My Ramblings about Santa

I often have mixed feeling about Santa Clause. On one hand he is a wonderful embodiment of Jesus Christ and on the other hand he inspires gluttony. I guess like so many things in life there are a good side and a bad side (if you can call it that).


Today, I decided that Santa Clause does something wonderful for children. Besides helping to teach children to give and of course try to be their very best. He teaches them about faith.

Jayce is at that age where they start to question Santa Clause. I was beginning to think this might be our last year of him believing. He told me his friends don't believe in Santa... and then he added that they needed to watch Polar Express and then they would know. However, after a rough morning and one phone call to Santa - I realized that he had made a decision (perhaps not a conscious one). He was not believing because he always has, he has chosen to believe inspite of what others say. Perhaps his ability to choose to believe in Santa is a luxury of a child, but I believe he has had a fundamental lesson in faith. There will come a point in your life where you have to choose to believe, not believe because someone else does or because you used to.

I try to bring Jesus Christ into Christmas when ever I can. I compare Santa Clause to Jesus for them. This time of year parents can easily back themselves into a corner by threatening no toys from Santa if the kiddos don't perform well. We have done this several times, in fact last night the 10 minutes allotted for playroom cleanup was closer to an hour - because we had threatened no toys (oops).

I explained to Jayce that just like Jesus will do anything for us because he wants us to live in Heaven with him. Santa does not want to bring a lump of coal and not give you toys. He loves us and wants us to be happy.

I Believe!