Does Santa have place in a true Christians celebration of the birth of our Savior?? I believe he does!! I loved believing in Santa as a child, but I love it even more to be a Santa!!! What could you do better at Christmastime than to give to others anonymously without thought of return. Santa is a symbol of giving. Elder John A Widtsoe, a former general authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints said, "There are men who object to Santa Claus , because he does not exist! Such men need spectacles to see that Santa Claus is a symbol; a symbol of the love and joy of Christmas and the Christmas spirit. In the land of my birth there was no Santa Claus, but a little goat was shoved into the room, carrying with it a basket of Christmas toys and gifts. The goat of itself counted for nothing but the Christmas spirit, which it symbolized, counted for a tremendous lot,"
In our family, Santa would bring one gift for each child. When we felt they were old enough, we let them be Santa! On Christmas Eve we read the Christmas story, sang Christmas hymns and acted out the Nativity and read from Saint Luke. When the children were really little we had birthday cake for the baby Jesus. We wanted to make sure they knew that we were indeed celebrating the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. On Christmas morning, before we opened presents we always turned over the baby Jesus on the Advent Calendar first!!
We also do secret acts of kindness for others, such as a 12 day of Christmas and we go caroling to those who are lonely. We try to find someone we know who needs cheering up. I always come away from that experience feeling up lifted.
In my mind, the picture above says a lot. When we become Santa, we are only worshiping the Savior.
What do you think about Santa Claus? What have you done as a family to help bring the true meaning of Christmas into your home?
3 comments:
Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment so that I could find you. I loved reading your blog and I found there some things that I really needed to hear at the time. Heavenly Father works in such wonderful ways. Thank you! I'll be stopping by again!
When I was a child, we always read from St. Luke and acted out the Nativity on Christmas Eve. We also had a "Jerusalem Dinner". That's what my Mom called it. We would put on our bathrobes and put towels over our heads so we looked like we lived in Jesus' time. We ate foods they would have eaten then. We had unleavened bread (pita bread), different kids of cheeses, grapes, pomegranate and sparkling apple cider (because they probably drank wine back then and we don't). I still have the recipe for that stew somewhere. I loved Christmas Eve at my house growing up. Once we were old enough that we no longer believed in Santa, we got to help be Santa for the younger kids. I really loved that. I really enjoy giving gifts and making others happy. Christmas morning, before we opened presents, we had to put Baby Jesus in the manger. I'm glad my parents did that because it made us stop and remember Jesus on the day we celebrate his birth. I also did 12 days of Christmas a lot and we always read Christmas stories almost every night in December. We ALWAYS had a caroling party and went Christmas caroling around to friends and ward members. I have such wonderful Christmas memories!!
Now I'M the Mom and things don't work exactly the way I wish they would. We don't even have enough people to do a Nativity play. I know when I was little, before we had enough kids to do the story, we got together with friends and spent Christmas eve with them. Unfortunately, that won't happen with us but we will just have to think of things. OOh, one more thing, we ALWAYS watched White Christmas on Thanksgiving Evening to start our Christmas spirit!
Do you have a bigger picture of that picture of Santa ad the Christ child? I was going to put it on my background, but it was too small.
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