The thought never crossed my mind to not teach Kaiya to believe in Santa Clause. I think it's a very important part of Christmas, after all it is the reason we celebrate Christmas at all. So to me not believing in Santa Clause (or not teaching about him) is choosing not to celebrate the symbol that helps remind us of Christ.I have so many wonderful memories about Christmas time and Santa Clause, very little of them have to do with receiving gifts.
I love this book called I believe in Santa Clause by Diane G. Adamson. It makes a connection between Santa Clause and Christ. Why do we believe in Santa Clause? Because we believe in Christ.
Here's some of the book:
I believe in Santa Clause. Imagine Santa. What is he like?
He wears red. His hair is white. He comes in the night. He loves little children. He wants us to be good. And he brings gifts.
Now Imagine Jesus. What is he like? He wears red. His hair is white. He comes in the night. He loves little children. he knows we are good. and he brings gifts.
Santa Clause is a symbol of Christmas. The symbols of Christmas can remind us of the true meaning of Christmas. The symbols of Christmas remind me of Christ.
So, I believe in Santa Clause.
The best part to me is that each reason is backed up with scripture here are just a few:
wears red (Isaiah 63:2)
white hair (revelation 1:14)
he loves little children (Matthew 19:14)
many of us know many more scriptures that can relate to all of these things.
Here are a few of my favorite symbols of Christmas:
Candles--the light of Christ, our own inner light
Gifts--Giving, Sharing, Thinking of others
Bell--Rings to bring lost sheep home
Tree--the evergreen of everlasting life, pointing heavenward.
Candy Cane--Shepherd's crook for bringing lambs back to the fold.
Red--The Savior's sacrifice for all
Star--The star of Bethlehem
Santa Clause--The spirit of Christmas, Christ-like living, giving and receiving love, caring, sharing, kindness, cheerfulness, happiness, peace, good will to all.
another helpful excerpt from her book:
Psychologists have written of the healthful benefits of encouraging children to believe in a kind and generous Santa. Strong belief in Santa during the tender years are said to foster traits of goodness, helpfulness, and the desire to bring joy and happiness to others. These are all attributes of the Savior and espousing these traits in our own lives not only contributes to a healthful living but also helps us to become more Christlike. Parents are counseled to connect the modern Santa Claus with the Christlike St. Nicholas who secretly gave gifts to the poor. By keeping the notion of Santa alive in their family traditions, parents help children learn the spirit of giving to others.
I love teaching my child about Christ, I also love teaching my child about the good, loving, giving, kind Santa Clause that inspires us to believe in Christ and be more Christlike to others.
I love Christmas!!!
9 comments:
I appreciate your comment on our blog and your post here as well. I understand the idea of equating Santa with Christ and for a long time (when I was a teenager) I really liked that analogy and sometimes I still do. More and more I am thinking that I would like to cut out the middle man. Why don't we just teach kids to believe in Christ at Christmas instead of Santa? I especially feel this was because of the way Santa has been exploited commercially. I hope that by teaching Simon about St. Nicholas and his Christ-like attributes, and about Christ, of course, he'll still have the "benefits" of the belief in Santa.
Anyway, you read most of our thoughts about the situation on our blog. I think what it comes down to for us is why would we use Santa to teach about Christ when we could use Christ to teach about Christ?
your blog reminds me of the movie miracle on 34th street..it's a christmas classic-you should see it.
interesting post!
we aren't doing santa. pretty much ditto what lizzie said. we're going to teach them the idea of santa so they're not "out of the loop" and why their friends believe in him, and not to spoil what their friends believe, but he'll just be a jolly red charicature (sp) in our house.
and i'm curious about the excerpt on the psychology benefits of teaching santa to children. i'm sure similar findings would be observed with children who have been taught of Christ without santa. one could argue that it's easier for children to relate to santa than to Christ, but perhaps that's just an echo of the parents' inability to help the child relate to Christ.
at any rate, CHRISTMAS IS AWESOME!! it's the only time of year people scurry through walmart with smiles on their faces.
I believe in Santa He lives in every heart that gives. For us that believe in Christ the two can exist side by side.
We celabrate the birth of our Savior this time of year with joy and LOVE. We teach of the Wise Men coming from afar with gift of frankincense,myrrh and gold. These were the nicest gift that they could find and they did it to show their LOVE for him.
Then why can't we teach our kids that when we give gifts to others we show our LOVE to them.
We may receive from Santa but we also can become Santa by giving to others. Maybe your kids aren't old enough yet. But I remember the look on my kids face and the joy they had when they became Santa. Choosing a child to shop for, leaving 12 days of treats and gift to a sweet single sister and never telling, spending the last Saturday before Christmas gathering the toys and cloths together so they could be delivered by others so that other could have a Christmas, making neighbor gifts and so on.
How many times in young women's did we used fun to teach a concept of the gospel.
Santa is fun and it can be used for good teaching our children Christ like attributes with fun,joy and LOVE is never wrong.
I don't think you should teach about Santa instead of Christ at all. Everything we do should be centered around Christ all year long.
I think that you can (if it's your choice) teach them about Santa Clause at Christmas time to reinforce (in a fun, magical way that children love to be apart of) the knowledge of a good kind person who loves us, and teaches us to be the same.
and a very important part of this all, is that it's a fun, happy part of Christmas and it create lots of fun memoreis.
if you choose not to teach your kids about Santa Clause that's totally cool. it's your choice. I just wanted to express why I think it's important and fun to teach them about him.
I also agree with anonymous. thanks for your insights.
Hey Moo. Dad, Kev and I LOVE LOVE LOVE the calendar in fact Kev had it hung up before Dad got home and the card is priceless we played it over and over again and laughed and smiled each time. Thank you so much.
Have a Merry Christmas we LOVE YOU and well miss you. Enjoy Kaiya Christmas is a great time!
LOVE YOU Dad, Mom and Kev
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OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Kev said to tell you Santa rocks!
I LOVE THIS BOOK!
i know i already commented, but your mom's comment made me smile. :)
so now i'm being lame and commenting on a comment.
done commenting now.
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