Christmas -- the devotion to Santa Claus as opposed to Christ.
The religion of Santa-Clausity.
Hmmm. It brings back some childish memories. It's been a long time since I experienced the liturgy of Santa-Clausity. The idea of receiving presents. A guy in a red suit coming down from the chimney with a bag of presents.
What a shame! I converted to Christianity when I was around 10? 12? I abandoned my Santa-Clausian up-bringing. I gave up the legend of Santa Claus to embrace the living legend of Christ. I guess you could say that Christ was the grown-up version of Santa Claus.
My wife and I elected not to play the Santa game. Not because of the aforementioned incident of my own experience, but because we came to the same conclusion that Christmas sentiments have been misdirected.
In the first place, we don't believe that a fictional character should get the credit for what our hard earned money has paid for. We wanted our kids to know that their source for life comes from their parents and ultimately from God, both their physical life and their financial endowments.
In the second place, in this day and age, it is important to be truthful to your children. Since they were infants, we made every effort to train them in the admonishment of the Lord, ensuring they went to church every Sunday and leading them to and understanding of who God is and what Christ did for them. To embellish them with yuletide fables seems counterproductive to that end.
I am reminded by a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip where Calvin is lamenting to Hobbes about how Santa Claus supposedly knows who has been good and who has been bad. He goes on to question about how Santa is so secretive and why no one ever seems to see him. Then Hobbes replies, "I dunno, isn't this a religious holiday?" To which Calvin retorts, "Yeah, but I have the same questions about God!"
My kids do not regret not believing in Santa Claus, though they are asked my friends what do they think Santa will bring them for Christmas. They understand the true meaning of the birth of Christ and look forward to the reading of the story on Christmas morning about as much as they anticipate opening the gifts. They understand that the greatest Gift is the one that is already theirs in Christ. They have exhibited a strong faith in God and have never questioned his Existance, for they have seen what their faith in God has done in their lives and how God has changed them .
I was surprised just the other day with my younger daughter, age 9. When I asked her if she hung up her dress after church like I told her, she hesitated just briefly and said, "No" and scurried off to do that chore. Later when she came back to me, she said that I should be thankful. I asked why? and said i should be thankful for her honesty. And I said, what do you mean? She said when I asked her if she hung up her dress, for a second she wanted to say yes, thus lying. She said that her flesh was telling her to say that, but she knew it would be wrong, for she knew God didn't want her to lie. So she told the truth.
I was floored. This 9 year old girl having such spiritual insight to have given that answer is well beyond anything I would have expected. I told her she did the very right thing and gave her a kiss and hug.
I must be doing something right.
I don't know what point I was trying to make with that, but I thought I would share it anyway.
