Why We Believe

Growing up I believed in Santa. Patrick didn't. We had to come to a place of understanding regarding the whole belief in Santa with our own kids. It was a personal choice we made. I have no issue with parents that do not choose to do the whole Santa thing. I not only respect their reasoning, I understand some of it. What I don't understand is the vehement need to tear down everyone that doesn't come into line with their way of thinking. It's not everyone, but I've seen enough of it, and it's ugly. Believing in Santa never, not once, made me question my belief in Jesus, and while I know there are probably some that have been crushed by finding out Santa wasn't real, for the most part the people I know weren't really affected by learning the "truth" behind Santa. I think a lot of it has to do with how you go about it all. So I'll share how we do Santa in our house. I'm not debating whether it's right or wrong. I'm not trying to convince you to change your mind so please refrain from trying to change mine or debate with me (I'll delete any comments on here and on social media that are trying to debate).

1. We do NOT worship Santa. We worship Jesus. Three hundred sixty-five days a year, throughout the day, everyday, we worship Jesus. We pray to Him. We sing to Him. He permeates every area of our lives. He forgives our sins. He delivers. He sets free. He heals. Santa comes into play about a month out of the year and not even close to the extent that Jesus does. He does none of the stuff that Jesus does. We do not worship Santa, but he is fun. You know the old song, "He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows if you've been bad or good so be good for goodness sake"? Well, not in our house. Santa is not all knowing or all seeing, and I don't call him or email him or even address the whole naughty or nice thing. Which segues nicely into my next point ...

2. Santa bringing gifts has nothing to do with behavior. Now whether you get to keep and play with those gifts might be influenced by your behavior, but Santa doesn't bring gifts based upon how you behave. My kids are not "naughty". Sometimes they may act naughty, and we will discipline accordingly, but I (and by extension Santa) will never withhold gifts based on behavior.

3. But not all, or even most of the gifts, are from Santa. Yep. I am a control freak, and I set limits on Santa gifts. Like monetary and quantity limits. Because that's how I am. So they get to pick a couple small things or one big thing from Santa, and he fills their stockings with junk. The rest is from Mom and Dad. And if and when my kids start questioning Santa, I won't push it on them to believe. I was seven when I stopped believing, and Andrew is asking a lot of questions so I leave it up to him. He's a very imaginative kid and is still very much into pretend play (he also believes in Captain America and the Hulk) so he'll figure it out in his own way.

4. Everything and everyone bows their knee to Jesus at Christmas. Maybe you find that contradictory. Maybe you say Santa distracts from that. I could argue that the tree, the gifts, the food, the carols ... are all a distraction, but I don't think that. And honestly, I don't think Jesus does either. I think sometimes we split hairs over ridiculous things and turn, what should be a celebration, into a legalistic, rule bound time of year. God is not putting us on a guilt trip. Don't put yourself on one.

So that's it. That's how we do Santa. If you do it differently or don't at all, that's fine with me. I think there are much bigger, much more serious things in this world with which to take issue.