Our Approach On Christmas

I love this time of year! It is such a "warming" time even though it is cold outside. My heart gets that warm & fuzzy feeling this time of year.

My little man ready for Christmas!

We (as in my husband & I) have debated on how to approach Christmas now that we have a little one. With all the hustle & bustle & materialism that Christmas has been turned into nowadays, we wanted to make absolutely positive we instill the true meaning of Christmas into our child(ren)'s heart(s). I personally have had a big internal conflict about the Santa concept. I grew up believing in Santa so I'm not against it, but in order to pull off the Santa gig I'm going to have to lie to Maddox. EEK! As a Christian parent, I never want to lie to my kid(s). Aren't I supposed to lead by  example? I don't want Maddox to ever think it is ok to lie! 

My other thing about Santa is when I hear parents say, "You better be good if you want Santa to bring you presents". I just want to cry when I hear that! Not only did the parent just lie to their child, but they have made their child think when they are good then they are entitled to presents! If you look around in today's society in America, the last thing we need is more people who feel they are entitled to everything. I'm not passing judgement on anybody who does Santa because I've seen it done very creatively & I know that magical feeling it brings to children, but for us personally we have decided to pass on Santa gifts.

What we are going to do though is keep Santa in mind as a cartoon character like Frosty the Snowman or Mickey Mouse. We aren't going to try to hide Santa from Maddox, but we aren't going to let Santa be our "idol" of Christmas. We are going to set up our Melissa & Doug Nativity together,read lots of Bible based Christmas stories, & celebrate Jesus' birthday! When he gets older, we will read stories of the real St. Nicholas. We want to keep Christmas as Christ centered as possible, but also having fun by decorating our tree & house, going to see Christmas lights, building a gingerbread house, & spending quality time with family! We are just now starting to build traditions that hopefully Maddox will cherish forever!

What is you approach to Santa? What are some of your family Christmas traditions?

Join me next time as I talk about our approach to Christmas presents!