This morning, Russell was playing with a hat box that my mother-in-law sent to us containing Christmas gifts (gifts were put away, already). The box had a vintage/classic looking Santa on the front, similar to the picture above. I asked Russell who was the man on the box. He said Noah. I had to laugh. He makes me proud.We were raised with the knowledge that Santa was only an imaginary man and a fun idea for the Christmas season. We knew from Day 1 that toys came from the grandparents. It was a little hard to hide that fact, when we greedily circled and underlined every toy we wanted in the Sears Toy catalogue before handing the catalogue back to my grandparents. For me, it was the bright-pink Barbie items. I never did get a real Barbie car or an official Barbie horse, but that is another blog entry for another day;-)
The Christmas I remember most vividly was the year I wanted The Heart Family’s playground, complete with slide and swing and play-house. I must have been 8 or 9 years old at the time. We were celebrating the day at my grandparents’ house in Victoria. We had finished unwrapping all the gifts and I was sorely disappointed. I don’t know what happened next, but all of a sudden, my Grandma remembered one gift hidden in the laundry room. Yes, the box was big, and it was mine. I still have the playground, now stored away at my parents’ house with all the other Barbie items I so fondly played with for years.
I have no problem with the idea of Santa but Russell will be raised as I was. I want him to know and appreciate the real story of Bishop Nicholas and the giving spirit he had and a faith that caused him to be imprisoned. I want Russell to know that Christmas is a celebration of Christ’s birth and the gift He was to us as mankind. I am not into the idea of “Happy Birthday Jesus” (sorry if you are, but I’m just saying). I think it is a silly but harmless idea. I just want Russell to know and worship and follow Christ as our Lord and not as a baby-image.
It is such an honor to have the privilege to raise our son. I hope that as the years pass, as a little family unit, we can adopt traditions to teach Russell what it is to serve others and to give to the less fortunate. I’m excited for each year that passes and the opportunities it will bring!
6 comments:
What a great post, Hillary! That's pretty much the tactic we're taking with Santa too.
Love this post. We are anti-Santa but I hope our girls aren't affected when we send them to public schools and they are bombarded with him, ha!
I am with ya. We haven't said 2 words about Santa and consequently, Emma doesn't know what all the fuss is about. The other day someone told her to be good for Santa and she had the most confused look. In the car, she asked me who Santa was and I told her he was just a guy in a story.
Then we were at a place that had a real Santa and kids were lining up to sit on his lap. Emma begged to stand in line just because all the other kids were doing it. We didn't want to wait in the cold, so we said no. She whined all the way to the car, "I want to sit on that red guy's lap."
I totally respect your decision to leave the mythology of Santa out of Russell's life, but could you tell him that it's impolite to burst other kids' bubbles when he gets to school age? :) Mainly, I think that Aric and I are taking the tact that Santa is a symbol (one of many) of generosity and love, and just because he's physically not alive doesn't mean that that symbol isn't great. Most of the greatest things in the world are intangible, difficult to describe, and intuitive -- like Love, God, Humility, and Generosity -- but they can be symbolized by something like Santa. Hey, I believe!
I hear hope in your blog! That is so cool..Love it!
I have a good friend in real life whose daughter called Santa "Moses" this year. :)
When I was growing up we never did the Santa thing and I've never felt sad over that. We knew it was just a story that people pretended was true just for fun. My husband still remembers when he found out that Santa wasn't real and how upset he was! I'm actually glad I never had to deal with it from that perspective.
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