Christmas for my Family


Christmas in My Family

Maybe I am an extremist when it comes to Christmas and the issues surrounding it but I get pretty excited over it. There is no other religious observance or holiday that is undermined so much in our American culture.

You don’t see TV shows and movies that tell you the “true meaning” of Chanukah is something completely unrelated to is original meaning and I can’t even imagine the outrage is we distorted the “true meaning” of a Muslim holiday was something other than its religious purpose.

Christmas is the celebration of the first advent of the Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth. God gave us is Son who would live the life we should have lived, die in our place for our sins, and rise again showing God’s acceptance of his sacrifice, all according to the scriptures.

I don’t say the gifts they receive are from Santa, I don’t intend to tell my daughters about Santa Clause until they ask and they we will look up St. Nicholas together. It may seem extreme but I don’t want my girls to be confused when they learn Santa isn’t real will they associate his non-existence with that of Jesus? “Well if Santa isn’t real maybe Jesus isn’t real either?”

I don’t ever say things like “If you aren’t good, or if you don’t do x Santa won’t come.” First of all, I don’t make threats that I have no intention of following through with. My daughters know if I say it I mean it.

I don’t want my daughters to even subconsciously make the connection to their behavior and the gift of God’s son. Let’s be clear, we don’t and can’t deserve the forgiveness of sins and the gift of Jesus. The point of the gifts should be the same; my kids don’t deserve it either. They are given gifts simply because we love them as God loved us, not because they were good all year (The last person to be good all year died on a cross)

Thirdly, I am not forcing this thought process on everyone, I am not wearing t-shirt that says “Santa isn’t real” and ruining it for children, (Although I am thinking about getting one for my daughter that says: Don’t mention Santa to me spoilers enclosed) and then training her to say “Santa isn’t real” to any one who mentions him to her. OK, not really but I want to.

In our home we have decided to take this Holy day and treat it as such, my girls will learn far earlier than I did the reason for celebrating Christmas, and every year it will enforce upon them how great the grace of God truly is.

I don’t mean to sound so tenacious about this but I feel constantly under attack by every “Christmas” special and movie out there which constantly tries to apply something to this Holy day that isn’t the gift of God’s son. I don’t care if we all love each other, or if we learn it is better give than receive, or learn what family is all about or what ever other tripe Holly wood can come up with. If it isn’t the birth of Jesus Christ; it isn’t Christmas.

,

One response to “Christmas for my Family”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.