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.

Encouragement for your Christmas spending

Trade as One. I love this organization

Christmas Day

This year Wendy and I wanted to do Christmas differently. We really trimmed down our gift giving. For so many reasons (spiritual satisfaction, living on one income, avoiding materialism) we wanted a simple Christmas that focused on Jesus. I'm very convicted of my own materialistic tendencies. I confess I love to get and buy stuff, and I know that this Christmas I had to make some intentional choices to downsize the gift giving, so I can implement this more in my whole lifestyle. I told a lot of my family not to worry about gifts, and I really think it helped prevent the stress of the season from overtaking us.

For my daughter, our morning started out singing songs and making our way to our living room where she received three wrapped gifts (books) from us. With out so much time gathered around gifts (that she'll quickly forget about and not want anyway) we were able to spend more of our time simply being together as a family, playing, eating, etc. We gave her this one specially,created Dora book from Shutterfly, and it was so hilarious her reaction.

Wendy and I decided not to exchange gifts and to find other ways to express our love and appreciation. We really felt like we truly did get that this season. After our Dora book reading session, we made our way to our friend Jenni Ingram's house for what we fondly called, "WAFFLE BALLS!" They were out of this breakfast world. So good. It's actually called Aebleskiver, a Danish delicacy. They are like waffle donut holes. My daughter ate 2. I ate 11.
Too bad the gym was closed today.
After our waffle balls we took a nice, long, family nap. Then made our way to my in-laws for some more celebrating.
Overall, We enjoyed great times with family and friends in California and Chicago this Christmas 2008. We had times of intentional conversation and prayer. We were able to serve together and have time to reflect, read, and pray. I have to share this, though! Here's one gift I did get that had a positive effect on me!
Compassion International is a well-known organization that I love, and have sponsored a child with them for about ten years. It's a great way to give and help children in poverty. This was one gift that fit just right and felt good that it wasn't about ME! And since this is my 1st Christmas in California (since we are usually in Chicago) I was able to join our Street Church family to celebrate tonight, another great gift.Ending the day with my friends on the street was one of Christmas' true blessings! To be outside in the cold, simply celebrating with others by eating together and singing was a real gift. It was such a special way to for me to feel that the true celebration of Christmas wasn't lost in my busyness or the typical holiday commercialism. Thank you God for coming into our lives. Thank you Jesus for coming into our cold and broken world, being a homeless king, and choosing humility. We worship you and thank you.

Santa Stance

So, I'm a bit nervous with this post. I know there are a lot of hard core Santa lovers and I'm afraid I'll have a candy cane drive by tomorrow morning. So hear me out, and beware to all Santa believing children (and parents) that this post may be hazardous to your Christmas spirit. (Run for the hills--this post contains a SPOILER!).

My wife told me my Santa stance can sound self-righteous, and I really want to avoid that. But I have a problem with the Santa thing, and for that reason, we wont give presents from Santa, or set out cookies, etc. I admit, as a 7 year old kid I couldn't sleep Christmas Eve hoping to catch a glimpse of Rudolph and I'm not too messed up, but I just can't do it to my kids.

My buddy Matt posted his 2 cents on his blog and I'm feel the same way. It just feels like lying to me. I know it's about the magic of Christmas, but I wonder if all our Santa effort really does take away from the real meaning: God's love for the world through Jesus' birth. I was saddened while watching a documentary that talked about how commercialized Christmas has become that it practically squeezes out focus on Jesus.

I remember reading about a woman who's own personal faith in Jesus Christ was shattered when she discovered the truth about Santa. She remembers stumbling upon evidence that her parents were actually wrapping presents and writing out tags. (How many times has that happened right? Come on parents, get a clue.) This made her wonder about God and her belief in the "story" of Jesus. Had her parents just finagled some lie about the Messiah, too, just so she would be "good?" It caused her to walk away from Santa and her belief in Jesus. She wondered if Sunday School teachings were the equivalent of cookies and milk left out every Christmas eve. She had huge trust issues with her parents. Eventually later in her life she reconciled that Santa was a fairy tale and Jesus was the truth, but it didn't' come without heartache and difficult confrontations with her self and her parents. How could something so innocent as Santa damage a person like that. I believe it was about truth/trust which is a foundation to all relationships. Her story caused me to form a very strong conviction. Like Matt said, I want to tell the truth to my kids so that they trust me. I want to handle Santa the same as I would the story of Cinderella or any other fairy tale. This doesn't mean I''ll ostracize any parent who doesn't:) So, ok, to lighten this up a bit-have you seen Macy's ads? Trump, Jessica Simpson, Tommy Hilfigger..are you serious?

Too self-righteous? I hope not. Now, the bridge we'll have to cross some time in the future (your suggestions are welcome)is how to protect our kids from spoiling others hopes and dreams for ole' Saint Nick to drop by their pad every 12/24. Till, then, Merry Christmas. May we savor and enjoy time with family and the thoughts of how much God loves us that he sent his only son.

Make a Caption

One of my favorite magazines always has a comic caption contest. They post a picture and then have people send in their captions. I keep hoping to have one of mine published. It can be so funny how one picture elicits so many different responses. So, until I make it big, I thought I'd try it on my own. Post your captions to the picture below by leaving a comment. (This is not my daughter by the way).
Later in the next week I'll also post my "Santa Stance." What I think about Santa and how our family will deal with that little holiday "issue. "

72 hours of fun and craziness

What do rehearsing and performing a sketch, finishing a 10 page paper, hosting a young adult event, seeing my wife off to vacay in Portland have to do with each other? They all happened in the same 72 hours as I was solo dad with Isella.

Leave it to me to let that happen. Seriously, though, God really provided me with strength and power to thrive through it. I had AMAZING times with Isella. She was so fun and sweet. I finished my paper and felt good about it 1.5 hours before it was due to be emailed in Saturday Night 10:30pm. The sketch gave me some much needed creative outlet and it went off with out a hitch Sunday Morning at our Church's worship gathering. In-laws helped out, Wendy had fun and returned safe. I'm so thankful.

Every Church Christmas celebration needs a little nativity sketch. Here's one written and acted by Darin Adams (who is PCC's worship pastor for the month of December). It takes a different twist on the 3 Kings. I got to play a "wise-guy." The youtube video starts a little way into the story where the kings are bragging about what they've done to honor the new king. I play King Melchoir, "Mo," who is a little into his gold and gift giving. They visit Mary and Jesus...and then Bada Bing they're outta there.

Let there be lights, and more lights, and more...

I wanted to avoid shopping like the a swarm of mosquitoes on Black Friday. But we had set up our Christmas tree and of course we were short one string of lights. So, we made a dash to the mad-crazy Target filled with after Turkey day bargain shoppers. I beat my way through the crowds to the light aisle. The amount of lights to choose from is ridiculously big. I just wanted one regular, old-school strand of white lights. There is now a crazy 22nd century selection, Jetson style. Blinking, moving, mesh...you name it, they have it. Speaks to how this season has has the potential to be so glamorized that we sometimes miss really enjoying why we even have it to begin with.

On another note, I always notice when manger scenes have other random additions to Bethlehem. Santas hanging out with shepherds, snoopy leaning up on sheep, or Winnie the pooh on a Ferris wheel. Like this one. Did you know there were penguins hot air ballooning over the manger when Jesus was born?

Please share and make me laugh if you've seen anything like this on a front lawn near you.

Preparing for Christmas

Even though Thanksgiving is next week, it's not too early to start talking and preparing for Christmas. I'm so ready for some major change this Christmas. I'm really way over buying and getting gifts. If we don't change simply because we are Christians maybe the economy will be a good enough reason to be different this year.

I love this video challenge, (besides the fact that is says, "go to church." GRRRR). It reminded me that I just really want to be with my family, hang out, eat, see the lights, and possibly even serve together. The exchange of words (and maybe some coffee) would be so much more meaningful that lots of gifts that might not fit--or lets be honest... that we might not like. Besides, it hardly seems right to spend so much money on ourselves with millions of children without parents, clean water, and simple health necessities.

Getting ready for Christmas

With a baby, it takes longer to do everything. What once took one day or a few hours stretched into a three day process. Good thing we started in November (wink wink). Isn't true that we are prone to spend lots of time "decorating," trimming the tree, shopping, and hanging lights so much that we feel tired, drained, and empty! We spend ourselves prioritizing the outside while neglecting the inside. The real truth of Christmas IS LIGHT and sometimes we miss it. We spend time putting on and putting up the lights all around our house and fail to experience the light in our life and heart. That's at least what I feel sometimes at Christmas and periodically in life.


One of the best illustrations of this is Clark Griswold in Christmas Vacation--one of my all time favorite Christmas movies. It is a classic. Clark buys thousands of lights to string up on his house practically breaking his back with no success.`Meanwhile he is going crazy and his family is falling apart inside the house! Sound familiar? The analogy plays out practically in how we spend our time and in the condition of our heart!


Sigh. Just today, I was driving to class, running late, tired after a long night of paper writing, feeling bad that I didn't have good quality time with my wife and daughter this morning and I dropped my peanut butter and jelly bagel sandwich in the car (Another bad sign that I am running an unhealthy pace is when I am eating a meal in the car). It seemed to bounce like a pinball on three different places in the car before landing on my final project and then my bag. It was just to be expected. "Ridiculously typical," I thought. This all just happen in 10 minutes from leaving my house to get to Seminary. I prayed and then I cried. Oh, God, please help me! I'm just over this. Over feeling rushed and worrying about my performance. See, I am caught between the tension of doing good work in my seminary class and arriving on time--well prepared--with taking car of myself, being filled with God's love and having quality time with my family and maintaining the ministry entrusted to me.

Somehow I pulled it together, I remembered that life is more than our "present sufferings" (as if these are REAL "sufferings" comparatively) and I am made for eternity. So I must have this perspective. In class, one woman presented her project using a song titled, "I'll carry you." With lyrics like: "When you can't go another mile..." It was touched. I was at peace for the moment.

Romans 8:17-19

Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.

I am a child of God. I will live like one and believe the truth. (I need this as I still have one more 10 pager to write and some reading journals to complete).

Philippans 4: 4-9

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

I pray we rest in God. Take deep breaths, stop the running around, the search for significance is found in nothing and no one but God and his love for us!

Peace on Earth and all people, whom his favor rests!

This is Merry Christmas!