I have a confession to make. My daughters and I have a rather guilty pleasure around Christmas time. When we’re at the mall in December, we often grab a bite to eat and then sit at the table that’s right in front of the Santa Village. We love watching the kids get their pictures taken with Santa–largely because we find it kind of funny that parents would force crying toddlers to sit on Santa’s lap. By our count, about 50% of the kids who get their pictures taken on Santa’s knee do not want to be there. And so I can never quite figure out why parents do it.
That probably makes me quite warped, but our family has never really embraced Santa. It all started when I was very young and just didn’t “get” the Santa thing. Even in kindergarten, I couldn’t figure out how he could be everywhere at once, and how he could deliver presents to people who didn’t have chimneys. And most of all, I couldn’t figure out how he could be at the mall, taking pictures with kids, if he was supposed to be getting our presents ready. So I didn’t buy it.
Unfortunately, I shared my skepticism with my kindergarten classmates, and my mother was getting hate phone calls for weeks. We almost had to leave town, other parents were so mad that we had “ruined” their Christmas.
Then, when we became parents, we had to decide what to do ourselves. And I couldn’t get into the spirit of pushing a Santa I had never believed in, especially since I thought the Santa movement can obscure the real meaning of Christmas, which is Jesus. Now I know other Christian parents still do Santa, and that’s okay. But in the years when we had relatively little money, I didn’t want my kids thinking that we hadn’t gotten them a gift, and that only Santa had bought for them! So I wanted to put our names proudly on the presents.
Our kids never minded, and always thought it strange that their friends still believed in Santa, when they could see how silly it was. Perhaps kids have better Christmases with Santa, but my kids certainly enjoyed Christmas without him.
Of course, sometimes people are pressured into doing Santa from grandparents or other well-meaning relatives, but I really think it should be up to the family.
So we have never done Santa, and my girls have grown up thinking the whole thing is rather silly. What about you? What’s your Santa story? Let me know in the comments!
Sheila Wray Gregoire has been married for 29 years and happily married for 24! She loves traveling around North America with her hubby in their RV, giving her signature "Girl Talk" about sex and marriage. And she's written 7 books. About sex and marriage. See a theme here? Plus she knits. Even in line at the grocery store.
This year is the first year we have celebrated “Santa” in any way. My bio-girls (I also have older foster kids) are 4, 3, and 16 months. We have always made it clear that the Santa they see in Dora the Explorer or Sesame Street is just as make-believe as the other characters on the shows, and our focus at home has always been on Jesus’ birthday. This year I decided to incorporate some Dutch tradition into our home, as my husband’s family is Dutch (but don’t keep much of their cultural heritage). We celebrated Sinterklaas (the feast of St. Nicholas) on December 5th, and talked about the real man behind the modern myth. Next year we want to go a step further and move our gift-giving to coincide with Sinterklaas instead of our heretofore traditional Christmas Eve, to focus all the more on Christ and family at Christmas time. As an adult I have always had a problem with the rampant commercialization (and corresponding secularization) of Christmas, but I still don’t want to let go an opportunity to show love to our family through a special day of gift-giving. 🙂
Where I come from (Hungary) we have Saint Nicholas who’s coming at night to December 6. At a very little age I figured it out that I get the presents in my boot from my parents and sister. I never liked the men who came to visit my class in kindergarten and elementary school. Somehow these men – wearing the Santa suit – always asked my name when it was my turn to sit on their lap and I just couldn’t figure it out how he should know if I was a good or bad girl when he didn’t even know my name…
Btw. we have to clean our shoes / boots and put them on the window sill (inside of course) and we get chocolate bars and candies and/or rod (if we were bad).
On Christmas Eve “baby Jesus” and the angels are coming, they bring the Christmas tree, decorate it and put presents underneath. I admit it when I was about 7-8 years old I wrote a letter to baby Jesus. Dad brought us to a movie to watch a Christmas film, we played in the snow etc. until he thought Mom was ready with the tree and the supper and we could go home. When I was about 9 we all were sick and we didn’t go anywhere. That’s when I got to know Mom did everything.
When I will have kids I would like to decorate the Christmas tree with them and won’t tell them any lies about Christmas but read (well maybe my husband) them the Christmas story and talk about the true meaning of Christmas. I’m not sure about Saint Nicholas day.
I just talked about this on my blog today too! We’ve never done Santa with our kids but we’ve taught them to not ruin it for other kids as well. Unfortunately i’ve had other adults tell my children right in front of me that I was wrong and Santa was real. One woman actually told my kids I was lying to them! That to me is taking it too far! We’ll teach the kids as they get older about the real St. Nicholas and what he really did but that will be the extent of it for our family.
~Jamie
Yes, we did the same thing! The real St. Nicholas was an amazing and inspirational man, and that’s a great Christmas story to share with kids.
This isn’t a recent post, but it’s my Thoughts on Santa.
Well, I guess my family is in the minority but we have a lot of fun with Santa. My first baby is only 11 months old but my husband and I have decided that we’re going to play along and let our little boy enjoy the magic and excitement of Santa while also emphasizing that the importance of Christmas is to celebrate Jesus. Just last week, I was the mom in the mall having my baby boy sit on Santa’s lap and get a picture, even while crying. We also do other things like the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. These are traditions that we grew up with and have been looking forward to sharing with my little ones. We are strong, bible believing Christians and will always keep the true meaning of Christmas sacred.
Christen– I’m with you. We celebrate Christ’s birth as most important but also do Santa. I just blogged about this same topic this week too. http://www.jenniferkhale.com. I was really surprised to find that based on the comments, Christian parents who also do Santa seem to be the minority.
I wasn’t raised with Santa Claus and I never felt deprived at all! Christmas was still a completely magical and exciting time for me as a kid. My husband and I decided that we wouldn’t do Santa with our kids, since neither of us had it as kids. I’ll be honest, I really loathe Santa Claus. The whole idea is so hokey and bizarre. One reason it annoys me is like you said, it seems the parents are pretty much forcing their kids to sit on a creepy strange man’s lap. Also, what really turns my stomach, is that Santa is only real to rich kids, or kids’ whose parents care (and can afford) to get the kids the gifts they’ve asked Santa for. I can’t help but think of those children who don’t have Santa coming down their chimneys to give them the latest expensive toy. Oh it just boils my blood when I think of it. Because really, the fact that not all kids will get gifts from “Santa” kind of breaks down the whole myth anyway. I also think it totally takes away from the true meaning of Christmas, which is Jesus’ birth, and I can just really see how people have sort of made Santa into some kind of god, which really annoys me. And also it’s just a flat out lie. I can’t believe that parents go out of their way to lie to their kids, when all other times we teach honesty. I don’t get it. I really don’t.
Okay, I am completely rambling, so I’ll stop! I think maybe I will get my thoughts together on the topic and write my own blog post about it…
We never did Santa in our house growing up. We always celebrated St. Nick’s day, but we were never told a magical person was dropping stuff off for us. We were also told not to tell the other kids in school that Santa was pretend, because it might make them sad.
My younger sister now has three daughters, and she is going the Santa route. I’ve not been able to bring any pregnancy to term, but my husband and I would *not* be doing Santa if we did have any children. Different strokes!
I don’t recall ever thinking there was a Santa, but I remember getting presents from “Santa”, but we also got presents from Mom, Dad, the cat, the hamster, etc. I think I probably even got a present from my turtle a time or two. 😛
We have done Santa. As the kids get older, however, we let them in on the secret. We explain the original inspiration for Santa Claus was a man who gave his riches to others when he converted to Christianity. And we invite them to become Santa Claus to others. They get to help put out gifts for others in the family. My kids have enjoyed both believing and knowing the real deal because both approaches hold something fun for them.
We’ve never done Santa either, and like your children, my children have always thought it a bit silly. We also told them not to spill the beans to other young children. Now that they are teenagers, we love watching Christmas movies that involve santa, it’s good, family entertainment and fun.
Even though we are Christian, we don’t celebrate Christmas, so no, I grew up with no Santa. Hubby, too. Luckily my mom impressed upon me not to ruin it for other kids, and hubby and I in turn have done the same thing. We told them about Nicholas being the inspiration for Santa, and they know to just play along with their cousins. (Luckily the cousins are growing out of it – the youngest is 10 this year.)
We do get together with family and friends this time of year (just had a lovely potluck lunch yesterday with folks from church) and have lots of fun, but that’s it for us. And it’s just as much fun. 🙂
We never did “Santa”, but we still left out cookies and milk. Christmas morning, we would ask Dad — Did Santa like what we left out for him. I think that started when we were in elementary school or so.
We talked about Santa and who he was and such, but he was never presented as “real”. Same thing for the tooth fairy (who was a gnomish dude for me), and the Easter bunny. At Grandparents, we were asked, quietly by Mom or Dad, to play along when we got gifts from “Santa”.
I have this issue with telling my child something is real, when its not. Its a general thing that just happens to encompass Santa, the tooth fairy and the Easter Bunny. I don’t know if these things would impact my child’s trust for my words, but on the off chance that it does…. well, I want my child to be able to trust what I say.
That said, we can still, and do, include “Santa Claus” in Christmas, but he is acknowledged to be less than read, whereas Saint Nicholas was a real person. I’m sure we will get into all sorts of crazy conversations with Peanut is older about such things. He does have a philosopher as a Dad, and a linguist for Mom.
Our family was also struggling financially when we had our first, and for that reason alone, we were up front about Santa not being real. We told our second the same story, because our finances were still not doing that great to be able to afford much. In the case of my childhood, I was told by cruel laughing children that Santa wasn’t real and I was a dummy to believe in him, and I went home in tears, so that is another reason for sparing a child the Santa myth. They will find out eventually. I find it hilarious that atheists refer to Jesus as a myth and attack us for “perpetuating the myth” while many atheists most likely “perpetuate the myth” of Santa! I know that Jesus is real, atheists cannot prove that I am wrong, and I also know that Santa is not, and that can indeed be proven. 🙂
I grew up knowing that Santa wasn’t real, but it was still fun to pretend! When we go to Christmas at my parents’ house, we do stockings for them and they do stockings for us. I would always leave out milk and cookies (later that turned into beer and cookies… adjusting to my Santa’s preferences… lol) and we’d go to bed relatively early “so that Santa can come” (i.e., so my parents would have time to put out the presents before they got too tired). My mom and dad still buy us “Santa presents,” and now we get to buy them Santa presents, too. It’s just a fun family tradition, not something we ever took too seriously.
We grew up getting a present from ‘Santa’, but I think that is the extent of what my parents did about Santa. I don’t remember ever believing in a real Santa, but then, I’m the youngest, so maybe that was shot before I had a chance to believe it. In my family now, we celebrate St. Nicholas Day, open stockings then and read stories about St. Nicholas. Christmas is all about Jesus, especially as we light the last Advent candle and read the story from the Bible.
I don’t care one way or another if people really “do” the whole Santa thing. One of my friends growing up was part of a family who all “knew” there was no real Santa from the get go, but they still gave presents from Santa. It was just a neat tradition and kind of fun. I have fond memories of anticipating what Santa might have in his bag for me…there was something special about not knowing; whereas, once I knew it was my parents, things were still nice, but I was afraid to really dream up my gifts and I could pretty well guess what they might pick. It just wasn’t the same. For that reason, I think anyway, my mother still gives us at least one gift from Santa that are very much not practical and is our “toy” so to speak.
.Last year at just 3 years old my daughter started questioning the whole Santa thing. The only reason I put pressure into convincing her was because due to her figuring I bought the presents, she did not see why she had to wait for Christmas morning and being 3 years old wanted her present “RIGHT NOW!”. I know a lot of people would say, “That’s when you need to set limits and tell the child no.” And that maybe so, but then I had a second reason. She is very likely to tell her entire class just as you described Sheila. Plus, I like Santa and now she does, too.
I also explained to her who St. Nicholas was, which is where “Santa” really came from. I don’t come right out and say, “there really isn’t a guy who flies around the world, we just do this in keeping with the generous spirit of St. Nicholas”, but I do tell her about St. Nicholas. Of course, this year, that has resulted in her thinking I will be getting a dowry in my stocking to give to her father…but the general sentiment is there. Now, I know St. Nicholas wasn’t about just giving gift upon gift to spoil kids, but the idea of exchanging gifts and using stockings comes from those stories. I also remind her that we give at least one present every year to the toy drive because both St. Nicholas and Jesus gave to those who had little to nothing. In doing that, Santa has a purpose other than just giving kids a case of the “gimmies”.
And you know what? This year she actually yelled out, mid-meltdown in a store, “no mommy, I cannot ask Santa for THAT this year, I already asked for two things and we can’t be greedy!”(after I saw something cute and said, “hey, maybe Santa will bring you that”.)
Everyone is different and every family is different. I do agree with you whole-hardheartedly though about the parents who try to force their children to sit with Santa. We do take out daugther to get her photo taken with Santa, but the first two years she didn’t want to do it. Some people suggested that we should keep taking her during the season until we got a good photo. I couldn’t be bothered. Year number three we got a great one and the same with the last three years. I give it another two years before she stops believing(she is so much more cynical than I ever was…I was 9 and had to be TOLD by my parents for my own good so I wouldn’t get teased) and I wont force it then either. We will enjoy it while it lasts.
That’s really cute about her not wanting to be greedy! Write that memory down; that’s the type of thing I always vow I’ll remember, and then I don’t, and that’s precious!
We have told our kids about the historic Saint Nick. As for Santa, the kids can go sit on his lap at the mall, but they know its a regular guy in costume and we certainly don’t force it (our 3 year old wants nothing to do with mall santa) But we don’t want our kids to get caught up in Santa and commercialism and gifts. Plus I can’t really rationalize lying to my kids – they know there is no Easter bunny or tooth fairy, and we celebrate these occasions with fun and for the true meaning of the occassion. My husband for fun has been known to put gifts under the tree from “baby Jesus” and we do have a birthday cake and sing happy birthday to Jesus on Christmas Day to help emphasize we are celebrating his birth.
KitKat, we always have a “Baby Jesus Chocolate Birthday Cake” (the chocolate is very important) at Christmas. Love it!
Check out this song- “Where’s the line to see Jesus?” by Becky Kelley, makes me wonder if I should even let my kids visit “mall santa”! A beautiful song on the meaning of the season;
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=OExXItDyWEY&vq=medium
My Santa story is almost exactly the same as yours. My parents never encouraged nor discouraged belief in Santa, but most of my friends believed in him. When I was 5 I tried really hard to believe in him; I really tried to get excited about him. I ended up just feeling foolish.
When my kids asked about Santa I told them the truth – as in, the dude who, way back when, gave gifts to the poor at Christmas time. I had a lot of ticked off parents because of what I told my kids, because they, of course, told other kids.
I admit that I did do the pictures with Santa thing. It’s cute! Though, actually, I only have pictures of my oldest (who just turned 18) and only one with him and his brother. After my second turned 2 they started charging for portrait packages instead of the $2 up front and a dollar per copy. It wasn’t cute enough to dish out $25 for a package of prints I didn’t need, especially as I was a single mother at the time.
I just blogged about this (http://tinahollenbeck.blogspot.com/2011/12/our-santa.html)! :^) We do Santa here, but Jesus is still the emphasis. And part of why we have allowed Santa is because we’ve had our very own Santa in a way – which is what the post is about.
My boy is 5 and to us Christmas really is about giving and taking in the joy of a beautiful holiday. He talks about Santa, but we express that Santa loves to share his wealth with all the kids and our son has in return asked to get everyone else stuff like Santa does. Someday he will outgrow it, but not before he learns a lesson in giving.
We taught our children that there is a “Santa Game.” Our family doesn’t play it, we celebrate Jesus’ birthday. We don’t want to ruin the “game” for others, so if we know that our friends or family play the game, we just play along while we are with them. Our children when they were younger always asked us though, “Why do those parents lie to their children?” and “How can anyone really believe that the Santa in the mall is real?”
Mine always asked that, too! And I had to be careful to tell them that other families make different choices, and that’s okay, because I didn’t want my kids judging others or anything. It was always kind of tricky!
I’m actually relieved that I am not the only one that grew up without the Santa experience! My parents tried to pass it off and I never was brazen enough to let on that I knew it was all bonk, but I knew. It wasn’t a matter of not getting it or rationalizing it as you did, but rather just never believing. I simply always knew the truth. Same with the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy.
I think a lot of people might consider it sad that I did not have the experience of Santa, that I missed out on this magical part of childhood. But I don’t feel like I missed out on anything. I’ve always been a practical, logical person, so I don’t feel a sense of loss. It would have been a waste of time for me to believe in Santa.
Oddly enough, I’ve somewhat always felt a moral issue with the whole Santa lie. I hate lying and I just didn’t understand why I would want to lie to my children over such a trivial, insignificant thing. I know many might consider this an extreme viewpoint. But I honestly have nothing against folks going along with the story and providing those experiences for their children.
I think if I had been blessed with children, I would have let them know the truth about Santa (and all the other characters throughout the year), but not made it a part of our lives. But I certainly wouldn’t have them ruin it for anyone else!
Yes, I don’t feel like I missed out on anything, either! I was still very excited about Christmas, and I loved seeing family. I don’t see how Christmas could have been better, even if I had known about Santa! So I’m with you.
I have a real hard time with Santa and I honestly do not know what to do about it. My husband grew up in a home that was not Christian and Santa Clause was very much welcomed. We have a little soon to be 1 year old and he of course wants to do Santa. I have been wrestling with this and not really knowing how to deal with it all. I strongly believe that I am supposed to submit to my husband’s leadership but I really do not want to teach my little girl about Santa Clause. I feel like God blessed us with this little girl and as her parents we are called to protect, teach, and train her in the ways of the Lord. Everything I do I try and ask myself does this glorify God? I just cannot see Santa Clause as doing this and in my opinion it all actually takes away people’s focus from God. Yes it is fun and “magical” and I am no fun hater! But the fact is we are in a spiritual battle and I think that Satan is using anything and everything to try and take our focus off of our majestic Creator. Our little children’s minds and souls have been placed in our hands as gifts and I think we are very responsible for what we let them do, watch, listen too, and be apart of. If they are filling there time up and mind up with “harmless” fun things and traditions of the world that have nothing to do with God then what is left for God? I know I am being very blunt and probably touching a hot spot on people. I do not want to make waves and upset people. I do not judge any of my Christian friends that celebrate Santa Clause with their family. All I am saying is I have a really hard time for my personal family and just don’t really know what to do about it. I do not want to lie to my daughter about this magical santa claus that knows if you are good or bad and can be all over the world in one night. What will happen when she gets older and questions God if He is really real or not and if He can really know all things and be everywhere? To me Santa does not glorify God but instead subtracts from Him……..These are my thoughts. I hope I do not cause an uproar I would love some loving Christian input! 🙂
Sarah, I can definitely see your point. But I can also assure you that while we as a family have not done Santa, I know other Christian families that do, and their kids still love Jesus. I’d suggest teaching your child a ton about Jesus, and doing the baby Jesus birthday cake on Christmas, and then teaching your child about the original St. Nick, and then letting your husband do Santa if he wants, and don’t try to undermine him. I think if you emphasize the truth, it will still be okay. You don’t want to cause dissension with your husband, and I think it really will be okay. Just pray lots, teach the truth lots, and then let your husband father the way he wants to father!
Sheila,
Thank you for the wonderful post. It’s really helped put things in perspective for me. As one scurries around buying gifts to the last second every year it is so easy to forget why we celebrate this CHRISTmas holiday.
[Where’s the Line to See Jesus was very touching]
I recently stumbled upon “to love honor and vacuum” by accident, and have been enjoying it tremendously. I am not a religious person, but love hearing different perspectives to weave into my personal tapestry. This particular post really hit a chord with me. Because we are not religious, Santa becomes the highlight of Christmas, and it has never sat well with me. I have never even considered the option of “opting out” of the Santa story. I complain every time one of my children loses a tooth that I despise these stories that we have to go along with, never thinking we don’t have to participate. It makes me happy to hear that your children, as well as many of those in the comments have grown up just fine without the fantasy. It just seems wrong to perpetuate a lie. But…now I’ve started, and I’m not sure how to “get out of it”. My oldest is 15, so she’s past the Santa stage, but my 11 year old still believes, as does my 4 year old. Well, thank you so much for the food for thought.
Suzanne, glad to see you here! I’m not sure what to tell you, but a reader on my Facebook page just sent this link in response to this story, and it may help you. I thought it was awfully good: http://heartkeepercommonroom.blogspot.com/2008/12/equuschick-killed-santy-claus.html
Oh, thank you for this link. Wish I’d read all this years ago before Santa had been firmly established in our home. To kill him off now might be more traumatic, I suppose! A blessed Christmas to you!
Both my husband and I grew up with Santa Claus, but have happily decided that he won’t be visiting our house :). We prefer to keep Christmas about Jesus, but more importantly, we are really uncomfortable with telling our children something that isn’t true. We are teaching them about the amazing attributes of God, and I don’t want to undermine that by telling them that Santa is all-knowing and all-seeing (he sees you when you’re sleeping, knows when you’re awake, etc.), capable of determining who is “bad” or “good”, and being everywhere at once. I would really hate to stress all of these things about Santa, and then have them not believe that those same things about God are actually true. We have stressed, though, that they are not to tell other kids about this 🙂
On a funny note, last year I had an acquaintance inquire as to what the kids were asking for from Santa. When I mentioned that we didn’t do Santa around here, she looked at me with wide eyes and said, ” You don’t celebrate Christmas?”. I thought it was a great example of how Christmas is viewed by most of our society. 🙂
Oh, wow, Kari, what a statement! “You don’t celebrate Christmas?” I’ve never heard it that blatantly, but I guess that’s where many are at!
I’ll start from the other end and say I was raised with NO Santa. I always felt a bit awkward around others because my dad was so militant about it. My kids are now older (15-23) and we chose to do the Santa thing with them, primarily because of my husband’s family, so I’ve run the gammit.
We treated Santa like all the other fairy tales and told the stories like we tell the other stories, and when it came time for direct questions, “Mom, is Santa real?” we’d answer with, “What do you think?” I tried very hard never to lie to my kids, though it can be argued that we lied by omission!
If I had it to do over again, I probably would not do Santa gifts, but at the same time, we sure had fun, and my kids have grown up to know and love and serve Jesus wholeheartedly, so I don’t completely regret it. If I regret anything, it’s that I didn’t create more traditions (both at Christmas and throughout the entire year) that helped them regularly celebrate and remember the mighty things God has done. I’ve been reading the Old Testament and have been reminded of the importance these ‘holy-days/holidays’ have, and their purpose of pointing us back to God via PARTY TIME! 🙂 And we think God is a fuddy-duddy sometimes. Anyone who thinks that hasn’t read about the parties he planned and expected his people to enjoy several times a year.
Sharon, great points! I’ve thought a lot about that, too: how the original tithes just went to have big community parties! The other thing that strikes me about the Old Testament is all the stone monuments that they would build to remember something. What should be our equivalent today? I often wonder if I am marking milestones in my kids’ lives, or particularly neat things that God has done, sufficiently. Great food for thought!
I also don’t propagate the Santa myth in my home. Like others, we teach our children about St. Nicholas, but that’s as far as it goes. We want the focus to stay on the birth of Jesus Christ.
I justify it like this:
You bring your children up to believe in God, Jesus, Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy. One day, your kids are going to wake up and realize that you’ve been lying to them about the existence of the last three. How do you expect them to trust that you weren’t lying about God and Jesus? We all know that one day someone is going to come up to them and say God isn’t real just like someone told them that Santa isn’t real.
Our children trust us to teach them what is right and what is wrong in this world. They trust us to help them sift through the lies and find the truth. We owe it to them not to break that trust.
I totally agree with you Kody. This is the exact reason that my husband and I chose not to “play Santa” with our sons. We would never want to lie to them about Santa, because that may cause them to distrust us in other, more important, areas. They are also more grateful when they receive their gifts (because they know that money is tight), and they have learned the joy of giving to others (not just the joy of receiving from an imaginary figure. Some of our family members have taught their children that Santa is real; we’ve told our children that is their choice, and for them not to tell their cousins that Santa does not exist. So, they listen politely, but don’t ruin it for others.
We have 2 lil boys and we decided to do what I call the “veggie tales” version of Santa. We teach our kids that st.nick was a real man who lived long ago and loved God. And because of that love and relationship with God he made and gave presents to boys and girls. We r telling our boys what others believe (so hopefully we wont get hate mail) lol. Our younger son doesn’t really get any of it yet, hes only 2abd our oldest doesn’t really either even though hes 5, he has Down syndrome so lang is limited
We don’t do the Santa thing neither. I feel like Santa is a distraction for the reason we celbrate the holiday. I never understood it as a child although my family tried desperately to put it off on me. Of course most people don’t get wh y i would do such a horrible thing to my kids by taking all the “fun out’ (their words, not mine) and I feel the need to stick to my guns here. I have a 12 year old, 4 year old and a 15 month old. My kids are happy, well adjusted kids and have great Christmases. It’s encouraging to see that other people don’t feel the need to follow mainstream society.
I was taken to see santa as a kid and I was really scared, I dont remeber but I am told I sat on he knee crying and wanting to get away!