{"id":689,"date":"2014-12-10T00:03:01","date_gmt":"2014-12-10T07:03:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.mops.org\/2014\/12\/10\/santa-stole-christmas\/"},"modified":"2014-12-10T00:03:01","modified_gmt":"2014-12-10T07:03:01","slug":"santa-stole-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/santa-stole-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Santa Stole Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

(and this mother is taking it back!)<\/p>\n

The whole town is there, young and old, the children climbing onto the stage and playing the piano and dancing around the Christmas tree.<\/p>\n

Santa arrives at seven o\u2019clock in his red suit and his white beard and long black boots. <\/i>He\u2019s jolly and he sits in his chair, the kids all lined up.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m holding Kasher and Aiden\u2019s got his hand in mine, and Joey and Jin are up ahead. Aiden keeps asking if he\u2019ll get a present. I tell him Santa will give him a bag of candy.<\/p>\n

Aiden starts to whimper when we get to the front of the line because he\u2019s scared of Santa, and Kasher and Jin they\u2019re kicking and screaming as we place them on Santa\u2019s lap promising treats if they smile for the camera.<\/p>\n

And in the van on the way home, the boys tucked in the back, my stomach is sick. Why is it so important to us that they sit on Santa\u2019s lap? We\u2019re bribing them, saying they\u2019ll get candy if they sit on this nice stranger, when normally we tell them not to take candy from strangers? Something about this isn\u2019t right.<\/p>\n

My sons know Santa isn\u2019t real because I\u2019ve told them very bluntly. And what I should have said was that <\/i>Saint Nicholas WAS real \u2013 that he in fact, loved Jesus<\/a><\/i>and that was why he gave gifts away and inadvertently started the tradition of Santa Claus.<\/p>\n

But I didn\u2019t. I just told them Santa was pretend and Jesus was real because inasmuch as I love the festivity \u2013 inasmuch as I love the idea of Santa and his sleigh and his reindeer, and the blessing of children with gifts \u2013 I\u2019m a little bit angry at how Santa has stolen the heart of Christmas.<\/p>\n

I envy the magic of it all, truly. I always wished growing up my parents would have let me believe he was real and here I am bursting my kids\u2019 bubbles. But the thing is: Jesus Christ, the son of God, gets just two days a year.One day in which the whole world celebrates his birth, and one day in which we celebrate the end of his life on earth.<\/p>\n

Christmas is God\u2019s birthday, and I know it didn\u2019t happen on the 25th of December but for one day, much of the world pauses to gather together and celebrate. To remember the Christ-child, the Messiah in the manger. As Ann Voskamp puts it, the micro and macro miracle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be different,\u201d I tell Trent that night, after we\u2019ve tucked our boys all sticky from candy canes and oranges, \u201ceven if it means being unpopular. Because we\u2019ve got one life in which to raise our kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

I want Jesus to be the one holding my sons at Christmas. <\/i>I want his to be the face they anticipate Christmas morning, I want the nativity to be cherished and the Christ-child adored, because Saint Nicholas would have wanted it this way. He gave, because Christ first gave to us.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take back Christmas.<\/p>\n

\n

""<\/p>\n

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