My kids have never "BELIEVED" in Santa. We play Santa and read books about him and watch movies about him. Last year I set up a Santa trap on Christmas Eve to make sure the kids didn't come downstairs. We leave him cookies and give his reindeer carrots, but my kids know it's a game. They know it's a game that some kids think is real and we are careful to play along with their game! But whenever my kids ask me for the truth, they get the truth. This is just how we've chosen to handle Santa. It's not the right way for everyone, but I definitely feel very convicted about making sure my kids' belief and faith is in Jesus Christ alone....not the Easter bunny or the tooth fairy or Santa.
Whenever people find out that my kids don't BELIEVE in Santa, they always feel sorry for them. That's fine and I recognize that Santa holds a certain magic in most people's lives.
Well, the other day Will and I were in Target and he was screaming his head off because it was way past nap time and he wasn't getting what he wanted. This lady walked up to him and whispered to him, "You better stop crying. Santa is watching you." Will immediately stopped crying and started looking around to see where Santa was.
And it occurred to me....all these years people have been feeling sorry for my kids, when really they should have been feeling sorry for me!!! I can never play the Santa card, I can never threaten coal in their stocking, I can never tell them that Santa is going to check his list twice to see if they've been good or bad. There's no elf on the shelf spying on my kids. Dang it! I'm missing out on all the fun!
