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My perspective on Christmas changed over twenty years ago, when my son was three. I had worked hard to find the perfect gift and was more excited than a kid in a candy store. My husband even had to hold me back from giving the gift early. I imagined my son’s squeals of delight when he came into the room on Christmas morning to see what wonderful treasure I had found.
I was all ready to capture the moment on my camera. His wonder and delight did not disappoint. Until he screamed. “Santa gives the best gifts!” What!? No … stop the music!!! NOT Santa, MOMMY! Mommy is the best gift giver I silently screamed. My heart shattered, tears, and sadness clouded my vision in that moment.
You need to understand: Gifts – are my jam, they’re my love language. Not just because I want gifts, but because I love giving them. It brings me much joy seeing the pure delight on a person’s face when they open the special gift I found just for them.
Traditions are a funny thing; we all have them and pass them down to our children and hope they do the same with theirs. However, we never quite think about what happens with traditions when we blend families with different ones. You see, in my husband’s family, they always set out an unwrapped gift on Christmas morning that was a gift from Santa. In my family, there were wrapped gifts and stockings attributed to Santa. My sister and I knew it wasn’t Santa, but we let my parents do their thing; it was the traditions they had carried over from their childhood into our family.
My husband and I were raised in church, so we knew ‘Jesus is the reason for the season’, not Santa. However, the traditions and memories we have as children simply carried forward.
Tweet ThisEverything changed that Christmas, albeit at first for the wrong reasons. My heart hurt because Santa got credit for something I had done. I wanted my son to love ME for the gift I had given him, not Santa. I wanted the credit, not Santa. Truth be told I was being selfish. I should have been more upset that my son wasn’t thanking God for the gift of His son Jesus. God truly is the best gift giver.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son… (John 3:16 NIV).
That year, everything changed. Santa was no longer going to be the focus for Christmas, and he wasn’t going to get credit for anything else. I mentioned it to my sister-in-law who pointed me toward a great Christian resource about celebrating different holiday traditions with Christian beliefs and values at the center.
From then on, we shared the truth of Santa and Jesus with our kids. The very next year, we started celebrating Advent and focusing on the importance of Jesus, His birth, and the events that surrounded it. We also told them about a man named Nicholas, who later became known as Santa. A man who had a love for God and exhibited generosity towards people. We taught our children to be sensitive to the traditions of other families during the holiday seasons, and yet, we still had fun celebrating in our own way as we kept the focus on Jesus. To this day, our family celebrates St. Nick Day in early December. Stockings are filled with our family’s traditional items, and we honor a man who followed in the footsteps of Jesus and gave sacrificially to others. For this gift giver, it’s a win-win. Gifts early in December and gifts again on Christmas. Though my kids are grown, we still make every effort to celebrate this fun advent tradition as a family. We incorporated other traditions in the spirit of giving and blessing others; just as Nicholas did when he pointed people to Jesus. God is the original gift giver and His son Jesus is the reason for the Christmas season.
…but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23b NIV).
I would love for you to share with me in the comments below about what some of your favorite holiday traditions are.
May you enjoy this wonder and awe of the Christmas season. May we all turn our hearts and focus upon the wonderful gift God sent in the form of His son, Jesus.
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Yes, God is the original gift giver! We never did Santa, but I’m sure I would have responded the same way. But Jesus is the reason.
Kelly, neither of my parents were churched and it wasn’t until I was 5 that a neighbor invited my mom to church, so we still had family traditions from before that that carried over. I am so glad that I am the only one that wold react that way. Thanks for being here today.
What a great story! So thankful for this season of celebrating Jesus!
Thank you Michele! and I am so thankful to be able to focus on celebrating Jesus during what can often times be a crazy busy month.
I hope your final week of November has been fantastic!
Thanks Lisa, it is shaping up to end very well indeed. I hope yours has been fantastic too.
I can totally relate to this story. Not that I need all of the thanks, but I do think we can focus on the wrong things at this season.
XOXO
Jodie
http://www.jtouchofstyle.com
Jodie, thanks for understanding and relating to my story. LOL You are so right, we can easily lose our focus of the right thing and fixiate on the wrong things this time of year.
We never did Santa at our home. While we all understood Santa was a part of Christmas and the fun stories that go with all that, we fully understood the true meaning of Christmas was Christ. Now in hindsight, I am glad we maintained our focus while also enjoying the stories.
Joanne – it sounds like you had a very rich legacy and heritage that was passed down through the generations. I love that. Thanks for sharing what you did in your family.
We never gave 2 hoots about Santa; really never focused on gifts either. It was a time for get-togethers and food.
As a parent, I’m so glad this was my focus because Santa?!!!!!! One less hassle to deal with. My husband grew up buying gifts on Christmas Eve. Our best family tradition is watching our now grown children still taking time and effort to buy gifts for each other – warms my heart. Also Christmas morning service with a full-fledged west indian breakfast after.
Oh Nylse – your full-fledged West-Indian breakfast sounds wonderful! What an amazing and delicious family tradition. I also love the other family traditions you shared, and I appreciate you sharing them with me and the rest of us here today!
Thank you for hosting this opportunity to bring bloggers together and share their posts. I look forward to your party each week. #OverTheMoon #WWBlogHop #ThursdayFavoriteThings
You are most welcome as always Marilyn! Thanks for being here faithfully each week.
Sounds like you decided to raise your kids the way I was raised! Jesus is the reason for the season and Saint Nick was a great example of generosity and Christ’s love to the poor. I was especially blessed as a kid having a focus on family with lots of family gatherings. My family always did a name draw for gifts, so each member would buy a surprise gift for the person they got, taking thoughtful care to get something that would be meaningful and special to them! Giving the gift was always the most satisfying part of the day.
Jessica, I love the surprise gift idea for the name drawing! That seems so fun, and I can see how it would be most satisfying. I like to hear that we have some things in common with our Christmas Season traditions. It has been fun, to keep our focus on Jesus and speak the truth to our kids and others about what the differences betweens the worlds view and the church’s view. It has opened the door to many conversations and invitations to join us at church. Blessings to you and Merry Christmas.
I made sure we celebrated Jesus as the reason for the holiday; however we did give gifts from Santa as well. Have a blessed week!
Roseann, thank you so much for sharing with me how you celebrated. I love to hear about how everyone celebrates. Blessings
Thank you for hosting another wonderful party. Blessings!
You are welcome, thank you Jas!
So very true. Thanks for supporting my view. Have a wonderful weekend.
Thanks Patrick, and you are welcome. My weekend was great and I hope yours was too.
We told our children the truth about St. Nicholas when they were young as well.
Elizabeth, it seemed to work well for us and I am so glad we decided to share with our kids the truth as well. Blessings
Such a precious story and the beginning of a new tradition in your family. I enjoyed reading it! Thankful we can celebrate the true meaning of this season. Emmanuel!
Oh my, this was hilarious! And I totally feel you! My husband’s family wrapped them all and said they were all from Santa. Um, sorry, but no! LOL. We had one big gift left out from Santa, the rest were wrapped and from our parents. I have felt the same way! I know that this is selfish an you are right, we really need to be pointing our children to Jesus! Thank you for a wonderful post!!
Thank you, Amy! I am so glad I am not alone. I feel like after a few years, of doing things the santa way, I felt like we found something that really worked for our family as we focused on Jesus and also got to include the fun tradition of santa, but all the while pointing to Jesus.
I couldn’t have put it better myself, Debbie. This is how we do it too now, and there are nor regrets. We celebrate the truth and also do not label fun as bad. I am at peace with it and I love how you are sensitive to others. I pray you have a very Merry Christmas!