Earlier this week, we passed by an outside Santa decoration and Noah excitedly yelled from the backseat, "It's Santa!". Ben and I both kinda giggled, exchanged a glance and I asked Noah, "Who is Santa? What does he do?" I was curious because we've never really pushed the whole Santa concept. Don't get me wrong, we've said that presents were from Santa and last year we even got one of those "Elf on the Shelf" books, but it's never been a deliberate thing where we say Santa is coming to our house and he's going to bring you toys if you are good.
And honestly, I'm having issues with Santa this year. Partially with the whole lying to your kids part, partially with the whole "only if you're good part", and mostly with how Santa has become the overarching figure of Christmas. We're still trying to figure out how to find the right balance between the fun and magical of Christmas and still maintaining the truth and real purpose of Christmas. Because, let's be honest, for a child, how can a baby in a manger compete with Santa?
And maybe that's for a whole different post. {Though, this one here does a pretty good job of explaining, to some extent, how I'm feeling about it.}
In any case, for the past few years I've been looking for and trying to implement some different traditions that help point back to the real reason we celebrate Christmas. And every year, I tell myself we're going to do a Jesse Tree... and so far, we haven't. Primarily because I have yet to find a version of the Jesse Tree that I felt like my kids would sit through the Bible reading portion. Yesterday, I found a similar "curriculum" that we're going to do at least some of this year - Truth in the Tinsel.
The kids love it because we make ornaments to go along with the Bible reading and I love it because it is feeding their souls at their level. Because we started it late and I know we're going to have million and one things going on this month, I'm not planning to do one every day. Maybe next year we will be able to, but this year, we're just going to hit the basics and maybe one or two extras. Today we talked about how Christ is the foretold light of the world and about Mary and Elizabeth.
Right now, those are the only ornaments on the tree. ha! We'll likely decorate when Daddy-Ben gets back this weekend.
Tonight, after dinner, Daddy-Man, the kids, and I all got comfy and watched a Charlie Brown Christmas.
Little Linus gets me every time. ♥
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