Christmas, Santa, and the Gospel

[Kerrick]

With Christmas season here and a kid of our own now, my wife and I have been talking a bit more about how to handle Santa Claus and all that.  We are pretty resolute in letting our kiddo know that Santa Claus is NOT real from the get-go, as grinch-like as that is.    (This year it's a non-issue because she can't even talk yet, but next year it'll need addressing probably.)  This is for a few reasons, but primarily because we don't want there to be a competition between Jesus and Santa Claus in our daughter's heart.  The whole Santa thing deviates heavily from the “Reason for the season.”  I grew up believing in Santa Claus and while in the back of my mind I knew that Christmas was about CHRIST... effectively it was still all about presents for me - and we don't want that to be the case for our kid(s).

(An acquaintance wrote a nice little blog post about this same topic that I'm in agreement with and possibly sums up my thoughts better than I could write:
https://gospelcenteredmom.com/2014/12/04/what-to-do-about-santa/)

While we intend on still doing some presents, having a tree, lights, cookies, and all that... the typical/traditional Christmas celebrations are so void of any Truth or actual meaning that we really want to overflow our celebrations with the Gospel.  Looking in the Old Testament and Jewish tradition, we see the Jews having elaborate celebrations to commemorate and remember great things God did.  These celebrations were festive and fun but also full of intentionality and meaning.   I want to use that as a baseline and hope to make some of our own family traditions that consistently point to Christ and the sacrifice He made coming to Earth.  Some ideas that’ve been floating around in my head are to go on a little trip somewhere to ponder upon the flight to Egypt, spending some time with stinky animals (petting zoo, farm?) to help us imagine where Jesus was born, etc.  (These would be sure to change in time as our kid(s) grow older, but for now I’m thinking of toddler-level stuff.)

Anyways, I was curious what y’all think about Santa Claus, etc. when it comes to the Gospel/true “Reason for the season” and how to handle that within the context of a family with young kids.  For those raised in Christian homes or with families of their own, do you have any fun/special traditions that help you remember/commemorate Christ’s coming to earth?  Or maybe not but you have some good suggestions for us?    Let’s hear about it!

[Christianslovemetaltoo]

Dude I missed this. And it is way late. Our family doesn't do Santa. At all. We don't lie to our young children. So we tell them he is a myth based from a real man who loved God. We also do three gifts each, one Gold (special) gift, one gift for the body, and one gift for spiritual edification. We also have stockings. Sorry for the 4 month late reply

[Kerrick]

Ha no worries! Thank you for your input. I'm curious of how you came to the three gift idea. If you don't mind elaborating, how did you decide to do it that way?

[Christianslovemetaltoo]

Ha no worries!  Thank you for your input.  I'm curious of how you came to the three gift idea.  If you don't mind elaborating, how did you decide to do it that way?

We actually based it off of the gifts from the wise men in the bible. There was gold, a gift of value. Well they were all valuable, but we used gold as "that thing you really want." Frankincense was often burned in incense, so we use that as our spiritual gift. And Myrrh was used for the body, often medicinally, sometimes as a perfume. So we use that as the body gift.
My wife and I do this so our gifts every Christmas are in themselves a reminder of the Word, and the where all good gifts come from. It is also our way to fight the materialism so rampant in our society.
/i hope that makes sense!
Mike

[Kerrick]

Very cool; thanks! I figured the three gifts were inspired by those Jesus received and I like the thought you put into each one and that it serves as a means of remembering the Gospel and reorienting your minds/hearts back to God's Word. That's the sort of thing we're hoping to do as well. Thank you!

[MetalPioneer]

Personally, I don't think that Santa is necessarily a bad thing, as long as when the child is old enough the parent explains it. More importantly, the parents should explain the true purpose of Christmas from a Christian perspective. I turned out okay (at least I think I did) and we did Santa in my household. What I do remember are the specific rituals espousing Christ's birth as the reason for celebrating Christmas. We did Advent calendars that were based on a nightly Scripture reading. On Christmas Eve, we always went to our church's Christmas service. And at breakfast before we opened any gifts on Christmas day my dad would read Scriptures telling the Christmas story. When we got old enough, we would take turns reading from the Bible. I can understand your perspectives on the issue as well, though.

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