I am SO excited for Christmas this year. I don’t know the reason why, but from last year until now has been quite a big change. Last year I was unsure if we should even celebrate- many of my friends had switched to celebrating Hanukkah instead, mostly because Christmas is rooted in paganism and “Jesus wouldn’t celebrate His birthday.” So I agree with the paganism part BUT I feel Christmas has been completely redeemed, unlike Halloween; much like wedding bands. And I feel it’s very important to celebrate the first coming of our Savior, whatever the manor. Therefore I’m for Hanukkah, but since Hanukkah is Jewish and COMPLETELY different from Christmas, I think if you’re going to celebrate Hanukkah also celebrate Christmas, at least if you are ‘gentile.’ So this year I’m all about the tree, all about presents, and even stockings as long as we keep it about Jesus! For the people who say, ‘you’re taking the ‘Christ’ out of ‘Christmas” I would say examine your celebrations- do you celebrate Jesus more than Santa, more than presents?
About Santa… I’ve given this much thought the last few years, and especially this year now that Zuriah is getting older and we’ve had family ask/assume we’re doing Santa. My dad (amazing man of God), gave me an article from a Catholic newspaper addressing just this issue. The argument was pro-Santa with the reasoning that when (the author of the article) was a child he knew Santa as someone that would give gifts freely, out of a generous heart. Later in life this lead him to see the free gifts God had given him… a good argument I suppose, but here is mine: I’m not “anti-Santa,” I think it’s ok to teach children that he was a real person, who really gave gifts to children, was made a saint by the Catholic church… the reality of it all. However, I am against placing a false world, a fantasy in front of my child when there is a VERY real world (heaven) that is FULLY accessible to her. I remember being a child- and having conversations with other children- about Jetsons in the sky, Carebears coming down to rescue us, going to see the North Pole. It didn’t matter if it was a cartoon (I’m going to be very careful about what I let her watch), these things were REALITY to me. I had the FAITH to do these things, except they weren’t real. So it’s not JUST Santa- it’s the fantasy. If I had known as a child that Heaven was available to go to- NOW- to see- EVEN NOW- I would have gone. Other worlds- fantasies, characters, all that was so real to me I wouldn’t have been surprised to see Smurfs in the grass- I’m sure on occasion we even looked for them.
Something disturbing I saw a few years ago that began my thoughts about this was the ‘blasphemy challenge,’ a website dedicated to blaspheming the Holy Spirit- teenagers would upload videos of themselves ‘blaspheming the Holy Spirit’ although I don’t know how easy it is to do that- but- there was one boy that caught my attention: he said, “Just like the Easter bunny isn’t real, just like Santa isn’t real, I’ve come to the conclusion that God isn’t real.”
Yikes. Not worth the chance in my opinion. Why not give them reality?!
So I want my children to use the imaginations the Lord has given them for the purpose He meant them for- to experience Him.
