the tindog coffeehouse

Our girls are 6 and 4, so every Christmas there’s the question of what to do about Santa Claus. I don’t want to take away the innocence of childhood by telling them that Santa isn’t real; they’ll figure that out soon enough. But I don’t want to emphasize Santa and presents to the point of diminishing what Christmas is really about: the birth of Jesus. It’s humbling to look around at our Christmas decorations and see so many images of Santa but yet next to nothing about Jesus.

Christy’s approach is a little different, suggesting we go ahead and tell them that Santa isn’t real. She makes the very good point that if they find out later that we lied to them about Santa, will they also think that Jesus is a lie, too?

I don’t know if they fully believe in Santa or not, but for now the Santa decorations are still up and the girls will be leaving cookies for him on Christmas Eve. But we’ll also be reading the story of the birth of Jesus in the Bible and will probably have a birthday cake for him too (as we did last year with their cousins).

We’ve started developing our own family Christmas traditions, and thankfully visiting Santa at the mall has never been one of them. I guess that’s one good thing. If nothing else, at least it’s one less thing we have to worry about.