Journal Your Christmas - Day 1 - Santa Claus

So I'm accepting the challenge from Amy to journal about Christmas in December. I'm sure that I won't be able to do it every day, but will participate as time allows. For day 1 I choose to write about Santa Claus since it's an easy one for me.

Being the 5th of 6 children in my family, I don't remember a time when I ever believed in Santa Claus as a real person. When I was born, my oldest sister was at least 7 years old and as I became aware of life and traditions, my older siblings had already outgrown the Santa "gig". So from the time I can remember, he was always just a nice mythical figure to me. I never remember going to see Santa and sit on his lap and I never had to go thru the shock and disappointment of finding out he wasn't for real, which is a good thing. Christmas was still very magical to me in that there was great suspense and wonder waiting for Christmas morning, so I don't feel deprived in the least.

When we had kids of our own, Terry's family always had the tradition of having some presents under the tree from "Santa" on Christmas morning, so we continued that tradition, but when the kids would ask, I didn't want to lie to them about Santa, so never really tried to promote the idea.

This was my thinking...

Because we're Christians, I wanted them to understand that the holiday was about the birth of Christ first and foremost. We did exchange gifts, but even in that, I wanted them to know that the gifts didn't come as a reward for being good little boys or girls from some strange jolly man that they didn't know, but from their own parents because we love them dearly and want to show it in this way.

I don't remember ever taking the kids to see Santa (I don't think). I do remember going with friends to take their kids and they were so afraid of him that they screamed and cried. It didn't look like a fun experience to me, so we took a pass on it.

So, all in all Santa's just a minor player in our holidays, which is totally fine with me. He's a nice guy with a good heart, and I don't fault others for celebrating Santa, but I choose to try to focus on other areas for the season.

I'm looking forward to Amy or Kevin giving their perspective on the experience.