Maile, with her Papa, last Christmas.
Our good friend Santa is starting to make an appearance again. The adorable man in the big red suit and all that. Truth be told, Santa and I have never really been what you would call "good friends." In fact, I was telling Mr. M over dinner last night that I don't remember ever believing in Mr. Claus. I was the awkward kindergartener who just didn't get that the other kids didn't want to hear from me that Santa isn't real. Haha. I'm pretty sure I lost some cool points that way, pointedly telling my fellow 5 year-olds that their parents were lying to them. So uncouth of me.
Anyway, Maile is getting to an age where we're going to have to decide how to go about Santa. Will he, or won't he, be making visits to the Mitchell home each Christmas?
How do you go about Santa with your littles? Thanks in advance for sharing, friends! We are looking forward to carefully reading each and every comment.
Santa brings one present per child to our house. He also "picks up" the used toys and clothes at Thanksgiving to "fix up" and give to kids whose Mommies and Daddies can't afford toys this Christmas. But Santa's biggest job is to remind everyone that the decorations and celebrating is really about celebrating baby Jesus. We do our best to tie Santa into the real meaning of Christmas without taking away all the fun and sparkle.
ReplyDeleteThat's basically what my parents did with us, growing up. Everyone received one gift from Santa. Some years we did extra fun activities like putting out "reindeer feed" (bird seed) or cookies, but we also celebrated Advent, did scripture readings each day, etc. My parents never allowed us to lose the real reason behind the season. :)
DeleteI like the idea of Santa picking up toys/clothes to be donated!
I'm not a mom so don't put a lot of stock in what I say haha BUT I was of the camp that I didn't want to "lie" to my children every year about Santa. However, I have two much younger brothers (I was 13 and 15 when they were born) who both grew up believing in Santa. Now that I'm older and see them still enjoying Christmas with that belief (although one of them "knows" now) there is just something about it that makes the holiday more "magical" and special. We grew up getting one or two things from Santa we REALLY wanted and everything else was from our parents. I think I'm going to follow that same ritual.
ReplyDeleteHave you seen the Shelf Elves? My brothers have one of those and it is ADORABLE.
Yes! We never did Elf on a Shelf when I was little, but it is a pretty cute idea.
DeleteI don't know why but I was always afraid of Santa when I was a kid, haha! I think the thought of a strange man entering my house at night freaked me out. Our little boy is two so we are talking about it too. We are kind of torn.
ReplyDeleteLOL! If someone introduced the idea of Santa to me now, I'd be the same way. Too many episodes of Criminal Minds.
Deleteugh...this is a hard subject! michael and i still struggle with this one. i think we'll probably go the santa route, but have him be "on the back burner". for so many families, that's all they stress (santa). for us, we want to stress the real reason for the season. do an advent calendar, read scripture, get out and help those less fortunate, etc. i DO love the elf on the shelf idea, though. :)
ReplyDeleteIt is hard, isn't it? I think a lot of Santa traditions are really fun, but like you, I want to make sure that the focus is kept on the birth of Jesus. A local friend and I are thinking of maybe going more the Saint Nicholas / Dutch Sinterklaas route, but aren't quite sure how to go about it.
DeleteDefinitely, I agree with Jeannette here, it makes Christmas a little more magical. Plus, you can use it as a disciplining device, not that Maile is a terrible child...God knows Jeremy is a little terror when he wants to be (I still love you, boogey) ...but if they want presents, they have to be good :) That sounds so horrible Lol.
ReplyDeleteThere is absolutely something magical about Santa! I'm with you there!
DeleteTHANK YOUUU! I really like you blog! Lovely Family! best wishes :)))
ReplyDeleteThank you, Laura! And thanks so much for becoming my newest follower.
DeleteI believed in Santa until I was 12. I was the kid who had people telling me he wasn't real, but I didn't pay any attention. I think I associated belief in Santa with belief in God. So, I felt like I had a lot of faith. The problem in our family is there are so many cousins so if we ever told our kids the truth early on they would ruin it for everyone.
ReplyDeleteHey Ben! Thanks for stopping by our little blog.
DeleteWe haven't considered the "cousin factor" yet. Maile has about a million, on Tim's side of the family! We certainly don't want her to become the family party pooper. ;)
I really enjoyed reading about how you associated your belief in Santa with your belief in God; there's something really wonderful there.
Santa is a hard one! My Mum broke the truth about Santa, the tooth fairy and the easter bunny all in one hit when I was 4 so I don't ever really remember believing in Santa growing up. We'll let our son have the magic & mystery of Santa for awhile but I don't want it to overtake the true meaning. I am also thinking that maybe we might just make his stocking stuffers the 'santa' presents and the big ones from us.
ReplyDeleteI also like the stocking idea! That's definitely going more the Saint Nicholas / Sinterklaas route.
DeleteOh gosh, I can't believe you never believed in Santa? I say GO FOR IT! Children need that little special magic in their lives.
ReplyDeleteMy family to this day still lays out cookies and carrots for the reindeer ;)
xo TJ
I know, I know ... If anything, I've become more illogical, emotional, and nostalgic as an adult. Isn't it supposed to be the opposite? ;)
DeleteI think your family tradition is super sweet, and I can imagine that's something you still look forward to!
My parents never did the Santa thing for us growing up, and neither did Trevor's parents, so we just naturally gravitate towards not celebrating Santa either. I don't necessarily think it's wrong to let your kids believe in Santa, but I also think I would just rather not. Christmas already has so many distractions that have nothing to do with the real reason for the season, so I don't want to add another thing to cause my children to focus on the presents, etc. AND, I may be the only one, but I find Elf on a Shelf to be CREEEEEPY!! Hahaha i don't know, something about finding him hiding in strange places, watching your every move to report back to Santa is scary! haha
ReplyDeleteLOL! Your feelings on Elf on a Shelf had me cracking up. It's not something I see us doing, but I have seen some really cute little mischievous ideas on Pinterest. ;)
DeleteI couldn't express our concerns about Santa better myself. But despite desiring to live "in and not of" the world, I don't ever want Maile to feel like she's truly missing out on something, which I guess is why I'm hoping to come up with some way we can incorporate Mr. C, without taking things overboard.
So fun! I say go all out and tell her about Santa :) It's just for fun...as long as you teach her the real meaning of why we celebrate-- Christ's birth-- I think it's totally okay. You don't want her to be the kid at school telling all the other kids there is no Santa haha! ;)
ReplyDeleteHaha! Point taken, Michaela. Point taken. ;)
Deleteaaaaaaaaaaah...I don't know either!! Gabriel's only a year old, so I've still got some time... but Santa seems basically inescapable these days! I want him to at least be aware of the idea, so that we can, you know, watch Rudolph and stuff... I've been thinking maybe of going the St. Nicholas route, too. I don't know. (I was always fine with Santa, but the Easter Bunny kinda freaked me out. Mostly because I imagined him to be adult-sized.)
ReplyDeleteHaha! Your comment about the Easter Bunny made me LOL!
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