The Santa Question?
Over the years I agonized with the Santa issue. Should we pretend or not? I know I was devastated at 6 when I found out Santa wasn’t real. I cried and cried and cried. I remember it well. Plus, I wanted Christmas to focus on Jesus not Santa, so when my kids were little we sort of avoided the whole Santa issue. We visited him in the Mall and watched movies, but we never over emphasized that he brought presents.
I remember one year my four year old believed on his own that Santa brought presents and there was no talking him out of believing. My six year old (Grace) tells me Santa is dead! Just like that! But she knows that he once lived and loved Jesus very much! If you haven’t read the story or St. Nicholas or seen the movie, I wrote a post all about it.
I’ve never been happy with the way we’ve done Christmas morning. When the kids were little we dove right into presents. Then when we got older we read the Christmas story. But I think we’ve finally found a unique family tradition that they actually look forward to.
On Christmas Eve most of the presents are already under the tree. We do a traditional “gifts to Jesus” and read books and such, then off to bed. In the morning the gifts are gone! And we reenact the Christmas story. Then like the wise men, my kids go off and find their presents. They are only allowed to retrieve the presents with their wrapping paper. It should be exciting this year since our home is twice as big.
What are you favorite Christmas morning traditions?
