In Which the Grinch Speaks

Several weeks ago I posted about how we abstain from Halloween celebrations of any kind. So it should come as no surprise that we also don't do the Santa thing during the Christmas season. *Gasp!*

I know - we're the Grinch-y adults in all the Christmas movies who "don't believe" and who contribute to the horrible vortex into into which all the Christmas spirit is apparently disappearing. Don't we believe in magic? Don't we believe in joy? How could we deprive our children of this essential part of childhood? Now I have to say, once again, that it's both interesting and frustrating to me that it seems acceptable to pose these kinds of questions to those who abstain, but it is practically unthinkable to challenge in reverse. Even those of us on this side of the practice feel we need to handle the issue very, very carefully. We don't want to offend. We don't want to burst the bubble for anyone else's children. And yet, few people have qualms about saying, "What? You don't believe in Santa?", often in the presence of our children.

We strive to deal with all matters "with gentleness and respect," so we would never encourage or condone our children in mocking other family's practices and beliefs, or in making it their determined goal to set the Santa record straight among their friends. But I will say that I would also never ask them not to say out loud that Santa isn't real. It is not our responsibility to help anyone perpetuate deceit, and however it's wrapped in all things magical and sacred to the wonder of childhood, this is a deceit. I'm not attacking anyone personally here, so I don't wish anyone to take it that way, but also, I won't apologize for speaking the truth, and for defending our choices.

So I suppose that's one primary reason we don't go the Santa route. It's a deception, rather elaborately packaged, and there's no way for us to make a conscious choice to begin such a lie in our family. Another is that it doesn't actually appear to have any redeemable quality that could possibly contribute to our celebration of Christmas. We realize that some Christmas traditions do have their roots in pagan culture, and some of those , we still incorporate in our family traditions. We only adopt those forms that we feel can have new and valuable meanings under our belief system, and that works for us. For some people, even that's not acceptable, and we completely respect their choices. For us, there's just nothing redeemable about Santa.

Now, we try not to make a huge deal about this, and we don't have a problem watching some movies about Santa (hey, we LOVE Elf here!), and we don't forbid songs which include Santa.
That's probably inconsistent of us, I know, but that's the way it is. I guess we feel that if we tried to eliminate any mention of Santa altogether, we would create a forbidden fruit type of situation. At any rate, this means that the other day, Ryan was stuck on the song "Santa Clause is Coming to Town." "He sees you when you're sleeping/ He knows when you're awake!" he sang as he walked by me at one point in the day. I smiled and said, "That's kind of a creepy thought." Ryan stopped and said seriously, "Well you know, that's really about God. God always does see you." And I, remembering something I had read in my Bible that morning, replied, "That's true. And you know what is really neat? Santa only gives us gifts when we're good. God gives us gifts because He's good."

And that for us is where we're always trying to direct our Christmas traditions and practices - toward celebrating the absolute goodness of God. How thankful we are that he has never rewarded us for our own worthiness! How grateful we are for his Son, of course, but also for the countless gifts He gives us daily simply because He is good. How completely, and thankfully, unlike the manipulative Santa figure.

You do your thing - but by faith! Do it because you believe it to be the right thing, not just the thing every one else does! - and we'll do ours.

Merry Christmas!

"...We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy." Daniel 9:18