(This photo isn't from our neighborhood - but I didn't take the camera on the walk. This is on a business pointing the way to the light tour. It's the only Santa photo I have. )
I realize that all Christian families will have their own convictions on the "Santa Thang".
In our family, we've chosen to tell the children about the legend of "St Nicholas," and to explain that all the red suited Santa Clauses they see around town stem from that legend. We tell them that Santa is a symbol of St. Nicholas and giving to the poor etc. And we talk about how far our society has strayed from the concept. In other words we don't teach Santa Clause at all. When they ask about the hoopla and the multiple, red-suited, plump men around town in December....we explain.
During our neighborhood walk, we came to a house that is FAMOUS for it's Santa displays. I pointed to one on the roof and said, "Zander, who is that?"
He replied, "That's Mr. Ho, Ho, Ho!" No matter how much we quizzed him he didn't know. I was surprised...I know we don't teach Santa as real but I assumed society would do the job of introducing the name to him. LOL
6 comments:
That Mr. Ho Ho Ho thing is funny. We'll be driving around looking at lights and everytime my 3 yo sees a Santa he says "ho-ho-ho" in a deep throaty voice, it's funny. I don't think he knows Santa's name either, just that he says "ho-ho-ho".
Jen in Az.
We also have taught the children from the very beginning the TRUE story of St. Nicholas. We also tie in the man in the red coat with the true story. So, just for fun we have always done the Santa picture. I probably do it more for me . . . it brings back memories of my childhood :-) The children know though - the reason for the season is Jesus!
We haven't gone out of our way to include OR ignore Santa...we own Santa Clause....so that is why I was so surprised he didn't have a clue of the NAME of the man in the red suit. LOL
Love the Ho, Ho, HO answer...very funny.
We haven't done the St. Nicholas legend, but tend to just ignore the whole Santa thing.
I found a study on-line about St. Nicholas...maybe we could fit that in this week.
The new kids were very disappointed when we told them that Santa didn't visit here! We quickly told them to not worry, they would still get presents. I'm sure the whole Santa thing was one of the high points they were waiting for now they that have a family.
DeEtta,
We, too, have told our kids the story of St. Nicholas and how Santa relates to that so they have always known he is not real. However, in respect for families that do celebrate Santa we have told our kids not to tell other children Santa is not real. So, when my 7yo (RM ) was found in the church hallway yelling at the top of his lungs to his best friend/nemesis (RT) that Santa was not real I had to stop him and find out what was going on. He told me he did NOT tell RT that Santa wasn't real but that RT told him Santa was real and was trying to force him to believe he was real. RM then said he knew Santa was not real and couldn't help it when "Santa is NOT real" came out of his mouth. LOL
It became like a tennis match, "Santa IS real!", "Santa is NOT real!" and on and on. That is what I walked up to as many of our church body looked on while trying to hide their laughing mouths. What's a mom to do? LOL
We did do the Santa thing and I later (thanks to SHS mainly) wished we'd never started. Dh is happy to continue the Santa story though, so we do. When dd finally found out the truth this year, she was annoyed that we'd ever started the charade, saying she would never tell her kids Santa was real. I'm glad she can learn from what I perceive to be my parenting mistakes (although I'm just saying this for MY family, NOT anyone else's!).
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