Christmas Story

So most of you know how our family does not include Santa Clause in our Christmas celebrations and for those of you who may not I will share this with you.

After James proposed to me, my sister Stephanie (who knew that I wanted to do this) asked if I was going to exclude Santa from Christmas. This was new to James and honestly I had not thought about it in years. James asked what she was talking about and so I told him.

I have felt for a long time that Christ has been left out of Christmas. Even though my parents brought us up with the knowledge that Christ is the center of Christmas, and we would even act out the nativity on Christmas Eve each year, I just always felt that Christmas was about the gifts. I did not want that for my family. So, my idea was to not include Santa and when my kids started asking questions that I would tell then the true story of St. Nicolas and let them know what a wonderful man he was and the great things that he did, but that that was a long time ago and that he had past away along time ago. The the Santa that people talk about is a story that people through the years have made up about St. Nicolas. James suprisingly loved this idea and wanted this for our family.

A couple of years ago, after coming home from exchanging gifts with cousins Ethan asked why they had recieved gifts from Santa and he had not. (He DOES recieve gifts from us) So, I told him of St. Nicolas and his wonderful story. He loved this insider knowledge and grasped the idea. He did not always relay the message in the appropriate light. When people would talk of Santa he would always yell out (most adamantly) that Santa is dead. As you can expect we have recieved many a horrified look from nearby parents. I tried to explain to him that other families enjoy their traditions of including Santa and that that is okay for them, but there is no gray area for Ethan. There is only black and white.

This year Ethan started school. When the Christmas season arrived many children have spoken of Santa and Ethan has argued his case not willing to let them believe otherwise.

A couple of days ago he came up to me rather defiantly telling me that he believes in Santa. I told him that his father and I are hear to teach he and his brother and sister the things that we know to be right and true and that he can still choose want he wants to believe. I went on to remind him why we choose not to include Santa in our celebrations, that we want to emphasize Christ as why we celebrate this beautiful season. I let him know that his decision is fine. It is not bad.

It was very interesting and suprising to see this little soul growing and thinking and discovering on such a subject. He was obviously having an inner struggle. I am proud of him for sharing this with me. That he chose to actually discuss this with me and share his feelings. I am sure that this must have been a scary thing for him. Not sharing his feelings in general, but doing it with the knowledge that it was something that he knew that I would not see eye to eye with him on.