Monday, December 6, 2010

[an edited repeat from past years...]
How do you feel about Santa Claus?

Pere Noel, Christkindle, Father Christmas, Kriss Kringle, Sinterklas,

St. Nicholas

I was first introduced to St. Nicholas as a freshman in college when my dear friend Grace [whose grandparents on both sides of her family came to the US from the Netherlands] put a wooden shoe, filled with candy, outside my door on December 6th. [Still have that shoe, btw.]

I’ve loved the idea of St. Nicholas ever since!

There’s a lot of fact and folklore about him today, but most believe he was a real person and that the idea of Santa Claus came from the acts of goodwill that he did.

Here’s a link that tells his story briefly.
I’ve always wanted to have “Santa Claus” visit our boys on December 6th and keep Christmas sacred [or, practically --at least spread out the gift-receiving a little for them], but differed to C’s wishes. So instead, for the last 24 years, our boys have always received a chocolate Santa on December 6th. [Granted there were some years when I was out at 5 a.m. to get these Santas because of our crazy schedule! – but it was done!] This year we mailed a few to our college boys and sneakily placed one outside the oldest's new home, for him to find this a.m.

So, again, Happy St. Nicholas Day to you!

At our house Santa has always been pretend.
Our boys were never taught he was real, but more just a character of the secular celebration of Christmas [kind of like Mickey Mouse – celebration of magical place] who left gifts for them on Christmas morning. They’ve always known that Mom and Day were “Santa.” We’ve had a few Santa photos through the years [we have those Mickey ones too!] and we’ve had fun with it, but have always, always tried to help our boys see that
Jesus truly is the reason we have anything at all to celebrate in this life.
We hope that in the midst of all the hustle and bustle of the Christmas Season you can take the time to see a tiny baby lying in a manger who died so we might live eternally.
What a hope we have because of Him!

2 comments:

Rita Hutcheson-Cobbs said...

You are such an inspiring lady...I totally wish you and your family the greatest holiday season...ly

LindainNCtoo said...

You need to scrapbook all of these Christmas traditions that you have celebrated with your kids over the years, Judy.

Growing up, we would go buy a Christmas tree, hunt it down at a tree farm, freeze our bodies off looking for that right tree. Mom would have hot chocolate in a thermos waiting back in the VW microbus for us each year. We would NEVER decorate it. My brother and I were the youngest in the house. It wasn't until we turned 9 and 10 yrs old that we found out that "Santa" did not decorate the tree each Dec 24 night after we went to bed. My parents and my 2 older sisters ( when they got old enough ) decorated the tree after the kids went to bed on Christmas Eve night.

Christmas morning was "magical" in itself because the tree was decorated when we came down in the morning. Even though we did not have much under the tree, that tradition of having the tree decorated by Santa was something that was special that my parents wanted Christmas to be for us 4 kids.