Monday, December 3, 2012
Dear santa...
Dear friends,
Please don't use "santa" as a form of parenting. The threat of being "good" in order to get presents hurts my heart. Love on your kids, teach them, train them in the ways of the Lord, encourage them, discipline them, guide them, support them, love on them-- but please don't turn the advent season into a season of "If you don't (...) Santa won't give you presents".
Instead view this as a season of the Gift that we all get- despite our own behavior/attitude/thoughts. The amazing gift of Jesus- of love everlasting- of redemption.
Your children long for nothing more than your unconditional love- don't complicate it with the condition of santa bringing presents. Our children are our precious gift and we don't deserve them. I mess up daily, but God saw fit to bless me with two precious miracles. My prayer is that I use this season to love on them the way He loves on us.
By 9am on December 25th the "santa-threat parenting" will be null and void. But the love, boundaries, respect, joy, and peace that we work on in our homes will live on. Let us shape them into people that love themselves, one another, and the Lord.
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wow, great post Marianne! While I totally make my kids snap a pose with Santa (mainly because I think it's a cute Christmas time decoration) we only teach that Santa is a reminder for us to be generous, not a man that flies around with rain deer and gives them presents. We are going to learn more about the real St. Nicolas this year though. I have been struck with exactly what you wrote as I have seen this elf on a shelf idea explode and actually have plans to write my own ideas about it on my blog. I'm a little perplexed with the idea of teaching your kids that a little elf is watching them and reporting back to Santa. I know parents intend for it to be fun, but I don't think fun should be priority over teaching the truth. Also, we are loving the advent you put together for us!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Piper. My thoughts are quite counter-cultural and based on the amount of "likes" for it on my FB page you can see that our thinking is not the norm. We also talk about St. Nick and the meaning behind giving gifts to others a faint representation of the greatest Gift of all. I'm not a santa hater, but the emphasis on the santa lie just takes away the total meaning of Christmas. Happy that you like the advent book- we love it too! :)
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