Hi y’all! I am Tamara Menges and my oh-so-darlin’ hubby and I own Tamara Menges Designs! Today I am sharing my thoughts on Santa Claus, and I am so grateful for the opportunity to write a guest post for Kristi!
I hate to admit this, but I am easily influenced by other people’s opinions.
Enter a Santa discussion with a couple friends from a few years ago.
I had no idea there were parents against teaching their kids about good old Saint Nick, absolutely no judgment at all, I simply just had no idea! My mind was blown when this topic came up.
During this conversation I felt more and more guilty because I knew Santa would be part of our Christmas traditions when we finally have kids. So on my drive home I called K (aka Kason, the darlin’ hubby I mentioned above) and unloaded on him about how we simply can’t allow Santa in our home or in our kid’s minds. That “he” will ruin them, and it’s our responsibility to guard their hearts and minds…
Let’s just say this didn’t go over well.
Once I got home and we discussed further he made me realize there is nothing wrong with Santa and the meaning behind him if it’s done right. He pointed out that we both grew up in homes and knew who Mr. Kris Kringle was, but we were also both taught that he was just a teensy “part” of Christmas, and the true meaning of Christmas is the incredible gift God gave us in His son Jesus. He also pointed out that while we did grow up with Old Saint Nick, we both turned out ok, and we truly love the Lord. So the chance of him ruining our kids was just silly.
Jump ahead to last week, I was at Bible study with other ladies and we began discussing how we were going to be intentional with celebrating Christmas from the Christian perspective. One mom mentioned she was having a hard time finding the balance between Jesus being born and it’s importance and the secular “fun” of Christmas.
Another mom mentioned that they teach their kids about Saint Nicholas, the real man who the “Santa Claus” we know today was inspired by. He was a man of God and made his life’s work telling others about Jesus.
(here’s a website for more info: http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/who-is-st-nicholas/)
Again my mind was blown because I didn’t realize (maybe I did and just forgot) that the white-bearded red-velvet-wearin’ jolly man, that every kid screams at at least once, was inspired by a real man who loved the Lord. How incredible!
So the consensus is, for our family, yes Santa will be a part, but our version will focus on the real man, Saint Nicholas, a man of God.
Some other fun traditions we plan to start when we have kids is celebrating Advent with scripture reading and a fun activity, story book reading (there are some great picture books at LifeWay Christian Book Store!) and throwing Jesus a birthday party!
Lastly, the one I’m most excited about (that I’m stealing from another mom in my Bible study group!) is we will only be giving 3 gifts to our kids. The “big” gift will represent gold, something for their spiritual growth will represent frankincense, and something for their body (clothes, etc.) will represent myrrh. We will explain why they are getting three and what each means with its significance and showing them in scripture that if it was good enough for Jesus it’s good enough for them! J
Prayers for a blessed and intentional Christmas to your family from ours!
About Tamara:
I met Tamara at church. She's unfairly talented. She's a successful wedding designer/coordinator. Her work is breath-taking AND she loves what she does. So you'd think she has a character flaw or something. Nope. She's extremely sweet and wise with seemingly boundless energy with which she uses to serve. Her love for her husband is evident as is her love for the Lord.