The Truth

As you can tell from my last post, I've been having some "issues" with Christmas this year. I've been noticing more and more how much society has made Christmas about buying things and Santa Claus. Don't get me wrong, I love to participate in all of the things "Christmas"....but the more I do that, the more my focus comes off of the real reason for Christmas. To be honest this has really been bothering me....all the movies about Santa's workshops, the children's school plays/programs about Santa and sugar plums....I decided that God is trying to tell me something. In my last post I mentioned my feeling of guilt over talking out of both sides of my mouth to my children....you know, I make the comments like "don't forget the real reason for Christmas". And, then I pack them up in the car and we go shopping for more gifts.

Today was my last Bible Study for the year and the children went on stage and sang two songs...one was "Happy Birthday (to Jesus)". Connor did not know the words to the first song but he was really belting out the Birthday song to Jesus. Something in that particular moment struck me. And, I decided it was time to tell Payton that there is no Santa Claus. I didn't want to have to keep up the balancing act between the birth of Christ and the man in the big red suit. And, I wanted to be the one to tell her. I wanted to honestly explain to her why WE celebrate Christmas. She sat without words for a little while and had a few tears in her eyes. I felt really terrible about bursting that bubble. But, it gave me the opportunity to explain to her that most people do not know or choose not to accept Jesus, so they have created Santa Claus to make the Christmas season joyous. We don't need any other reason than Jesus' birth to be filled with joy. After our talk, she smiled at me (still with a tear or two) and said, "I've been wondering about this whole thing a lot lately, Mommy." I took that as confirmation that I did what God wanted me to do.