Santa Claus explanation

[somethingshiny]

With Andrey''s permission, I''m posting this topic. Please don''t take this as a religious discussion.

How do you explain Santa Claus to your kids and still keep the religious part of Christmas? Like, WHY does he come??

 

[doodle]

here''s wikipedia''s definition of st. nicholas. i can''t really think of a more religious-based explanation of santa claus than the merry old st. nick himself, so i hope that helps!

 

[Octavia]

This may not be helpful, but when I was a kid I always separated religious Christmas and cultural Christmas in my head, like they were two separate holidays that happened to fall at the same time. I don't know why, exactly, because nobody ever explained it to me that way...but it made sense to me. Same for religious Easter and the Easter bunny. I guess I figured that, just like everyone else, Santa was excited and happy, and bringing gifts was his way of showing it?

It may also be because I had Jewish friends who would celebrate Chanukah and do Passover seders around the same times, so it didn't seem odd that multiple holidays would come together. It's a good question, though, I never really thought about that before!

 

[somethingshiny]

doodle~ Thanks for the link. I''ll probably go towards that direction as our little guy gets older. But right now, I''m dealing with an almost 3 yr old. I need a simple explanation that doesn''t discount the religious Holiday.

I was thinking something like, "Santa Claus brings us gifts to help us remember the Greatest Gift."

Octavia~ I stopped believing when I was 4 so it''s good to hear how other kids developed their ideas for the Holiday.

 

[monarch64]

I grew up with separate notions of Santa Claus as a cultural tradition vs. the religious holiday as well. My idea of Santa Claus and how it was explained to me was a tradition that began in one culture and was brought over to the States and commercialized. I don''t mean that my parents sat me down one day and explained what I just typed, I sort of came up with that based on the general explanations others gave and what I read. I think I believed in Santa for about 2 years, probably when I was 4-6.

 

[somethingshiny]

Monnie~ That''s pretty much how I felt about Santa, too. I was very intrigued by the many cultural Santa''s, but I didn''t relate them to the religious Christmas. I figured I did it because I didn''t believe, so it''s good to know a kid will figure in that way WHILE believing.

 

[Skippy123]

Date: 11/18/2008 9:29:33 PM
Author:somethingshiny
With Andrey's permission, I'm posting this topic. Please don't take this as a religious discussion.

How do you explain Santa Claus to your kids and still keep the religious part of Christmas? Like, WHY does he come??

hmm, I never believed in santa. I knew who he was and he came with the holidays. I always believed it was someones birthday so we celebrated his birth and gave presents because of that event. Hope I didn't say too much but that is what we did.

I do remember growing up the neighbors kids believing in santa and I said there was no "real" santa and the neighbors daughter didn't believe me. lol So I thought no convincing this child (my age 6). haha

 

[Pandora II]

I had it the other way round - my family did Father Christmas (UK version of Santa Claus) and the religious side was the story. We were dragged to church on occasion by grandparents, but I certainly never saw it as more than a story that meant nativity plays at school, cribs and christmas carols. Father Christmas I was firmly convinced was real until I was about 7 (my parents put a HUGE amount of effort into making it real

)

Now we just treat it as a family celebration - although we all make Father Christmas special for the extended family kids. MIL and her husband do the religious side (they''re C of E vicars) as does my brother, while the rest of us sleep/read the papers/play games etc

I think most children will happily separate the two sides and follow whatever the family traditions are.

 

[Elmorton]

Along with Santa, my mom (a Spanish teacher) also incorporated the Three Wise Men visiting on Epiphany...so Christian feast days were chocked full of unseen folks visiting our home and giving gifts (which, I suppose is pretty biblical). I guess I just didn''t question it, and if I did, I''m guessing that my parents went with the St. Nick explanation. I have no idea how they explained the bunny, because the bunny is just plain strange to me now.

Btw, in recent years at Christian bookstores, I''ve seen ornaments and decorations where Santa is kneeling at the manger. Of course I understand the meaning of what that scene is depicting, but every time I can''t help but wonder if that image helps or just confuses a child!

 

[somethingshiny]

Skippy~ We always had a birthday cake at Christmas in addition to the Holiday decorations and the rest of Christmas traditions. We were always told Christmas decorations were Birthday decorations and I''m gonna go with that. Celebrating a Birthday by giving everyone a gift is a good explanation, but I can''t figure out how to get the Old Fella in with that.

Pandora~ I think children will follow family traditions happily, but it''s kind of hard to explain to a toddler (who you''ve told not to talk to strangers or accept gifts, etc) that some old guy is going to come down the chimney (!) and leave you presents while you''re sleeping. I mean at this point, our son is all for presents and Christmas trees, but at what point does it start to get creepy?

Elmorton~ the bunny was weird for me as a kid, and that''s actually how I figured it was all fake. I proudly told my dad that there was no Easter Bunny (I just turned 4) and he said "that''s right, and there''s no Santa or Tooth Fairy either." I cried about the tooth fairy!! I''ve seen Santa at the manger, and I am still not sure about it.


We definitely want to do Santa, but to make it seem like it''s alright for this guy to come into our house in the middle of the night, we have to put him up on a pretty high pedestal, and I don''t want that pedestal to be higher than the Religious pedestal, ya know?? I guess we can just play it by ear for the next couple years until our little one gets into Sunday school and starts understanding a bit more.

 

[strmrdr]

They really didn''t .. I just considered Santa as part of celebrating Christ''s Birthday sorta like having clowns at mine.
When I was 5 I got mad because santa wouldn''t come to my birthday party too LOL

 

[mia1181]

I just want to chime in and say that most kids young enough to actually believe in Santa do not think enough about how or why this man is allowed to come in your house and leave gifts and other strangers are not allowed in the house. It''s not as though you are asking the child to go and open the door and let Santa in, but not other strangers. It happens in their sleep. If you are worried about his why not add your own twist to the story and say that Santa delivered them to you to put under the tree. I don''t see any harm in that, he doesn''t really need to come down the chimney and many house don''t have chimney''s anyway.

 

[Maisie]

I always tell my kids that I buy the presents and then send them to Santa. If the kid has been good they get the presents.. if they haven''t then Santa gives their presents to the good kids.

They celebrate Christ''s birth as a different thing altogether.

 

[LAJennifer]

Date: 11/19/2008 3:07:57 PM
Author: Maisie
I always tell my kids that I buy the presents and then send them to Santa. If the kid has been good they get the presents.. if they haven''t then Santa gives their presents to the good kids.

They celebrate Christ''s birth as a different thing altogether.

Maisie - that''s brilliant!

 

[gtn]

SS, I think the best way to explain it to kids is that Santa isn''t one man. Forget the lore of him going to all the kids houses and going down the chimney. Tell your kids the story of St. Nicholas of Myra. St. Nicholas would give gifts to the poor and children. He got great joy out of giving to those who were deserving of gifts (i.e. good boys and girls). Since St. Nicholas was a bishop, he was doing God''s work.

Santa comes, as St. Nicholas did, to do God''s work and show his love. This is also a great opportunity to teach your kids to share by being a "secret Santa" for someone who is deserving, someone who they would not normally get a gift for.

Good luck

 

[somethingshiny]

Date: 11/19/2008 2:53:18 PM
Author: strmrdr
They really didn''t .. I just considered Santa as part of celebrating Christ''s Birthday sorta like having clowns at mine.

When I was 5 I got mad because santa wouldn''t come to my birthday party too LOL

JT asked why Santa couldn''t come and play trains with him the other day.

mia~ I think most kids probably don''t think about the how''s and why''s of Santa-dom, but our little boy is in the "why" stage of life. ( I hear it may last years!!) So far, the answers I''ve given have satisfied him, but DH and I have been trying to get a game plan in case further questions arise. And, of course, we want to have the SAME answer.

Maise~ I bet your kids are REALLY good for the few weeks before Christmas!

gtn~ Santa comes, as St. Nicholas did, to do God''s work and show his love. This is good! Thanks! We''ve been trying to do a Secret Santa, but JT doesn''t quite get why he should give all that good stuff to someone else. We''ll keep working on it, though.

 

[musey]

Date: 11/19/2008 5:22:36 PM
Author: LAJennifer

Date: 11/19/2008 3:07:57 PM
Author: Maisie
I always tell my kids that I buy the presents and then send them to Santa. If the kid has been good they get the presents.. if they haven''t then Santa gives their presents to the good kids.

They celebrate Christ''s birth as a different thing altogether.

Maisie - that''s brilliant!

Kinda like a ''Christmas Tax''

You pay your tax yearly in presents, and if your kids are good enough they''ll earn that tax return

 

[Maisie]

Date: 11/19/2008 11:38:46 PM
Author: musey

Date: 11/19/2008 5:22:36 PM
Author: LAJennifer

Date: 11/19/2008 3:07:57 PM
Author: Maisie
I always tell my kids that I buy the presents and then send them to Santa. If the kid has been good they get the presents.. if they haven''t then Santa gives their presents to the good kids.

They celebrate Christ''s birth as a different thing altogether.

Maisie - that''s brilliant!

Kinda like a ''Christmas Tax''

You pay your tax yearly in presents, and if your kids are good enough they''ll earn that tax return

It sure works for us to get them to behave lol!

 

[fieryred33143]

Well I don''t have children.

But growing up, my parents used to keep Santa Claus and the religious part of Christmas completely separate. We would spend Christmas Even in church practically the entire day and I understood that we were celebrating what we believe in religiously on that day. Christmas day we would get gifts because that''s what Santa does. He comes in the middle of the night to bring gifts to make everyone happy. They never put those two together for us.

*That''s also why we never opened any gifts until the next morning and there were no gifts at all under the tree until "Santa" came.

 

[somethingshiny]

Date: 11/20/2008 9:03:59 AM
Author: fieryred33143


*That''s also why we never opened any gifts until the next morning and there were no gifts at all under the tree until ''Santa'' came.

We did this as kids, too. Now, my mom has Christmas at her house on the eve, and we all open presents from each other.

I''ve been trying to remember what my parents did. I think my mom went with "Santa is the Christmas Spirit" or something along those lines, because I remember being confused as to why she would tell my little sisters we had a ghost.

 

[bee*]

Date: 11/19/2008 3:07:57 PM
Author: Maisie
I always tell my kids that I buy the presents and then send them to Santa. If the kid has been good they get the presents.. if they haven''t then Santa gives their presents to the good kids.

They celebrate Christ''s birth as a different thing altogether.

My mother did a similar thing in that she said that she had to leave santa the money for the presents. That way we couldn''t ask for anything too extravagant!

 

[swingirl]

My kids knew that the gifts came from their parents all except for one special gift that Santa brought.

Growing up we were told about the 3 Wise Men who brought their gifts and Santa was the guy keeping this tradition alive. The fact is really young kids don''t get too much of it anyway. So what ever you tell them, they''ll initially believe. Then they''ll figure it out and realize, whether it''s the religious story or Santa Claus story, it''s based on family tradition and varies from family to family.

 

[Maisie]

Date: 11/20/2008 5:57:26 PM
Author: bee*

Date: 11/19/2008 3:07:57 PM
Author: Maisie
I always tell my kids that I buy the presents and then send them to Santa. If the kid has been good they get the presents.. if they haven''t then Santa gives their presents to the good kids.

They celebrate Christ''s birth as a different thing altogether.

My mother did a similar thing in that she said that she had to leave santa the money for the presents. That way we couldn''t ask for anything too extravagant!

Now thats a great idea!!!