I don’t have anything against anyone that wants to teach their children to believe in Santa and tell them he is real. Bluntly put, I don’t care if you do or you don’t. If you want to, good. If you don’t want to, good. You do you. I won’t judge.
My husband and I discussed whether we want to teach our son to believe in Santa, and tell him that Santa is real or not, when our son was a baby. We both believed when we were children, nothing wrong with it. We weighed out what we saw to be the pros and cons we could think of and we made a decision, together, that we would NOT teach our son to believe in Santa. Our son would know from a young age that Santa isn’t real. Our son would not receive gifts from Santa on Christmas morning.
My son is turning 4 in a few months. Christmas was just over a week ago.
My son knows that the man in the red suit that he’s sees on tv or at the mall is called Santa Claus. Next year, I plan to teach my son more about St. Nick, where the idea of Santa originated.
I will not be bringing my son to sit on Santa’s lap (nor have I ever). I will not tell him that Santa is real and lives in the North Pole, and actually flies in a sleigh pulled by 9 reindeer and on one night he manages to go to every “good” child’s home and bring them presents through a chimney. I will not let him leave milk and cookies out on Christmas Eve that “Santa” will eat when we comes by. He will learn this is a story. It’s fiction. Not real. But a fun story we can talk about. Just like Paw Patrol isn’t real; dogs don’t really talk and can’t do what the pups on the show do, same goes with the story of Santa.
What I am teaching my son about Christmas is that we are celebrating the birth of our Lord and Saviour. That Jesus is the son of God, who we believe in and is real.
I’m teaching him that there are Christmas traditions, like putting up a Christmas tree and decorating it, and giving gifts (like St. Nick did) to each other.
I’m teaching him that it’s nice to receive gifts, but that it’s even more fun to give them.
I’m teaching him that Jesus is the reason for the season.
I don’t want to lie to my child. I don’t want to tell him something that isn’t true. I want him to trust me and know that what mommy and daddy tells him is the truth.
And for those of you saying that I’m ruining Christmas for him, or that I’m taking away the magic of it… You didn’t see the smile on his face and the excitement that he couldn’t contain when he opened his gifts from mom and dad on Christmas morning, instead of a gift from “Santa” because he was a “good boy” this year or he would have ended up with coal. Also, we paid for the gifts, why should Santa, who isn’t real, get the credit for making him so happy.
We sang happy birthday to Jesus and we thanked God for His Son.
We spent time with family, ate delicious food, had a lot of fun playing games and going to see houses decorated with lights.
You can do what you want. I will not judge you if you want your children to believe in Santa. That’s cool. But don’t judge me for not teaching something that isn’t real to my son.
I thank God that he picked me to be his mama and this is how I feel led to teach him about Christmas, and that’s the way it’s going to be. If you want to judge me, that’s on you. But do not tell me I’m ruining anything for my son or taking away any magic from the Christmas season, cause then I’ll tell you, you are wrong.
