Before I actually get into this post I want to first make a few disclaimers:
*This post is merely my opinion and is not meant to persuade you into thinking like me
*I am not judging anyone for having different thoughts than me
*If your opinion is different than mine and you are going to comment please try to keep
it civil and not make rude or vile comments. I welcome different opinions and views
but not negativity.
It is no secret to people that know us that we do not do Santa Claus, the easter bunny or the tooth fairy with our kids. However, there are plenty of people we come in contact every day that have no idea we don’t do them with our kids. I like to believe that people that know us know that we love our kids unconditionally and try to be the best parents that we can. There are people, though, that we meet along the way that find out about things we do, or don’t do for that matter, and it really irritates them.( I find it funny that someone can make a bad assumption about you because you don’t let your kids believe in Santa or a bunny that sneaks into your house and leaves candy. Really?! )
Just the other day we were at the Doctor’s office and one of the nurses asked my kids if they were all excited for Santa to come. Mr. A(who is 3 and has the best facial expressions ever) looked at her really slowly and said , “We don’t believe in Santa you know” and then continued watching the movie that was playing. I was laughing because he said it so matter of factly like it was no big deal, but she looked at me with a look of disgust and said “are you serious?”. I said, “Yes, we don’t have our kids believe in Santa”. And you know what, she mumbled something under her breath and stormed off. It was then that I truly realized not everyone will value the choices you make for your family but as long as you know in your heart they are the right ones then I say go for it.
I have had a lot of people ask me why we don’t do these things with the kids and for me it’s an easy answer. Before I give you my reasons though, I want to first say that I don’t think there is anything wrong with you doing Santa or the easter bunny or tooth fairy with your kids. I don’t judge. I do what I think is best for my family and you do what you think is best for yours. In the past few years there has been an increase of the Elf on a Shelf toy and while we don’t do that either, I enjoy seeing what other people on FB do with theirs. We had a neighbor in Hawaii who was, and still is, the best “Elf on a Shelf-er” that I’ve seen. I looked forward to seeing her pictures everyday last year and this year is the same. I also want to assure you that I tell my kids that other kids do believe in these things and not to spoil their fun. It’s fine for them to tell adults but not other kids.
In all honesty, the number one reason that we don’t do these things is because I want to be as honest as I can be with my kids from the beginning. I remember finding out Santa wasn’t real and even though I don’t think I cared that much, I wondered how my parents had lied to me for that long. We have a rule in our house that if you tell the truth you won’t be in trouble but if we find out you lied about it then there will be consequences. So far, our kids have always told us the truth. Okay, let’s be real here for a minute…they are kids, of course they have lied. But, after I tell them that I am giving them one more chance to tell me the truth they always come to me and say, “I have to tell you what really happened”, or Rylan likes to say “I just have to tell you the truth”. I personally cannot tell my kids there is a Santa (Easter bunny, tooth fairy) for many years and then one day tell them, “Yes, we actually made that up all these years and there is no such thing”. I don’t want my kids to ever question if God is real because of something I have done…. If I tell them Santa (Easter bunny, tooth fairy) are ‘real’, but they can’t be seen, which in a way is like God (He is real and can’t be seen, but His Creation can) and then I tell them Santa isn’t real, well then are they going to question God too? I want my kids to have their own relationship with God and see just how amazing He is and how much He truly loves us.
We do, however, talk about St. Nicholas and so they know he was a real man. I don’t get upset when they want to pretend that Santa is real while playing a game with each other because they always tell me the real reason for Christmas.
The second, and equally important, reason we don’t do Santa is because I don’t want to take away from celebrating Jesus. We believe (and I realize you may not) that we celebrate Christmas in honor of Jesus’ birthday. We believe that Jesus is the Son of God and He was born in a manger, died on a cross for our sins and rose again. When it comes to Christmas I want my kids to celebrate Jesus and not Santa. We actually even sing Happy Birthday to Jesus on that day….for those of you who think that’s weird, I’m sorry, no I’m not sorry because we do what we believe in.
As far as presents go, yes our kids get presents for Christmas. The first year of their lives we didn’t buy them anything…they are too young to remember and the grandparents made sure they had stuff. We have never bought them a lot of stuff…we don’t stress about presents in our house….and we recently started getting them 3 things. They get 1 thing to wear, 1 thing to play with, and 1 thing to read. On top of that they get grandparent gifts and their stockings. You might think we are depriving our kids but honestly I can’t really remember what I got for Christmas every year and I’m sure my parents overspent and stressed about it! Faith is so excited about telling me what she wants for her three things this year that she has even told all her teachers what we do. (She would really like a purple sparkly dress for her ‘something to wear’ present)
I’m often surprised at the response we get, but it doesn’t change my beliefs and it doesn’t make me think that we are doing anything wrong. I believe we are doing what is best for our family and I hope you are making your decisions based on what you think is right for your family. We can’t live our lives hoping to please everyone because in the end nobody will be happy! There are things I value that you may not and there are probably things you value that I do not. Instead of fighting and judging one another let’s just get along and love one another.
You want to know another one that gets “the look’…when I tell people we don’t have TV at our house….but that’s another topic for another time!
I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!!!