One topic of conversation that seems to come up at this time a year among Christian moms is: will Santa be visiting your house? I have some friends who feel that making Santa a part of Christmas takes away from the true meaning and other friends who make a big deal out of Santa visiting their children. Our family falls in the middle. Yes, we "do" Santa. Ruben and I discussed it a lot when Buzz was a baby and we decided that there isn't any harm in letting our kids believe in Santa while they're little. It's part of the innocence and magic of childhood. To me it seems the same as letting your child believe that the characters at Disney World are real (which we also do, again it's that whole magic of childhood thing).
In our house Christmas isn't about Santa, he's just a small part of the way we celebrate. We don't even really mention Santa until Christmas Eve when part of our family tradition is baking cookies together to leave for him. Whether they get presents or not does not depend on whether they've been good or bad and you won't hear us telling our kids "Santa knows if you're naughty or nice". I don't want to imply to them that Santa is omnipotent or in any way on the same level as Jesus. We've told our children that Santa is just a kind old man who brings children gifts to help remind them of what a gift God gave us by sending Jesus. Of course the kids love finding a few presents under the tree on Christmas morning (what kid doesn't love presents?) but we try very hard to focus on the true reason for the season: celebrating the birth of our Savior.
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