Rant: Santa Stance 2.0

I was in Starbucks with my kids the other day. A woman leaned over to our table and made eye contact w/ my 3 year old.

"Is Santa coming to your house to give you gifts this Christmas?"

My three year old was bewildered and averted eye contact to me as if to say, "Help!"

I laughed and told the lady, "Mom and dad give the gifts at our house."

Then she said, "Well.. HE's coming to MY house to drop off gifts."

AWKward. 

Can't you see how this adult perpetuated saga makes for craziness at Christmas. (Why is Santa going to give her gifts and not us? Well, kids...) Thankfully we've had the talk w/ our kids. It's a story, pretend like the princesses of Disney.

I wrote THIS POST on Santa 2 years ago and I still stick with it adding a minor modification. Saint Nick was a real person in history and we should (read in the article below), appropriately reference him. But I don't think it's appropriate to go to all ends to build a child's belief in Santa as necessary part of Christmas because it comes with ramifications. I've heard two stories in the past weeks where preschool parents have had to deal with kids being told (pushed perhaps) at school to believe the story of Santa to the point where it confuses or scares them. (Someone is coming down our chimney? Why does my neighbor get more & better toys from Santa than me?) This brings up the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, Leprechaun issue...my kids have enough lies & fears to battle every day I don't need to add to their  thinking that little pixies are flying around their room. (This reminds me a friend made up a story for his toddler to get her off pacifiers. He said a fairy came and took them for other kids to use. Some time later the kid was hoarding her blanket and toys in fear and asked her dad when the fairies were coming to take them to other kids).

This is a must read article. I don't always agree with Pastor Mark Driscoll, but I think he is right on with his (click here) Santa Stance.