child" boxes, have helped me make laundry soap to donate to the church, and picked toys to put into every donation box that we've seen. I hope that one day my children will grow up knowing that Christmas is a time for us to be even more generous to those less fortunate than we are.
ReplyDeleteVery nicely said, Kendall. Christmas is all about the kids and conveying to them a combination of the magic of Santa and the mericle of Jesus. It sounds like you are doing an excellent job of incorporating both. I agree that the gift giving thing gets way out of hand and ends up being more stressful than enjoyable. A few years ago I finally just asked my parents to stop buying for me because I felt obligated to reciprocate. I don't think either of us were really enjoying the experience...am so glad they agreed. Awesome blog. Merry Christmas to you and yours..!! :)
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