Santa's Dead!!!

When my children were little, John and I thought long and hard as to how we were going to celebrate Christmas. What of the family traditions were we going to keep going in our home and what new ones did we want to start. Some of our traditions include: decorate the day after Thanksgiving, change our radios in our cars to 24-hour Christmas (no sooner than after Thanksgiving), always pick an angel from an Angel Tree, bake cookies together and give to family, friends, teachers, and neighbors, hang out a Bass Pro for an entire day (Lol), open one present on Christmas Eve which is always a new pair of jammies, go to Christmas Eve services, wake up at the butt crack of dawn to open presents, Christmas dinner is always tamales, and we spend Christmas day with our family.

My 3 Sons

One thing we both wanted, even before we were believers, was that Jesus would be the center of all that we'd do. We just knew that He was 'The Reason for the Season', even when we were not sure of this God, Jesus, Holy Spirit business. We wanted our children to know Him and celebrate Him.

One thing we were not sure about? Santa! Before you judge, please know that we love Santa. His spirit embodies a man of tremendous character, strength, and love. Santa is a good daddy figure; he was everything we wish we would have had growing up. So what's the hang up? Ready for this? We didn't want Santa to steal our thunder! Lol! We wanted all the admiration, love, and excitement! We are super jealous for our boys' affection, and Santa, well, he is a tough act to follow! He brings the best gifts!! You know!?! So we decided that in our home, Santa would bring only the practical gifts. Socks. Underwear. Toothbrushes. Toothpaste. Ect!! Terrible, I know! Lol! Our second reservation: lying. Oh! the things we look back on, when our children were babies, and say to ourselves, "What in the H-E-Double Hockey-sticks were we thinking!" Imagination is one of my most favorite things; I'm a dreamer at heart. But it felt like lying to me and back then I didn't want to lie to them; however, we loved the Santa story and the Santa fun! Come on!! He's a big jolly guy that freely gives out presents and candy!

After lots of contemplation and investigation, we decided to tell the the true story of Santa. Here's a bit of the history behind Old Saint Nick: The legend of Santa Claus can be traced back hundreds of years to a monk named St. Nicholas. It is believed that Nicholas was born sometime around 280 A.D. in Patara, near Myra in modern-day Turkey. Much admired for his piety and kindness, St. Nicholas became the subject of many legends. It is said that he gave away all of his inherited wealth and traveled the countryside helping the poor and sick. One of the best known of the St. Nicholas stories is that he saved three poor sisters from being sold into slavery or prostitution by their father by providing them with a dowry so that they could be married. Over the course of many years, Nicholas’s popularity spread and he became known as the protector of children...

We told them that Santa was once a real man who loved Jesus, and the call on his life was to give to and care for the poor, women, and children. It's a beautiful story really, rich with selflessness, generosity, and kindness. Who wouldn't want their children to know this? To embody and celebrate this great guy?

Read More About Santa

Looking back now I can see where my kids were perplexed when other children were SOOOOOO excited for the coming of Santa and the gifts he was going to lavish on them. My children were like, "What? Santa's cool but he only brings socks! Why are you so excited for socks!" Lol! And the big take away from the historical beauty of Saint Nick, ---Santa is dead!----

Oh! the poor children my boys scarred over the years relaying this gem of a story. Lol! I'll end with this (now) hilarious story: my boys were about 1, 4, & 7 many Christmases ago. My mom invited us to go to lunch with her and some of the husband's wives (who flew into Colorado) and their children from her work, and I, of course, said, "Heck Yes!!" I was a mom of small children, I took every opportunity to get out of the house. So we get to the Applebee's and take up one whole side of the restaurant -children on one end and adults on the other. I'm listening to my mom and her friends chit chat, when out of no where, all (ALL but mine) of the children are crying. And they are not just crying, they are wailing. A few of the girls were down right hysterical! I'm talking drooling, snot, freaking out, drama to the tenth power! Picture this, my boys are still happily eating! Oh! Lord help me, I repeated over and over under my breath as I began to rock myself a little! Lol! To comfort myself in the category 5 hell storm that hit our table with unrelenting furry. One of the girls finally composes herself enough to blurt out between sobs, "Those boys (pointing at my cherub faced boys) said that Santa (hiccup) is (hiccup, snot wipe) dead (zero to hysterical in record time)!!" I look down at my boys still happily eating, then look back to the crying children to see too many angry eyeballs staring at me! Poop just got real people! And what do I do? Well, if you've read "Confessions of Nervous a Laugher", then you already know. I start to laugh! Cover my mouth! Laugh some more! And the angrier they become, and the thicker the tension in the room builds, sends me into hysterics. Now I'm the jerk! Right! I try to explain, but do so miserably. The more I try, the worse it gets! The ladies are mad at me, my mom is mad at me, and I know I'm in the poop pool knee deep! I guess you can surmise that I wasn't invited to an more work luncheons!

Historically and literally --Santa is really dead!
Still not funny!?!

All in the day and the life of a mommy with all boys! I wouldn't trade them for anything, but I do covet prayers! As you can well see, I need them! From my crazy home to yours, we wish every one a joy filled, laughter resounding, grace abounding, love full, treasures and treasures of memory making moments, happy, merry, Christmas!