[Kat-L]

Originally Posted by lovemy2boys

Now back to Santa - I enjoy the jolly old santa that the children dream about, but I ABSOLUTELY LOVE the look of the old world santas! My mom bought me a Polish Santa Statue that is absolutely beautiful! Is it just me?

I love the old world Santa's, too. But when I was little, I always pictured Santa like the one on the Coke can. I have a picture of myself at age 6 sitting on Santa's lap. You can tell from the picture that I was just chatting away. The Santa in the picture couldn't have been more than 25 years old. He had black hair sticking out from under his wig, a tiny fake beard that was hanging off his chin and corny glasses (think 1971). It's the funniest picture I have from my childhood. He had to be the worst Mall Santa in history.

[Kat-L]

Originally Posted by binkybear

(Imagine your son's birthday is approaching. Your family gets a card celebrating this. It's an invitation celebrating your son's birthday, it's joyous and full of cheer. Those planning the party are incredibly excited about this party. They shop, they plan, they decorate to the hilt. On the day of the celebration friends, neighbors, family and strangers gather in this festive home. Those attending are happy. Your son arrives for his birthday celebration. He's there in the room, his name is scattered about on decorations but no one acknowledges him. The crowd of party goers exchanges gifts they bought for each other, they eat and drink, they don't mention his name or look his way, they don't know or even care that he's there. Your son and your family sit alone, wondering why people would have done this. Why would anyone do this to a son, a friend, a brother? Hold such a gloriously planned celebration and then intentionally ignore the person the day was for. Would your heart break for your son, your friend, your brother? Would you stand up and say, "hey this is a birthday celebration in my brothers name how about acknowledging his existence over here?" Or would you just join the crowd and hope that your son-brother-friend would understand and not be hurt, disappointed, heartbroken. Would you care if you offended those who were using your family member while blatantly choosing to ignore him? Christmas is the celebration of Christ's birthday. He's my brother, my friend and I'm very much ok with standing up to say it's his day!

He's my brother & my friend, too. Thanks for standing up for Him. I know it's not the popular thing to do-but it never has been easy to do the right thing.

[OakShannon]

Originally Posted by Stormster

Guys listen. I AM JEWISH. This is my first Christmas with my son who is not Jewish. My husband is also Christian. I just enrolled my son at a very Christian Nursery School next year (in fact it's called The Christian Preschool).

I'm trying to figure things out in a mixed religious situation, i'm also exploring my own spirituality. I just want my son to have fun and learn about Christmas and wanted some to have some fun with it. That is why I specifically did not want to tie religion into this.

People write books about this topic! I just wanted help with a very "superficial" aspect of it.

Well - thinking back to my own childhood -I think what made Christmas special were the little traditions that we repeated every year. Ethan is really young, so maybe you and your husband can start some traditions that will be fun for him as he grows up. Like making cookies to put out for Santa. Putting out special decorations and hanging his stocking. Special stories about Santa that you read every year. We used to make popcorn and all of us watched the Charlie Brown Christmas program every year. We opened presents from our family on Christmas Eve, but Christmas morning was all about Santa. That was when we got our big present.

My DW and I have started our own traditions that I hope D enjoys when he gets older. We go to San Francisco to see the big tree all lit up. We go to a special Interfaith Gospel Choir concert. We pick a day before Christmas to make hundreds of cookies with my mom and aunts and cousins that we give to friends and the kids decorate gingerbread houses with candy and icing.

I think whatever you do, and whatever you tell Ethan, it will be special because it will be HIS family tradition.

[lovemy2boys]

Great post, Oak!

And decorating the gingerbread house is one of my kids' favorite traditions...

[belleinblue1978]

Originally Posted by Stormster

Guys listen. I AM JEWISH. This is my first Christmas with my son who is not Jewish. My husband is also Christian. I just enrolled my son at a very Christian Nursery School next year (in fact it's called The Christian Preschool).

I'm trying to figure things out in a mixed religious situation, i'm also exploring my own spirituality. I just want my son to have fun and learn about Christmas and wanted some to have some fun with it. That is why I specifically did not want to tie religion into this.

People write books about this topic! I just wanted help with a very "superficial" aspect of it.

Ok, a few things that we do that are traditional, and not Santa related, but cool none the less. Every year we have books that we pass around for people to sign. In that book we record where we had Christmas Eve dinner, what we had and who lit the candle and blew it out. My mom, aunt, cousins and I have books. The candle..... we all have a candle too that the oldest person at Christmas Eve supper lights and the youngest blows out. The AWESOME thing about the books... we have them clear back to the twenties. It is so cool to see who was at what Christmas. I take mine everywhere, even when I don't celebrate with mom and dad. People think I'm crazy sometimes when I pass my book around, but I don't care.

We always have fondue every year for Christmas Eve supper and apricot rolls on Christmas morning that are in the shape of a wreath or a tree. We also have eggs with bacon in them and fruit cocktail. It isn't Christmas morning if we don't have those things.

Each of us kids gets a new pair of pjs every year.... we open it on Christmas Eve night and then we have nice new jammies for Christmas morning. Yeah, we still do that even though we're all grown up. We also get an ornament every year with the year on it.

There are SO many fun things... Those are the ones on the top of my list.

[Kat-L]

Originally Posted by Stormster

Guys listen. I AM JEWISH. This is my first Christmas with my son who is not Jewish. My husband is also Christian. I just enrolled my son at a very Christian Nursery School next year (in fact it's called The Christian Preschool).

I'm trying to figure things out in a mixed religious situation, i'm also exploring my own spirituality. I just want my son to have fun and learn about Christmas and wanted some to have some fun with it. That is why I specifically did not want to tie religion into this.

I nannied for a family with a Jewish Mom and a dad who was raised protestant-but neither were religious. They celebrated Hanukah & Christmas. They definately stayed away from the religious aspects of both holidays. They had a menorah and made potato pancakes during Hanukah. They also had a tree & Christmas stockings. The kids believed in Santa Claus & the Easter Bunny. I think a lot of Jewish/Christian families celebrate both holidays. I know their kids had tons of fun. They always had a crowd for Hanukah dinner.

Even though I'm Catholic, I have Jewish heritage. I don't consider myself Jewish but I have a deep love & respect for the Jewish faith and traditions. We have a beautiful Menorah made of ancient nails from Israel. It's perfect for me. For us, Hanukah is more of a religious celebration rather than gift-giving (because we celebrate Christmas). But the kids love lighting the candles. There is nothing more beautiful.

[Saya]

Originally Posted by Stormster

Guys listen. I AM JEWISH. This is my first Christmas with my son who is not Jewish. My husband is also Christian. I just enrolled my son at a very Christian Nursery School next year (in fact it's called The Christian Preschool).

I'm trying to figure things out in a mixed religious situation, i'm also exploring my own spirituality. I just want my son to have fun and learn about Christmas and wanted some to have some fun with it. That is why I specifically did not want to tie religion into this.

People write books about this topic! I just wanted help with a very "superficial" aspect of it.

Storm, I kind of missed this thread before now, but as we may have discussed my family is full of Jews who celebrate Christmas (myself included). Our family X-mas traditions are some of my most important memories from growing up - putting up the tree (we put a bird on the top rather then a star), singing carols (my family is pretty musical and loves to sing, and Christians seem to have all the good tune), and all the rest of the rituals. That said I never believed in Santa, and it didn't seem to be a big deal to me. I don't think I'm going to talk about Santa with Anabel. BUT I want her to have the tree, and the music, and the food, and the family. And we'll do Hannukah as well.

[joskids]

FYI, in our family, my husband's CC, German, Jewish aunt is married to his AA, Baptist uncle. Pretty much anything goes during the holidays but always, someone from outside the family, someone in need, is invited to join in Christmas dinner. I think that says it all.

As for Santa -- when my big kids were little, we had a wonderful neighbor who loved being Santa for the kids so much that he started his beard in September so that it was in full growth by Christmas. Then he'd bring around a deer head with a red, lighted up, nose and he'd have his son stick the deer head around thru the front door while Santa visited with the kids in the house. He always left jingle bells outside after so that the kids thought that Rudolph had dropped his bells while waiting outside. You talk about some excited kids!!!!!!!!!! Now, Christmas has become much too materialistic. It's not about anyone's particular religion (as far as I'm concerned). Believe whatever you want or nothing at all in terms of religion. But "doing unto others", particularly at this time of year, seems to me to be the only answer. So we can teach our children whatever we'd like them to believe or not believe about Santa, but "giving" needs to be the main theme. IMHO.

[momraine]

My sister does not celebrate Christmas, becuase of her religion, they state the pagan origins of the date and some of the traditions. (not that I agree with all of thier reasoning) However, I know how it felt to be called less of a Christian because I choose to celebrate. I felt hurt and judged and it made me have no interest at all in her beleifs, it just pushed me away from them. As a Christian, I would never want someone to feel that way. I will never tell anyone that they should, or how they should or should not celebrate. What it means to our family is what is important to us. My kids understand that it does not mean the same to everyone as do I. We also understand that it's not our job to tell everyone how they should or should not celebrate. I would never want to offend someone to the point where they would want nothing to do with Christianity, just to make myself feel better. I have relatives who celebrate Yule and winter solstice. I also know some who do both Channukah and Christmas. I know some for whom Christmas is purely a fun thing and others who don't celebrate at all. Aren't we blessed to live in a time where each family has that option? Where we are not forced to celebrate one particular holiday a certain way, whether we beleive in it or not? I for one am very thankful that we live where not only can we disagree and each do what we want, but we can even discuss it in a public forum and no one gets hunted down and shot for their beleifs.

[elledarcy]

I didn't read everyone's answer, but I will just say that the only problem I have with Santa is that I think the idea of Santa encourages kids to be greedy.

Think about it. Santa is a magical figure that exists for no other reason than to bring you all the material goods you ask for. Christmas becomes all about “what can I get for myself” instead of about giving and receiving presents from people you love. When I was a little kid, I was hesitant to “stop believing” because then the endless supply of presents might dry up!

Plus, I hate it when parents use the “if you’re not good Santa won’t bring you anything” line. Isn’t being good its own reward? Are children supposed to be good, presents or no presents? Besides, it’s a flat out lie. Kids see through it when they realize that all kids, even the bullies and meanies out there, get presents. And are children who can’t afford presents bad? Are rich children better? I think it just reinforces our notions of wealth and poverty (if you have a lot you must have “earned it,” but if you don’t have anything, you must be “lazy” or “bad”).

We’re not going to do Santa, but we will do the Tooth Fairy (getting $1 for losing a tooth is more fun than materialistic) and the Easter Bunny (he can come and hide eggs, but presents will be from mom and dad). We will also do St. Nicholas’s Day (Dec 6th) where St. Nick will come and leave candy in DD’s shoes. I think magic and make-believe are important, but I also want my child to have character and learn generosity and grace. I'm no so much concerned about lying as I am about my children having licence to develop greed and selfishness.

[melissa_bear003]

I have 364 days a year to teach my children to be generous, empathetic, kind...Santa, one day a year, is not going to undo that.

[2Bulgarianbeauties]

I found one of the most important things is "tradition", whatever that turns out to be for your family. You have a few years for this, but when your son is older, what will probably stick with hims are the things you did every year. And they do not have to be exciting huge things. You could watch the Grinch every Christmas Eve, you could make a special dinner, whatever. Those tend to be the memories that stick. One of ours is to buy a new car for our Christmas train every year.

As for Santa, we are HUGE believers, and I love it. They have so few years to live in that magical time. We do talk about Santa having helpers, and that is why they look different at the different stores. In our house, Santa always leaves an unwrapped present in their bedroom. Once I dropped candy around the house where he would have walked, and left some at the bottom of the fireplace. DD told everyne that Santa had a hole in his pocket and she got all the candy! I also let the kids open 1 gift from me on Christas Eve (stole that idea from a Christmas Carol - the one on Hallmark with the crabby TV star). Some people give their kids 3 gifts, to represent the 3 Kings (and to keep control on the expenses!).

Good luck, and enjoy the season, it can be magical!

[qs mom]

We were pretty poor growing up. But Christmas was all out! But my friends got more than us. We never seemed to mind or notice.

I'm a single mom. I don't have a lot of extra money to throw around. My son gets 1-2 presents from Santa. The rest of his gifts come from me.

My son has sung for senior citizens. Made gifts for senior citizens. Collected pop bottles and cans and change for our Church's sponsored child in Kenya. He has a give away box for toys and clothes. Donated our canned goods.

His school is begging for unwrapped toys and/or clothes along with non-perishible foods - to teach the children the true meaning of Christmas. Quite honestly, I don't have an extra $10 - $20 for charity. My son knows the real meaning of Christmas without giving a toy. But, I'm sure we'll come up with something.

Even though Santa only brings 1-2 girfts, he LOVES Santa and everything about it.

[jules17]

In a true effort to stay on course, the original question was "What Do You Tell Your Children About Santa Claus..."

Our children are 2, so just starting to kind of sort of get the whole Santa thing. We didn't really talk about it last year as they were 12 mos and 18 mos. So, as is the case with everything, we just talk about him. At first, Sam said he was scared of him. My mom immediately interjected with, "You CAN'T be scared of SANTA!! He brings you gifts!"

I gently corrected her and said he can feel scared about whatever he feels scared of (and let's try to hold off on the "gift" part for now).

In a rambling way, I am telling you that I am loving the sweet curiosity about him without the "I wants." That is the day I dread.

Oh, and Sam has now decided that when he sees Santa, he is going to hug him. We'll see... I just love it that, even at 2, my sons know more about giving to others than getting gifts. I pray I can keep it that way!!

[EZ2Luv]

I am with Mellissa on this One day is not going to make a child greedy.
Christmas for us growing up was over the top but none of us were greedy. If anything we learned to be giving and recognised that not all children were as fortunate.

My parents instilled good qualities in us year round and Christamas time was when we got to be all the more charitable.

EZ