The Spirit of Christmas

I had a very difficult and, what ended up being, amazing conversation with my 5 yr. old daughter today. It was centered around the question of whether or not Santa is real. While we don't advocate that Santa brings them all their presents if they are good little girls, we don't completely ban Santa from our Christmas, either. Before you start thinking I'm this heartless woman who won't let her children believe in Santa, listen to the whole story, because that's not exactly true.

I must first give some background: growing up, as one of three children, I very fondly remember "playing" Santa. It was magical and fun, but I always knew that we were pretending and that Santa wasn't an actual person coming down our chimney bringing us presents. We played like we saw him in the sky on Christmas Eve as we drove home from family celebrations. Every Christmas morning - even through college - my older brother, younger sister and myself would wake up Mom and Dad by calling downstairs to them. Once we finally got them awake, we would have to wait at the top of the stairs while they "checked to see if Santa had come". It was always so much fun and I was never disappointed to find out that something/someone I had believed in wasn't real. All of my Christmas seasons were filled with magic, fun and excitement. We also had the blessing of knowing that Christmas is all about celebrating Jesus' birth and not just about getting presents.

So, with that in mind, I have always set out to make sure the girls know the reason for Christmas is to celebrate the greatest gift of all: Jesus. Santa is a fun thing that we pretend and he is based on a wonderful man named Saint Nicholas who started this tradition of giving gifts at Christmas, after the Wise Men's example. We always pretend like Santa stuffs the stockings, and bake cookies for him on Christmas Eve. And that has worked, ...for the past few years, ...until this year.

This year, Raegan, my very smart little girl, has been drilling me with questions regarding the reality of Santa since before Thanksgiving. I was thankful to be in the car with my mom today when she started another question session so that I could get my mom's opinion on how to handle her very direct questions. I asked her if we had ever drilled her like this and she said that we absolutely did not! She said she didn't think we were that smart...ha! This is my precious Raegan; always full of questions!!

She and her little sister had their picture taken with Santa today and Rae especially loved sitting on his lap telling him what she wanted for Christmas. He told her to be sure and leave out some carrots for Rudolph, and she was very quick to pass on this information to me. This got her thinking, however, ...if we pretend Santa, then who eats the cookies? Furthermore, if we pretend Santa, then why leave out carrots for a pretend Rudolph?

At one point (about 20 min. into this cumbersome conversation) Rae became very disillusioned with the whole discussion and began to cry a little to her self. Once we were home I asked her, in my most gentle voice, what was the matter. Her words broke my heart. My little one was standing in the back of my mom's bedroom looking at the picture she had just taken with Santa, and had a few tears running down her cheek. She said to me that Santa wasn't real to her and that she knew that people stuffed our stockings, not Santa; reindeer really don't fly.

................um, ..............HELP!!!!

I pulled my sweet girl to me, looked her in the eyes and told her what, I feel, was God-given at that moment. "Sweet heart, Mommy will never lie to you. The difference between Jesus and Santa is that Jesus is real whether you believe in him or not. That will never change. Santa, however, is only real if you believe in him. That's the magic of Christmas. If you don't believe in Santa, he isn't real. It's our belief in the spirit of Santa that makes him real, and the reindeer fly with Rudolph, and his shiny nose, leading the way. Do you think you have that magic in you, baby, to make Santa real this Christmas?" A big smile came over her face as she shook her head and said that she did, followed by a little laugh, like only Raegan can offer, that told me I had just done a pretty good job at explaining Santa without lying and without taking the focus off of the real reason we celebrate Christmas: Jesus.:) ......Whew!

I'm not sure if that will completely settle all future questions, but I sure hope it does! We're off to another magical Christmas season and I love it! Merry Christmas to you all!