Nat is at the age where she comprehends a lot of things... but time and waiting she does not seem to understand. Once we started talking about Christmas and decorating the tree, she assumed that now it was Christmas. We tried to get her to understand that it was a long ways away, but to no avail. Each day she would wake up and declare that it was Christmas. One way we tried to get her to understand the countdown to Christmas was through an advent calendar... but it still isn't working all that well. Its eased the urgency of Christmas, but she wants to open up every day 'right now'. She's a work in progress.
I want to be able to instil in our children the true meaning of Christmas, and not the commercial version they see displayed all around, but it can be hard to not get wrapped up in what is all around you. Nat thinks that Santa lives in the North Pole and will bring her a present... do I allow her to continue to believe this? I haven't been able to bring myself to change her view point. Would she understand if I told her Santa is a mythical character?
We talk about Christmas as Jesus' birthday, and it is because of Jesus that we celebrate Christmas, but all she sees is Santa... I know that we have time for her to understand the truth, but... should that time be now? Chelsea never did have any inclinations that Santa was real, so we haven't gone through this decision before.
1 comment:
I love all your catch-up posts!
Our way of dealing with the Santa issue was to talk about Saint Nicholas. I got a book from the library and read it with the kids and we talked about how he was a real person and he loved and served the Lord. I told them that the santa everyone talks about is based on St. Nicholas but he's just pretend.
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