I was just wondering how many of you do "Santa"?  Do you let your children believe in him?  I know alot of people do and it has to be a personal decision, we choose not to.  I will share with you why we choose not to do the santa thing.  First, Christmas is about Christ, not about presents and we try to teach our children that.  Now don't get all flustered with me yet, we give our children presents and exchange with other families, we just try to instill in them what Christmas is really about.  But do you want to know the real reason that got me to first thinking about telling my kids the truth about santa?  Because you see, long ago, when they were itty bitty, we did the santa thing.  Then I got to thinking, if I let them believe in that or encourage it, that would be lying to my children.  Yes, it is lying to your children to tell them there is a santa claus.  Lying is a sin, plain and simple.  You might choose to think it is innocent and harmless, I just choose to disagree.  Santa is someone they only hear about and read about, never actually seeing this person, someone that knows if they are naughty or nice, someone that can bless them with gifts or not and then they grow up and realize that all I was teaching them was a lie, do you not think they could relate those same feelings to God?  God is someone they have not seen, they only read about and hear about.  God can choose to bless them or not.  God knows all about them.  So if I lied to them about santa, perhaps they may think I lied about God too?  It might be just enough to make them doubt all I have ever taught them, maybe not, but why would I take that chance just to make my children believe in some fairy tale the world has created?  I want my children to trust me, in everything.  I am not saying you have to believe or agree with all I am saying, these are just the convictions placed upon my heart and I wanted to share them with you.

Before you ask, my children know there is no Easter bunny or tooth fairy.  I will admit it took longer for the tooth fairy to go away once she got started but then the conviction came again, it is still a lie.  So, now my kids know that we give them money for their teeth, my youngest still chooses to put it under his pillow, but he knows it is us.  I know it is silly and why keep that up?  Well, it is more a fairness thing for me.  My older lost more teeth while the tooth fairy still visited, so I am just making sure they all the get "their fair share".  It is my personal choice to do this.  They do know that they can just bring me the tooth and get their money. 

I just feel that allowing or encouraging our children to believe in these things is lying to our children and I choose not to do so.  You can decide for yourself what is right for your family, I just ask you to consider my opinions. 

Don't forget dh is on vacation this week so I may not be able to be on here as much as normal, but I will check in when I can.  Feel free to leave comments, just know that I may not answer your right away but I still enjoy reading them. 

Blessings,

Rashel

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Posted by homesteadinthemaking

What a question. I am interested in seeing the answers, as well. We do not do Santa Clause, as far as our gifts and things coming from him. I, like you, started it and was convicted that it just wasn't the right thing to do. Instead we look on him as a fictional character, just like Mickey Mouse or Veggie Tales. I do have some Santa Clauses around but I also have Angels and Snowmen and etc. We choose to go the route of Santa just not being a big deal. Snowmen are not real but I still like frosty. I think it is just a good thing to tell them the truth but not make it out to be some horrible thing. I do tell my children that some parents tell their children that there is a Santa and that we need to respect their decision.
Blessings,
Trixi

**I was on here when you commented so I thought I would add something here. I hope I didn't make it sound like we make santa out to be a bad guy, we don't. We just tell our children he isn't real. They also know that some children do believe in him and they have to respect that and be careful what they say around them. I like snowmen too!
Blessings,
Rashel

Edited by rashel on Monday, November 26, 2007 at 01:41

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Posted by mom2countrykids

I have to laugh! When the bashing starts for you not doing traditional "santa" and all the others I will be right there with you. We use to do Santa, and the tooth fairy, and sorta the Easter bunny. Over they years God has convicted me to stop different things. It was a process. Last year I did the ultimate! I cancelled Christmas as we knew it! Gasp! Shock! Horror!! What about Christmas in main stream America honors God? We had NO Christmas other than talking about how Jesus came and how He became man and how He did it all for us.

As wild as that sounds my kids LOVED it! It took pressure off of them. They knew there wasn't going to be any gifts. They didn't have to "be good". We talked a lot about how Christmas isn't really a Christian holiday, that most of the "trimmings" are pagan. We are focusing back on Old Testament Holidays. The down side is ever have a 6, 9 and 10 yo try and explain why they don't "do" Christmas to a store clerk? I finally go them to just agree they were ready for Christmas, even if our Christmas wasn't traditional.

This year they want to do gifts for others. We are either going to do the Angel Tree or a friend works at a House of Faith Club and they are doing shoe boxes for all the kids. That is what I want to do. Kids came up with this idea on their own.

Nola

**I think that is great!! Well, we do still have Christmas, we just have a scaled down version and no santa gifts or such as that. There are times when I would like no Christmas because of what the world has done to it, but we aren't there yet. I do plan to start studying more biblical feasts and celebrating those soon too.
Blessings and thanks for taking the bashing with me ;)
Rashel

Edited by rashel on Monday, November 26, 2007 at 01:43

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Posted by blessedmomof10

Rashel,

About 8 yrs ago the Lord did a great work on our heart...... we did the Santa thing and then presents from mom and dad, aunts, uncles, grandparents....one Christmas day it took 4 hours to open all the gifts!!! Afterwards my husband & I crashed..... we were so tired and exhausted........ we looked at ourselves and asked ourselves why are we doing this? Is this a commanment? Does God require us to follow the traditions of our culture? Of course not - it's a personal choice! From that day on we have worked hard to keep Christ in Christmas..... at first we did 3 wiseman gifts and then we deleted that as well......... Christmas is no longer and exhausting and expensive time -- I feel NO stress what so ever! The Lord does not give us stress - we give that to ourselves by the choices we make....... now some folks do exchange gifts and they can keep it simple ~ that is there choice of course..... some do santa...... some do not ..........
Now for us, Christmas is a season of reflection on Jesus - His life - His legacy........ we love the music, go caroling, love to make goodies for others and to have others in our home....... because I no longer shop and spend all our resources on gifts I can spend my time and energy and resources on those that are truly needy..........and service..........

Our family still puts up a tree ~ but it is small and very simply decorated........
I purchase one small ornament for each child each year and a book...... I make a treat bag for them with Christmas goodies.......that is the extent of their gifts they receive..... we also have asked extended family to make gifts to the poor and needy in lieu of sending gifts to us..... there are so many needy folks out there......

The way we look at it -- Christmas is Jesus' Bday....... how odd to ask for things for ourselves instead of bringing things to Him? Each year we have a bday cake and celebration and present him with our gifts of the heart..........

These are just a few things we have done to make Christmas more meaningful.......

Blessings~
gloria

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Posted by Anonymous

What a wonderful post.You are so right and about everything.I do decorate for the holiday and we do exchange gifts.We decorate but mainly focus on the Lord and not Santa.I love red and the children know to me that repesents our Fathers love for us.I always keep the tree meaning of the season...
The gifts we exchange are not from Santa but from people that truly love us and this one time a year want to show us how much they appreciate us.
I love you ladies for sharing your hearts on here and that is what makes this place such a blessing to me:)
Thanks for sharing:)

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Posted by SisterLori

Blessings!
We don't do "santa" either and try to convince farm children that eggs come from a bunny:P We have never been against "fairy stories" but they have always been aware that they are only stories.
We also used to do "Santa" but it wasn't really any "calling" per se (although it might have been and I didn't recognize it as such), that made us change it. It was watching our children in the frenzy of the "gimmegetmebuyme" mentality. The idea that "Santa" knew if they were naughty or nice and even if they were horrible they still got gifts so that wasn't teaching them anything really, then there was the lie of it all and trying to convince them that God (which they cannot physically see in person) was real when Santa (who they could see at all the malls) wasn't real! It was confusing even for us not to mention the stress and frustration throughout the season which made me learn to despise it.
Now? We still exchange gifts (mostly homemade), we still decorate (I do have a santa collection along with snowmen, angels, snowflakes etc), and we enjoy seeing all the lights and making gifts and spending time with family.
Most importantly, our children know and understand the meaning of Christmas, they have learned the history of the tree, Santa, and decorations. The enjoy the season and the time with friends and even strangers as we donate our time to community service here.
We haven't felt led to give it all up, perhaps we never will, but we'll follow that path when the Lord presents it to us:)
God be with thee!
Sister Lori

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Posted by homesteadinthemaking

Rashel,
I was by no means saying that you say he is a bad guy. I just meant to say that that is the way we tell our children. So that they won't think that what others are doing is neccesarily a terrible thing, we just choose not to participate in the whole gifts from Santa thing. I want them to keep the focus on Jesus.
This is a great topic!!
Trixi

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Posted by Anonymous

As a child, I remember the day I discovered "santa wasn't real". I was devastated. I first felt betrayed that my parents would lie to me......then humiliated that I was SO dumb to believe that lie. I felt like a fool that I was 10 years old and believed in a lie all my life.........I was angry that my parents lied to me.
I will never forget that day.

We never did santa with our children.
santa? satan? just one flip of the letters........
Scripture says you shall have no other god before, or beside me.
Who get's elevated above Christ in December???
Hmmmmmmmmm

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Posted by maa

Yes, we do Santa(Saint Nicholas) at our house.Why? and How?
I have never made Santa the reason for the season nor have we focused on Santa that much.We focus on the birth of Christ.

As my daughters got older and told me that there
was not really a Santa, I told them that Yes, there was.I told them all about Saint Nicholas and how he was a Christian, a giver, and a servant of God.
Then they wanted to know how does he give all of those gifts and how old his he now.
He is dead and he does not give the gifts anymore. Mom and Dad give the gifts. The real Santa is now a spirit which many people want to keep alive.
In my mind Santa is real and his spirit is alive as many other saintly people who have gone on to heaven.Now if I had told them that they were right, that there was no santa, then I would be a liar.Saint Nicholas was a real person who was nicknamed Santa.

When the children were very small we would leave a treat for santa.This was a fun game for all of us, I play many games with my children.I have a bluebird box where a bluebird has left notes or VERY tiny gifts for my son.We also have a tree with a hole in it and Mr.Chipmunk would leave thing too.These were games and my son knows now that it they were only games, he does not think I am a liar.

I have never compared Saint Nicholas to God. God is the most powerful and no person is ever compared to being as powerful as God. My children know God is real by looking at the creations around them.They know God is real because of the word of God has been given to them.

I do respect you much for not doing Santa. Your reason are wonderful reasons.No one should bash you for this post or me for my comment.We should encourage one another on though.I may be totally mixed up about my beliefs but this is where I am now. I am always learning and correcting my faults.

My daughters are now young women who serve God and they will both tell you that there is a Saint Nicholas. They will tell you about the excitment they get when they think of this Saintly man who served God.Christmas is a wonderful time to remember a Saint and keep his spirit alive in our minds as well as God and other Saints.
maa's mom

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Posted by Jonash2004

Actually I always enjoyed being apart from the world's celebration as a child and I've always thought the hub-bub over make-believe Santa and the gift-buying frenzy to be silly.

My mom warned me in my teens that I'd probably have to compromise in this area and learn to celebrate this holiday, but God gave me a husband who's family never bought into the frenzy either and after looking in the roots of this holiday he's more than happy to let the world carry on around us.

We've talked and if we felt it to be important to celebrate the Lord Jesus Christ's birth, we'd do it sometime in the fall, and if we did this it's hard to fit in all of the traditions of the world into celebrating Christ's birth. Personally, our family finds it more important (and Biblical) to remember His death, burial and resurection. So we focus on that. :)

I know my parents felt a bit guilty at times when I was growing up, but as the second generation that has never done any of this, I just don't feel the peer pressure to conform. I just watch in awe as people come unglued and try to stay out of the stores.

I think it's sort of the same as a homeschool graduate - I have no (zero!) fear of homeschooling. I know lots of folks that have to make that leap from public school thinking to homeschooling, which I don't have to do. Having never put up a tree, it's pretty easy to read Jeremiah 10:2-4 and get cold feet about it. :)

I love to look at lights this time of year, though!

Just my thoughts . . .

Oh, and a good time to talk about this is oh, say June or July. People tend to be less offended. :)

Ashley

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Posted by Joanne

We do Santa and Maa's comment really sums up our reasons. Saint Nicholas was a real person at one time and yes, society has cashed in on exploiting this kind, Christian man. Our focus is on Jesus' birth but we enjoy the tradition of St. Nick. It is all where your heart and focus lies. I get *put-off* when people taunt "Satan Claus!!" because sin lies in a person's heart....not in Santa, Christmas trees, pretty lights.....
Out of the 4 of our 5 children who now know that Santa is not physically alive today, our 8 year old son felt a sense of betrayal. But after explaining the history of the real Saint Nicholas and how we have carried on his tradition...he was content. Now he enjoys playing along to the hilt for the benefit of his little brother who still believes. He wants to be the one to eat the milk and cookies we leave out on Christmas eve for Santa :o)
Secular traditions are spoken of in the Bible as being both good and bad. There nothing wrong in enjoying these customs as long as they are not the focus of your heart.
Some things we do at Christmas~ Bake Jesus a birthday cake, church nativity, charoling, food bank, visit Washington, DC to see the Christmas trees from each state, support Salvation Army and Boys Town, family gatherings, special foods, Christmas cookies, gift giving, decorate outside with lights, Christmas tree and...Santa.
Joanne

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Posted by Dawn Davis

Hello! My husband and I and our 5 children are very interested in moving to beautiful Missouri to start a camp. We have been looking for land for a while, but know that often times, the best way to find out about larger acreages is by word of mouth. Do you know of any 100+ acre plots for sale? I appreciate your time! Blessings to you today!
Dawn Davis
markanddawndavis@yahoo.com

**Hi Dawn, I don't know of any off hand but I will keep my ears open for you and let you know if I hear of any.
Blessings
Rashel

Edited by rashel on Thursday, November 29, 2007 at 10:30

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Posted by SuperHorseSteader

Hi Rashel
This was a really great post. I thoroughly enjoyed it. So much that I included it in The Homesteading Carnival #27: Newness Edition.
Please come by and see.
Thank you,
As Always,
Amanda

**Thank you!!! I will definitely check it out.
Blessings,
Rashel

Edited by rashel on Monday, December 3, 2007 at 11:02

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