Posted in Grandchildren

Or how we share the news.....

I was visiting the blog of a dear friend and she was asking about when to share the Santa truth.

This is really a big deal, more for us than for them I think. It falls into the realm of personal conviction and that can only come from the Holy Spirit. I know because I fought Him on this issue a LONG time.

First my background. As a small child I saw Santa. Really I did! When I was four years old my parents took me to see Santa in a big department store. You know the kind like in the movie A Christmas Story?  Well I sat on his lap (I will have to find the photo to share it with you I am so Cute in it!!!!) Any way I asked Santa for a REAL puppy not a toy one not stuffed one a real one! Santa's helper went into the toy shed and came out with a real puppy and placed Lil Sam in my arms! I was in love and a believer from that moment on. You would be hard pressed to convince that child Santa didn't give her a puppy.

Santa also brought our Christmas tree and all the presents. Christmas Eve you close your eyes and Christmas morning AWE doesn't come close to describing it! I can vividly remember the year my sister Terri announced there was no such thing as Santa. That year everyone but Terri had a present under the tree from Santa. You see if you do not believe in Santa He can not believe in you. (Praise God Jesus doesn't do that!!!!!) The next year even Terri believed in Santa.

We did not go to church. We did know it was Jesus' birthday and we sang Christmas Carols (mostly Elvis, Harry Belafonte and Johnny Mathis) so we knew the story just not the heart of Christmas.

When Mike joined the Air Force tradition was the only way to give our children any relationship with our parents. We were never back home for the holidays and Santa was as much Mike's upbringing as mine, except they went and cut down their own trees instead of Santa bringing them. I decided that is because I was a city girl.

When we moved away to our first station my mama told me Santa Claus is the unexpected gift. He will come and you will be surprised. Our first Christmas alone,Santa brought us a warm electric blanket. We lived in a basement apt in South Dakota. We slept in the living room because it was so cold and our landlord gave us a blanket.

When we had children Santa arrived in grand fashion, complete with jingle bells and reindeer. One year Mike had drank a little too much and was jingling bells on the roof  of our new apt on the second floor. It had snowed and he fell off!!! Two floors! First, drunks bounce, second snow cushions the fall. But what does mom and grandmama do??? We rush the babies to bed because heaven forbid they would see Mike and not believe in Santa! He was okay, we all laughed (we had all been drinking) and the children slept with visions of sugar plums and muffled yelps for help.

Another year Matt had measles and couldn't go see Santa on Base, so Santa came to the house. Poor Matty, we sent him to get the door to surprise him and Santa HO Ho Ho'd so loudly he freaked and ran smack into the wall like a cartoon character. It took 45 minutes for Matty to take his present from Santa

Also my children had always seen Santa coming out their bedroom windows. You see being an Air Force family there is always an airport near by with a blinking red light. This red light magically becomes Rudolph's Red nose on his way to the house on Christmas Eve! And Mike still jingled bells out the window but from the ground level!

Being overseas added the extra bless of Armed forces radio and when Holly the Elf read Heather's letter to Santa over the radio....Like me, you would never convince her there is no Santa.

So this is what we had to undo once we became a Christian.

It didn't happen over night. It would be years after I was saved for Mike to be saved. This kept these things around much longer. I struggled with Halloween as a new believer and yes we did all holidays as big as Christmas before the Lord came into our hearts. Submission to My beloved kept that one along longer than I wanted too.

But Christmas, I figured if we just added Jesus it would be good enough and if Jesus was first than all was perfect. So we would wake up Christmas morning snuggle in bed and read the Christmas story before going down to the tree. We would sing Away in a Manger and then Jolly old St Nicholas.

My girlfriends which were fabulous mentors to me in the Lord told me I HAD to get rid of Santa. But I just couldn't do it! I would just say.. Until the Lord SHOWS me a SPECIFIC scripture that says no santa than we will do both. Jesus loves it when we challenge Him to show us truth. I continued doing both and Jesus began to work on my heart.

The first thing to go in our home was the Christmas tree. Oh How I loved my tree! So much so that I brought one home on a two hour BUS ride in Italy. One year it wasn't conviction, but finances that said we couldn't afford a tree so we placed our presents underneath our nativity set. That year we noticed our focus start to shift. The focus was on the babe in the Manger and not the present under the tree.

Finally the verse arrived....my heart stooped as I read it. The fact that I was reading it in the Amplified version made it strike my heart all the harder. In tears I took it to my Beloved and said "Does this mean what I think it means?" And he agreed that it did.

So we sat down our children (most children their ages had long since given up on Santa but as you can see we made it hard not to) and I explained to their Jesus loving hearts that this had been the only way we knew to share our childhood with them and to share their grandparents with hem as well. It was the only way we knew until we came to the Lord as well. We had begun our own traditions like snuggling in the morning to Jesus Birth, Caroling and candlelight services. We had begun to set up just the Crèche and not the tree but now the Lord had shown us something in His Word that we feel we have to obey...

Than we read to them the verse asked them what they thought it would mean. We started with Halloween and the tooth fairy and ended with Christmas in sobs!

We explained to them about personal convictions, about how they aren't allowed to watch some movies other families watch and how just as we shared our family traditions with them, it was their responsibility to let parents tell their own children what they think is best it is not their job.

To this day I miss My Beloved and jingle bells I still look for blinking red lights and I long to sit my grandchildren on Santa's lap. Now they smile at him wave and wish him a Happy Chanukah! Tradition has such deep roots. Yet the new traditions have deep roots too and Glory to God in the Highest actually is more than just a slogan on windows.

If you are looking for Santa traditions I have shared them with you if you are looking for a way to tell your children about St. Nicholas and what an awesome man of God He was there are plenty of links for St Nicholas. If you want to break away I have also shared what worked best for us.

I am however struggling over whether to share the verse the Lord gave to me as I know it did not matter to me what my girlfriends said I needed to see it in the Word of God for myself. It had to be a personal conviction just as Homeschooling had to be. It was James 4:17 that made me bow my knee to the Lord where Homeschooling was concerned.

So I will share the verse in the Amplified version which helped me deal with this heart issue. Maybe it will bless you too. This is not about context, this is not about Historical accuracy this is solely about a verse that Jesus used to answer my challenge "If He shows me..." and He did.

This is where you stop reading if you don't want to read the verse. However you celebrate the Holidays make memories and traditions that set your children's heart a flame with the love of Jesus. Fill them with joy and laughter. Do whatever you can to keep stress to a minimum and be blessed. After all, JESUS is Lord!

1 Timothy 4 :7

 7But refuse and avoid irreverent legends (profane and impure and godless fictions, mere grandmothers' tales) and silly myths, and express your disapproval of them. Train yourself toward godliness (piety), [keeping yourself spiritually fit].