Yesterday was Saint Nicholas Day (or the Feast of St. Nicholas if you're from that school). We've been talking for a few years about how we want to do Christmas. While we've enjoyed the Santa Claus tradition and don't have any scarring from it ourselves, we haven't been sure if we want to pass it on entirely to our children. Partly because of the deceptive/lying part (though it may be fun imaginative pretending) of telling them that Santa Claus exists, but mostly because it puts more emphasis on getting rather than giving (Anders is already in the mode of wanting everything he sees). And Anders is old enough this year that he's going to remember what we do. Our last few weeks have been quite full, so Beth and I didn't get as much time to discuss it as we would have liked.
St. Nicholas day quickly snuck upon us. We ended up wanting to honour St. Nicholas--the historical inspiration behind Santa Claus (if you want another interesting inspiration google "Christkindl"--it's the German tradition that we get Kris Kringle from, but it's not what you'd expect). We ended up gathering around the Christmas tree and telling the boys a brief story about who St. Nicholas was--a man who loved God deeply (he was a pastor like Pappa we told Anders) and gave to people in need. We each got a present in celebration of St. Nicholas, but we also talked about how we're giving some toys and clothes to a family that our church is sponsoring because it's more important to give to people who need rather than getting more stuff ourselves.
This may freak my parents out (and maybe others of you as well), but Santa won't be visiting our house this year. Now, I'm not one of those who is going to say Santa is satanic or anything like that--but I think Santa as He has become known in our culture is less and less about what Christmas should be. So, we'll observe Saint Nicholas Day and have a few gifts under the tree, but we're going to try to focus more on the gift God gave us in His Son.
I'm hoping in the future we can have less presents under our tree and do more giving to those who have real needs. Maybe when the boys get older we'll try spending some time serving at a soup kitchen or a similar place on Christmas Day. This isn't something weird that we're doing because we're in Canada. It's part our journey into following Jesus more deeply. It's getting harder for me to celebrate His birth by spending a lot of money on my family who already has enough when Jesus was pretty specific about taking care of the poor, the homeless, the widows and orphans. So I think we're going to try and focus more on slowing down, preparing ourselves for Jesus' arrival during the advent season and giving to those who go without food, shelter or other basic needs; and we'll try to focus less on the rampant consumerism and trying to please ourselves (isn't it odd that we go straight from giving God thanks for all He has given us at Thanksgiving right into making our lists of what we want for Christmas?).
There are a lot of interesting perspectives out there on how Christmas should be celebrated (some of them admirable, some fanatical, some just sad). It's important to spend time with those you love (it'll be our first Christmas away from family--it's going to be hard); and spend time loving others. However you celebrate Christmas (or St. Nicholas Day), may you experience the fullness of God's love for you through His Son, Jesus Christ.
3 comments:
Yay Dave & Beth! I love what you are doing and support you wholeheartedly! Thanks for yet again being a wonderful example to all of us and for sharing your views so we can learn!
Dave,
I also have struggled a bit with the whole Christmas/Santa Claus thing. I remember the joys of Christmas morning, opening presents and such, and yet I am now disgusted by the commercial side of things. We're not at a point of decision yet as Bronte isn't old enough this Christmas for it to really matter, but we also definitely want to see less presents.
But this becomes hard when you're away from family as grandparents often want to send all sorts of cute stuff. So how do we tell them that we're interested in scaling back?
And then, there's the importance of coming up with our own Christmas traditions that will make the season as exciting for our children as it was for us. I like your celebration of the feastday of St. Nick. I'm big into finding ways to focus on Advent (like with a traveling Mary and Joseph who move around the house on their way to the stable, when they get there then the magi will begin their trek in order to arrive on Epiphany). Of course, the Christmas worship service is important. But as a pastor, how do I make this worship special for my child when worship is so often going to be for her, daddy is up there doing things for everybody else?
A lot of questions and not many good answers. But it's an interesting struggle.
Hope you continue to have a blessed Advent.
By the way, I was talking with your mom about presents and Christmas and she told me that we should do what they did for you. They just wrapped the same ball year after year for Christmas and you never knew the difference. Oops, was I supposed to tell you that?
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