Over the years I have shared and heard others share how they do christmas. Some do Santa and some don't, some buy tons of gifts, others dont. I thought i'd share how we do christmas just in case some young parents out there are looking for ideas.
First off we don't do Santa Claus. I won't go into a deep discussion here about why, but we just didn't feel it was right for our family. Our kids know that we provide the gifts and they know that Santa is not real, but pretend and still fun to watch shows about and see just like Dora, Diego and other cartoon characters, but they also know about the real story of how there came to be a Santa Claus thanks to Veggie Tales! :-) We don't condemn anyone who chooses to do Santa and my children know that other kids believe and they know never to tell another child there is no Santa without first talking to the parents and asking if their child believes or not.
As for gifts when I was pregnant with Joseph, or it may have been right after I had him, I was talking with the wife of our youth pastor at the time, and she shared that they did a birthday cake for Jesus and only did 3 gifts per child representing the 3 gifts mentioned in the bible that Jesus received at his birth. Mike and I really loved that idea. We liked the idea of the focus being on Christ and that the children wouldn't be overloaded with gifts considering they not only do christmas with us but they experience 3 other christmas's because of extended family. So we began doing 3 gifts per child and occasionally we will do some "joint" or "family" gifts as well. It's been a great thing for our family and the kids don't feel slighted. We do the christmas story, sing Happy Birthday to Jesus and have a piece of cake, and then we go around and each open a gift until they are all opened. We take time to savor the time together and we love it!
This year we have also decided we will have the boys get each other one gift. I think it is something they will really enjoy and we are looking forward to doing that.
Well that is how we do Christmas! I hope everyone has a blessed Holiday Season and take time to remember why we celebrate anything at all... because of Jesus!
My views on this have actually changed over the years. I just don't have it in me to blog about it! ;)
ReplyDeleteYou'll have to share it with me sometime. :-)
ReplyDeleteI like it! I've always debated on whether to do the Santa thing, I remember when I was little it was so magical and mysterious wondering if Santa really was flying around. Chris's fam does the whole santa thing with leaving cookies out. I feel bad to kind of lie about Santa...but thats what we do ;/
ReplyDeleteEmmie