At the grocery store check out: “So, what is Santa bringing you for Christmas this year?” Kids: “We don’t believe in Santa.” Grocery store check-out lady and all others in earshot: gasps of horror.

We don’t do Santa in our house. What does that mean? That means the kids know that we shop for gifts for them, and we fill their stockings hung by the chimney with care (by me). We tell the kids that some families like to play a game with their children that Santa is real and brings them gifts at Christmas. But, he’s just that, a game based on a really nice man who lived a long time ago named St. Nicholas who gave money to poor families. Santa is not banned from our Christmas celebrations though. We still wave to him at the mall as we explain that it’s really a man dressed up like Santa. We still read “Twas the Night Before Christmas.” We still listen to “Here Comes Santa Claus” and “Jolly Old St. Nicholas” among other classics. (Ashlyn’s current favorite—embarrasingly enough—is Mele Kalikimaka. Evan’s is “Carol of the Bells”—no hymns there.) And, we enjoy watching the classic Christmas cartoons like Rudolph and even Merry Madagascar—though I slightly regret the latter due to the kids continually quoting Santa as saying he wants to “shake his booty.”

This is the right choice for our family—though we have told the kids that some families really like the game, so don’t tell other kids that Santa is not real in case they believe he is. There are several reasons why:

1. Simply put, keeping up the Santa story can distract us from talking about Jesus’ birth and the significance of the incarnation.
2. Lying is wrong. We know people who have created quite a web of lies to protect their children’s belief in Santa. I can only imagine that one day their children will be upset that their parents lied to them and may not trust their parents as they should be able to do.
3. Furthermore, if we were to lie about Santa, would our children question whether we are lying about other things that are unseen. If we ask them to believe in a Santa they cannot see and they find out we have lied, will they doubt whether our testimony that God is real is true?
4. We want our children to understand the value of the gifts they are given, from us or other family members, and recognize that some gifts are a real sacrifice financially and have taken a lot of effort. We want them to learn gratefulness for this sacrifice. We aren’t asking that they thank us profusely for our gifts to them or that they even know that I have used money that I was saving for another purpose in order to buy them that game. But, teaching that Santa has given the gifts, in our opinion, takes away from their understanding of generosity and sacrifice.
5. We do not want them to fall prey to a works mentality. I’ve heard parents say, “You better stop that. Santa will put you on the naughty list!” We don’t want our children to think that blessings depend on whether they have been good or bad. We want them to understand what grace is–God’s unmerited favor, kindness from God that we don’t deserve. There is nothing we have done or can ever do to earn this favor. We believe that teaching them that “being bad” may put them on the “naughty list” and mean less presents or a lump of coal may very well hinder their understanding of grace.

Allow me to clarify that we do not have a “holier than thou” attitude about this. And, we are not judgmental towards families who encourage the belief in Santa. I understand that some adults have very fond memories of leaving out milk and cookies and such and want that for their children as well. It’s just our choice for our family.

The kiddos have been enjoying their advent gifts each day–they’ve gotten light up lollipops, hair barrettes, fun post-it notes, little animals that grow in water, those washclothes that come in a little square that transform in the bath, a little sword, nightlights…lots of goodies so far! Funny what a little present will do to motivate them to get up in the morning and get dressed fast!

And how about this super cute hair clip? Found it with a similar Santa one at Wegman’s for only $4 for the set! So cute!

As usual, I had fun making a little montage of our Christmas tree hunt from Saturday. What you don’t really “get” from the video is the real story of the day. The place we’ve gone for the last several years to cut down our tree–local place and really nice trees–raised their prices to $9 a foot. The idea of spending $70 on a tree that would be in our house for only 4 weeks and then thrown away just sorta seemed wrong. So, Mark found a farm online that didn’t seem too far away (estimated 30 min.) that had a coupon for $5 a foot. Score! Well, we got lost trying to find out and ended up all over the place. Took twice as long if not more to get there. When we got there, we saw why their trees were $5 a foot (see the picture of the ugliest tree in the world for proof). So, back in the car we went and headed back to the local farm after we stopped at some little convenience store to load the kids up with sugar so they wouldn’t be too mad that we had to try another place. They rallied and we had fun…despite the freezing cold weather and light rain…and despite the $66 price tag (ouch). At least the rain soon turned to a thrilling early snow to get us in the Christmas spirit. And, I admit, hearing the kids chant “here comes the tree!” at the top of their lungs made every cent of that $66 tree worth it.