Hey there y'all, if any of you have ever enjoyed one of the Abe and Max movies that our dear friends the Marshalls made I am directing you to thier blog again. They just made the MOST interesting post about Santa Claus that I think every parent or future parent should read. Not that every parent should agree with them, I just know that it made Javier and I think a lot and I think its something worth thinking about. Soooo here's the link: http://andrewandariel.blogspot.com/2009/12/do-we-need-santa.html
Its interesting anyway. I read all the like 28 page long comments and those are really interesting too. It appears to be a bit of a sensitive isssue as you might imagine.
Free Fall Coloring Book Printable
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Today we have a fall coloring book printable. Kids of all ages will love
coloring this entire fall themed coloring…
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6 days ago
2 comments:
I'm going to leave my comment here instead of on your friends blog.
I give you three rather good reasons for keeping the big guy around:
1. You can teach about Jesus and have him be the focus WITHOUT killing Santa Claus. Ellie has asked about Jesus every night this month. I'm 98% sure she's mentioned Jesus twice as much as Santa. Also, I don't think we give kids enough credit. I think my kids already KNOW Santa isn't real. They make believe for the season, because it's fun, but they KNOW the focus is Jesus. I think the problem comes when parents TEACH Santa. When my kids ask about Santa I say, "I don't know, what do you think" when they ask about Jesus, I give them answers.
2. Do we really want to alienate our children from all the kids at school? NO. At least I sure don't.
3. Santa is a meant to be a metaphor for Jesus. I hate to say it but WE pray about getting, getting, getting ALL THE TIME (not just at Christmas like kids). Heavenly Father and Jesus give us blessings regardless of what we give them. We (the parents) are the ones who have the opportunity to learn by being Santa because we give gifts (that we put a lot of thought into) and we receive no thanks in return (because the kids think they've come from Santa).
That said we ABSOLUTELY must have Christmas traditions that show our kids the importance of giving and sharing with those less fortunate. Also I think Santa gifts should be small and simple (and as thoughtful as possible).
So there you go. My 2 (or 10) cents.
Thanks for sharing! I'm by no means anti-santa but we haven't really tried to incorporate santa into our christmas. I don't mind singing santa songs and having santa decorations or wrapping paper or anything like that, but we just don't give presents from santa. And it wasn't really a conscious "we don't want santa" choice, it just kind of happened. I do think it's a good thing to focus on Christ and what he has done for us, and also to focus on our gifts for each other being little expressions of love. Anyway, it was a good read. Hope you guys have a great Christmas!
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