Good Old Saint Nick

*Be forewarned that the following contains a non-traditional take on Santa. If you read this blog with your child, it may cause the precious story of their childhood to come apart at the seams. If you suspect that could happen then I encourage you to stop reading here.

Since the time of Eli's birth I've had an honest-to-goodness wrestling with an issue: Santa. I've gone back and forth between the schools of thought that Santa is a fictious character that is relatively harmless to the future of my child, and that Santa is a fictious character that has hijacked the spotlight during one of the most important holidays of my Christian faith. Living in Turkey makes the issue easy because Santa only pops up from time to time. And, in Turkey, he's not made out to be special. He's a skinny dude that holds a bag full of money because he's selling lottery tickets at the mall. I kid you not. However, this year, being in the U.S., we've come face to face with the white-bearded man. And see here's the thing...while I can deny that he's not what Christmas is all about, I can't deny that he's part of the American culture. Because let's face it folks, he is part of the American culture. Even if we hid under a rock for the month of December (and November, and October. But don't get me started...) chances are we'd still see stuffed, blinking Santas dancing on the shelves of Walgreens, or have a stranger innocently ask the question, "What do you want Santa to bring you this year?" So rather than blindfold our children every time we step out of the front door, my husband and I have decided to address him with a non-traditional explanation.

**Now, let me insert here that I DO NOT judge you if you promote Santa. If there's one thing I've learned over the last three years it's that parenting is quite possibly the hardest job in the world. The choices and decisions are endless. Any parent that is making a purposeful attempt to guide their children to the best of their abilities should be applauded. Period.**

Anyway, we are telling our children that today's Santa Claus is a representation (however distorted the representation may be) of Saint Nicholas, who lived a long long time ago in Myra, part of modern-day Turkey. He was known throughout the land for his generosity to those in need, his love for children, and his concern for sailors and ships. Most importantly, it was his devotion to Jesus that spurred him on to do good things. (Detailed information about Saint Nicholas can be found here ).

Once we've covered who Santa represents, we have to address the issue of who brings the gifts. I suppose a gift, or two, labeled FROM: SANTA might find it's way under our tree. But we'd rather Eli and Noah know that gifts are from friends and family that love them and want to give them things, regardless of their "naughty or nice" status. Afterall, I don't remember one single gift that I received from Santa. I do, however, remember the hand-me-down, royal blue, ten-speed bike that I got from my parents. And each Christmas morning that my older brother tied candy bars to ribbons and hung them from my bedroom doorway so I'd see them immediately when I woke up. Those gifts were special because they were given, with love, from people I knew, that knew me.

So, will our children see Santa? Yes. Will they hear about Santa? Yes. Will those experiences segway into a conversation about Saint Nicholas, and ultimately about our greatest gift, Jesus? You bet.