santa- is he real in your house?

[Nelle]

Don't stress guys, not pushing the idea of Santa won't kill any fun or magic in my house! There will be decorations, games, traditions, we won't ban Santa or anything. But for me, Christmas is about the birth of Jesus and the implications of that, and while Santa is welcome, we won't let our kids think that Santa is the main event, the real deal of Christmas. It'll be more that he's a fun game to play at Christmas.

So don't worry about our poor kids! Trust me, I don't ever remember believing in Santa, but I do remember pretending, and there was heaps of fun and magic. But I think I appreciated the presents more really, knowing who they really were from.

[Arimeh]

Why is that Mel, Is it a religious thing?

(You don't have to explain if you don't want to - just being nosy lol!)

CQ - nope not a religious thing.

In a nutshell - its feeding the fat cats of society and for the most part, has stuff all to do with family gatherings. We feel that christmas should be about spending time with family - not having a mentality of "oh if I go see nana today, I'll get a present".. we want our kids to spend time with their family because they love them, not because there is something given to them IYKWIM?

We don't celebrate other "special days/holidays" either, eg, valentines day, easter - because we aren't of the religion (for those interested we are closest to neo-pagans) that celebrate them for a specific reason, and not just get caught up in the commercialised crap that the materialistic world wants you to get sucked in to.

In a nutshell of course

Are you sorry you asked now?

[kelebek]

This is such an interesting thread & as we are new parents to a littly is something we are discussing & reviewing cause in our opinion, similar to Arimeh, it is way too commercialised & essentially we are lying to our children for what end? so they when the do work it out they keep quite cause they still want presents?
This isn't something we want in our house & we aren't particularly religious either & we have never celebrated them in the past so why do we want to now? we do however always go camping & get together with family.

When the grandparents found out that we were serious they are definitely shocked which has led as to discuss the idea again. I like the idea of having a tree & talking about santa but in more of a fictional way. I think we will be explaining all the different meanings of christmas but santa ain't visiting, doesn't mean we can't have decorations & a tree & presents (but not over the top like I see in way too many households) & caroling....

[angelaartsstudent]

I am 22 and my mum still gives me a present from her and some little present from "Santa" which arrive from her house in a 'santa sack' or xmas stocking i've had since i was a kid...however it's more about general love and giving and feeling peaceful and happy at xmas for us rather than ever actually believing that Santa was real. It was FAB when I was a kid, my parents went to all sorts of lengths to make the magic come alive for my sister and I and I am grateful for that (despite the Santa lie lol) becuase Xmas is one of my fave times of year...I really enjoy putting on the day at my place and being able to provide a feast for my family not matter how little money I have (and last xmas was a real struggle to provide for but my family said they loved it anyway).

I am undecided as to what I will do for my kids in regards to Santa. I don't want to spin them a lie but then I am not religious and do not want to treat it as Jesus' birthday. I I do however love the idea that it originated as a Roman feast and celebration of being happy, healthy and alive (which originated from a Pagan celebration of the Solstice and etc).

And I still raise a glass to the Romans and the Pagans at Xmas, as does my religious mother :-)

[angelaartsstudent]

My spelling is shocking. Sorry.

[Nadine216]

I LOVE Christmas ... and Easter ... and the Tooth Fairy (ok, here it's a tooth mouse)

I just feel kids should be allowed to imagine and their imaginations should be stimulated. Kids should believe in fairies, trolls, gremlins, Santa ... you name it. I remember my dad driving us NUTS around christmas, having us run from the back door to the front door because "you just missed him" I believe it's clean fun. It's like telling your kids tales about Sleeping Beauty or native tales.

So yes, I'm putting up my chrissie deco come 1st Dec and am already telling dd that Santa is coming with presents

But that does not mean we forget what Christmas is really about. The question "is Santa real in your house" YES , but is that the only thing that is talked about around Christmas .... NO.

[C~Q]

Are you sorry you asked now?

Nope I think it's great that you have strong views on something that goes against mainstream thinking and you stick by your guns. I think it shows incredible strength of character.

But that does not mean we forget what Christmas is really about. The question "is Santa real in your house" YES , but is that the only thing that is talked about around Christmas .... NO.

I think thats a fantastic way to put it!

I find it very hard to figure out what to tell my kids with regards to the other side of Xmas (the religious side). I am Jewish and was rasied in a semi-practising Reform family (not very srtrict) so we went to Synagogue on holidays and thats pretty much it. We always celebrated Xmas and even went Carroling which strangely, I never found strange at all. I remember Mum and Dad always making us draw the curtains before we turned the tree lights on incase the Rabbi up the road saw them! And if he did we had to call it a Hannukah Bush!!!

For me, now I am not religious and don't know what I believe to be honest so to avoid questions I truely don't know how to answer, Xmas is all about Santa and the pressies in this house! It's also aout friends since all my family are in England, and getting together and eating and drinking and playing games. I have no idea what it's going to be like this year - me and the kids and hopefully XDH but who knows...

Wow, what a waffle, sorry!

[shellbell3]

Even tho Santa will be in our house we still don't just focus on him, we also include Jesus as we were included as kids and yes definately family is huge one always has been for us.
We don't spend alot money, rules in our family is presents only for the kids and we don't spend huge amounts either.
I think its just a matter of finding a nice balance between the real meaning of xmas plus all the magic and imagination that comes with it also. I admit I still get excited and feel all the old feelings from my kiddy days when I see decos set up and trees and I'm still dreaming of having a white xmas!

[~breeze~]

and I'm still dreaming of having a white xmas!

DH & I have always said when we have children & they get to a certain age, prob youngest around 4 or 5 yrs old, then we're going to have a white Christmas, probably Canada? I cant wait!!! LOL I have a long time to wait!

[shellbell3]

Ooh Danielle, take me with you! I always say one thing in life I want to do is have white xmas. I think all those xmas movies suck me into wanting it!

[feeb]

I LLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEE christmas!!!!

We grew up with lots of christmas decos, santa letters, leaving snaks out for santa and the reindeers and also going to church christmas eve and christmas day. We got pressies from santa etc, i dont remmeber when i knew the truth but i kept beleieving as i have younger brothers.

I think it is such a great magical time and i cant wait to share it all with Jacob!!!

We will put up the tree (generally dec 1st), read christmas stories, watch christmas movies and what i am really hanging for is doing Jacobs santa photos!!! woo hoo!!!

I love shopping for everyone every year (this year i will have to be much more behaved as mat pay will have stopped)

Dh had a very diff upbringing to me (doesnt mean much in his family, but yet they always want to do stuff on the day with us whole other thread needed for that) in relation to it all but i am working on changing him to love santa and christmas

I soooooooooooo cant wait to put up decs etc!!

A white christmas is magical!!! Was born in Scotland and was there till i was 8!!

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

You know what? I'm glad we don't worship the fat man. We've chosen our God and will be remembering the birth of His son in December. May not be the right time but as humans we love celebration, that has to be a God-given need to celebrate, so let's remember the time that Jesus came to earth. We commemmorate his death at Easter, why not commemorate his birth too? Jesus' birth (well, conception) is no less miraculous than... actually, conception full stop, but God sent His son... I want to remember that!

Magic... is strictly forbidden in the Bible. No "magic of Christmas" at our house. We'll have lots of fun, maybe get snow (we're up with my Mum this year), see family, yes we'll have presents but we won't be lying about from whence they came and tbh DS has already had most of what would have been his "Christmas presents" if I agreed with letting him get excited about a toy then not letting him play with it for months, but we won't be lying and we won't be boring either.

Imagination. I love imagining things. DS and I play imaginative games together - we pretend things, boxes become all sorts of fun things, we laugh, we have SO MUCH fun! We don't need to buy into a corporate lie to do that though. We can pretend that the soft toy bunnies are alive and playing our bouncy game with us WITHOUT us thinking they're really alive. Do I want to stimulate DS's imagination that a stranger is creeping around our house, in DS's room even, and that's OK? No I do not!

I know I'm coming from a fairly strict Christian perspective here; I just want to tell you what I do because I don't want people thinking I'm mean for not having Santa (yup, banning him as well, tbh it's so associated with greed atm I didn't like Santa pre-DS either). We have other great things which don't involve lying and do involve God. But we chose to follow God, not everyone has, others follow other traditions, I don't want to preach but I did want to put my viewpoint across.

[Nadine216]

And if he did we had to call it a Hannukah Bush!!!

I have never heard of a Hannukah Bush!! Smart mother

Each to their own RF That is what makes the world interesting ... that we all think about stuff differently, that even though I'm christian too ... I see no problem with having a "santa" Christmas. We usually gather in the living room, my dad reads us the story of Jesus's birth, we sings some songs (when we were young we played piano/did the whole nativity play) we talk a bit about what is important ... love, trust, family ... we pray together and then we give gifts. After that we sit down for a family dinner that usually ends after 4-5 hours of laughter and fun.
I love the way you express yourself in your post and how solid you are in your beliefs, it's commendable.

[tan32]

Yes we have Santa here, although DD is thinking he is not so real. A friend at school told her its not Santa its your Mum and Dad up at midnight putting the presents under the tree, she replied no way my Mum is alseep then...

Like Astrolady our tree will go up on the weekend when the Christmas pageant is on and Santa comes to town.

While we have Santa, we too also celebrate the birth of Jesus. We place out our nativity scene on the coffee table and we have a candlight one that goes in the front window.
I love christmas, its a time to be thankful and for me to spend some great quality time with my family together.
Oh and by the way i saw the most gorgeous fisher price nativity scene for the little ones