Real, or Pretend?

I struggle a little bit every Christmas season, trying to figure out how to incorporate Santa into our traditions the "right" way, and today I've decided there is no right way.  Every family is different, so whether or not you "do" Santa in your home, this post is not directed towards you.  Today, I'm wrestling with what this looks like for our own family.

I don't ever want my boys to have this moment of disappointment as they realize what they've been told for many years isn't actually true.  But I do want them to experience the fun and the story behind Santa as well.  Trying to find a happy medium between the two is hard to do.

I've talked about it before, but my hope is that the boys would "believe" in Santa as part of the magic of an imagination, and child-like faith.  The same way they "believe" they can be superhero's, or fly.

This year, we even started doing the "Elf on the Shelf" tradition.  Not all crazy-Pinterest-like, but simply moving the elf to a different place after the boys go to bed each night.  Their giggles and laughs as they find "Christopher" in a different spot each morning is SO fun.

Jaxon brought home a Rudolph craft he made at school today.  His eyes lit up as he realized I also knew the Rudolph song, as we sang it together and laughed afterwards.

We joke and talk about Santa and being on the naughty & nice list, and have watched Polar Express at least 700 times so far this Christmas season.

But you know what else we do?

We talk about the Nativity every day.  We talk about Christmas and WHY we give gifts… Jaxon even knows the 3 gifts the Wisemen brought Jesus.  The boys set up their Little People Nativity Set and know all of the people by name.  They also know its Jesus' birthday and that's why we celebrate.

This whole subject has been on my mind a lot today as I've read an article posted on Facebook talking about why a particular family does NOT do Santa.  And that's great for them!  It raised some questions in my mind, so I made up a new game for us to play, on our way home from the gym this afternoon. I told them I was going to say a name, and they would tell me if that person is real or pretend.

I started the game pretty simple…

"Is Grandpa real or is he pretend?"
"REAL!", they shouted in unison.
"Hmm, ok… is Batman real or pretend?"
"… pretend?"
"Yep!  He's a really cool superhero though, isn't he?!  Now what about Rudolph?"
"pretend!!"
"You're right!  And Papa?"
"He's real!"
"Good… what about Santa?"
"… pretend, right Mom?"
"Yes, he is pretend. But remember St. Nick, from the Veggie Tales we watched?"
"Yes… he brought gifts to people, didn't he Mom?"
"You're right, Jaxon.  Now, what about Jesus?"
"… He's real."

My day = made.

Growing up, my parents talked about Santa and he brought our stockings every year.  I think they made it pretty clear from the get-go that he was not real, as I don't ever remember actually believing in him.  He was simply another fun part of our Christmas traditions.

That's exactly what I hope he is in our home, as well.  I think we're off to a pretty great start.