This Christmas has been really fun in our house as I watch my daughter discovering everything.

Every day there is a new object in the Advent calendar Nativity scene, and she always notices. It might be a star, or a cow, or a sheep, or a Sheppard, she always sees the one that is new.

The first time she saw a Christmas tree was before Thanksgiving at the mall. We were in Sears and she went nearly ballistic over their tree display. She was so excited it was incredible! Just walking around and around those trees squealing and smiling and clapping her hands.

Well, it wasn’t her first tree I suppose. Her first Christmas was last year, but she really didn’t notice much. This year it’s like she’s discovering Christmas for the first time! And I love discovering it again myself through her eyes!

But I’ve become very aware of a few snags that come with the holiday season, a few choices we are going to have to make before her next Christmas.

These choices have to do with Santa.

You see growing up I never believed in Santa. Oh we’d watch movies about him, read books about him, sing songs about him, and there might even be a few presents marked “From: Santa” under the tree on Christmas morning, but we didn’t believe in him.

My parents told us the story of Saint Nicholas, a real man who lived in the Fourth Century and was known for giving. Then they would explain how Santa is a story that has kind of been based on Saint Nicholas (among other things) but that he is pretend. They were sure to explain that lots of kids believed in Santa, and it wasn’t nice to tell them that he wasn’t real.

I love my parents, and I appreciate how they raised me. I understand that they felt that leading me to believe in a story I would later find to be untrue was rather counterproductive and that the focus of Christmas should be on Jesus. I also appreciate that Christmas to me was rarely so much about how many presents I could get by being good, and more about the excitement of giving gifts to other people.

After all, when an invisible elf is taken off the present giving duty, you find that you are the one who has to take it over. After all Santa wasn’t going to get my Dad a new tie or book, I was.

I don’t really feel like I greatly missed out on Santa.

On the other hand, I would pretend I believed, because I wanted in on the fun of believing in a jolly old man at the North Pole.

Now I’m a Mom, and it’s my turn to decide what I’m going to teach my child about Santa, and Elves on Shelves for that matter.

I don’t want my little girl to miss out on the fun, but I don’t want to confuse her either.

I also don’t particularly approve of the form of bribery of “be good and you’ll get presents.” I can understand how this form of “fun” can make a parents life easier but I’d rather my daughter tried to be good because she wanted to, instead of as a result of a bribe.

To me the goodness of Christmas has always been wrapped up in Jesus and how He came to be a gift for us. It’s also always been wrapped up in family and an opportunity to bless the people around you. It’s never really been about getting anything. It’s always been about giving.

But is there really any harm in believing in Santa?

I don’t really know.

Is there any harm in Santa?

I suppose it’s how you handle him.

I can see how he can breed selfishness into a child, self-centeredness that is more concerned with how many presents one can “earn” than being concerned about the people around them.

And there is another point that can be harmful, the idea that favor is something you “earn” instead of something you “give.”

After all we don’t teach our children to only be nice to the people who are nice to them. We don’t teach them that they get to not give a friend a birthday present because they had an argument with them. We don’t teach our children that people have to earn their favor and love. We teach them to love, to give, and to be kind no matter what.

But apparently if they want a gift for Christmas they have to earn it. Some “gift” that is.

It’s rather counter to the story of Christ, which has it’s very basis in the idea that we can never be “good enough” but rather salvation is a free gift given no matter our state of “goodness.” And shouldn’t that be how our attitude about gifts on Christmas morning should be? That these gifts are given from our hearts because we love the people we are giving the gifts to and want to bless them.

I’m pretty sure my internal debate is going to land me a little on the side of my parents. Though I still would like to include a little more “Santa fun” than they did perhaps. So now the debate becomes how much Santa to include? Would it be confusing to her if we let him a little to far into our Christmas Season?

So I find myself browsing blog posts about Elves on Shelves and Santa and Christmas and Christ, wondering how other parents have done it. There are many thoughts out there. Ideas, opinions, passionate debates. Some people could even get insulting and mean about it!

We can get pretty darn passionate over this Santa and his elves question.

So what do you think? Did you believe in Santa? What are you teaching your children about him? Can Santa point to Jesus during Christmas or is he to lost in the holiday marketing campaign? Where do you fall in the great Santa debate?

I welcome your input!

Merry Christmas!

~Joy Aletheia Stevens

Photo Credit: Bokeh Santa by Andrés Nieto Porras (CC BY-SA 2.0)  

Photo Credit: Statue in Saint Nicholas church by Guillaume Speurt  (CC BY-SA 2.0)  

Photo Credit: Traditional Stalker Santa by Jamie (CC BY 2.0)