Yuletide Cheer: No Santa Claus Allowed
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Posted by Dame Judy (Follow Me)- Dame Judy is a mother of one, living with her husband in Fredricksburg, VA. - To see more posts by this author click here |
I love Christmas. It’s a time for family, food, special traditions and love. I was raised in a very strict Catholic household and Christmas was ALWAYS about baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph and of course, the Three Wise Men. That being said, Santa Claus is NOT welcome in my house.
My son J is turning three in January, so my husband and I have had two Christmases to try things out and establish our family traditions. The one thing we knew even before J was born was that Christmas was going to be focused on my Catholic beliefs. My husband was not raised in a religious home, and even though they believe in Jesus, Santa always made an appearance in his house. Two of his sisters are young enough to still believe in the bearded guy, so it was a bit shocking for my mother-in-law to find out that we had decided that J was not going to believe in Santa. She wanted J to have the same traditions that my husband and his siblings had. You know the drill; write a list to Santa, make sure you are a good kid so you get the items on your list, put cookies and milk out for him, go to bed early, and wake up Christmas morning to a mountain of gifts. Yeah, cute, but where is little baby Jesus in this? It is his birthday after all.
My brother-in law and sister-in-law have mentioned that J is going to miss out and be the mean kid at school who tells his classmates that there is no Santa. It used to be a hot topic conversation in with them, but they managed to come to terms with my “Grinch” attitude. I honestly don’t remember ever feeling like we missed out on something “special”. What I do remember is my 3rd grade teacher’s face when she asked what Santa had brought for me. In my broken ESL English, I think I told her we don’t believe in Santa. That was the end of that conversation, lest some classmate heard such blasphemy and then run home to ask mommy if Santa is really real!
My family’s Christmas traditions are very important to me and I am really proud of them. Being Catholic, we naturally have a nativity scene under our Christmas tree. But also being Salvadoran (I was born in El Salvador); we have the custom of NOT displaying the baby Jesus figurine until Christmas Day. We start our celebration with a big family dinner party Christmas Eve. Now, mind you, when I say family, I mean my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and all of my cousins. We share yummy Salvadoran food and pass the time together until midnight. That’s when we bring out the baby Jesus figurine and we say a prayer and then we tear into the presents. It’s a busy night and we usually don’t go to sleep until two or three in the morning.Then on Christmas morning, we sleep in and attend Mass around noon. That is how we used to do it in El Salvador, that’s how we do it now, and that’s how it will always be done in our house.
Granted, we do have little Santa Claus figurines and ornaments around the house. I don’t completely hate the guy. We sing Santa songs with J because he learned them at school. I’m not completely excluding “the bearded one” from my son’s life. I will include him next year when we read the story of the real Santa Claus, good old St. Nicholas. But until then, no Santa allowed. Sorry, Rudolph, that means you too…udothedishes.
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It was just a bit shocking that you were doing that. Specially after Will being a huge santa believer. Having said that….he is your child and you both raise him however you both see fit. Im just glad I dont have to spend a lot more for him to have gifts from santa and gosh from me too…lol….I cant wait to hear how he likes my gifts this year….I CANT WAIT!!!!!
I think that your beliefs are just that. And if Santa isn’t welcomed then that’s cool too! I never think it’s bad to be different and being catholic myself, our traditions out weigh a fictional character, that one day will grow to know doesn’t really exsist anyway.
Awesome I love your writing!!! Write on!
I think that the whole idea of Christmas has turned into a terrible tradition of guilt and debt for most people. I’m personally happy that you chose to not include Santa as the gift giver.
Paraphrasing a great man named Kat Williams, “Daddy paid for that X-box, that’s why his ass ain’t home all day and you wonder why he’s gone all the time. He’s making money so you can put food in your belly and have nice things. I’ll be dammed if I’ma let a fat imaginary man steal my thunder.
Plus lying to your kids is a terrible practice no matter what the jig. Some say it is to help kids keep their imagination, well don’t worry, school will kill that soon enough.
There is really no point to the concept of today’s Santa Clause except to create an industry for economic boom. My kids will celebrate Festivus. We will emphasize family and love, not materialism and deception.
Off Soap Box.
Ah, what’s better than the Festivus Airing of Grievances:
“I’ve got a lot of problems with you people, and now you’re going to hear about it!”
RoRo, the most important gift you can give J is your love! I love you bro-in-law!!
and John, I LOVE KAT WILLIAMS: “I’ll be dammed if I’ma let a fat imaginary man steal my thunder”—AMEN!
“FESTIVUS FOR THE REST OF US!!” lol
christmas was pagan holiday for the romans, until they adopted christianity and made it the jesus story, and now its the commerical holiday. so all of it is BOOTY LEG
I grew up in Russia, and being Jewish, we’ve never obviously celebrated xmas. Instead, we had an evergreen tree with decorations and presents under the tree and Father Frost came with presents on the eve of New Year.
It might be interesting to see the interaction b/w J and his friends when he tells him that Santa doesn’t exist
to each their own…I love that your family comes together for the christmas celebration and I wish my family was as close other than my immediate.
I’ve grown up catholic and celebrated both jesus’s birth and santa’s gift giving not to mention being last kid on the block to admit to the easterbunny/santa myth. Couldn’t we make the same claim to the birth of Jesus and the stories within the bible? I’m not making a religious claim I just want to point out that these celebrations are just that. A time to bring family together and really appreciate one another and all of our blessings.
Why have a child grow up too soon? If they can believe in flying reindeers for a few years why spoil the fun. They’ll grow up soon enough. Teach your children about hard work and the value of a dollar so they can appreciate their gifts. naughty you get nothing and nice you get gifts…great lessons to be learned.
Enjoy the cold silver pole that is festivus…
“naughty you get nothing and nice you get gifts…great lessons to be learned. ”
I disagree with this Lesson. Why should we teach children that the only reason to be good is for rewards. Although I am non-religious, i grew up catholic and know that the teachings of Jesus are directly contradictory to that lesson. His message was one of being a loving and nice person because it’s the right thing to do, not because of the rewards that follow.
Also a terrible part of the Santa and gifts, is a young child comparing what he got to what his friends got. How is a young child supposed to understand why Santa only gave him a basic cheap MP3 player and his next door neighbor got an I-POD? This kid will grow up to dislike Santa. Or feel like he isn’t good enough to deserve the nicer things.
How bout poor families who can’t afford a lot of gifts. The children get one present, then see their friends got tons of new toys. How is a child to understand what it means? He won’t understand the socioeconomic influences in his gifts. Again, association of inadequacy and angst towards the notion of Santa Clause.
As adults we see the “no Harm” doctrine in traditions like these. I disagree. Setting up a foundation of material hierarchy, and expectation from a mythical person is a detriment.
Kids have a wild imagination and live inside their unique minds for many years without any help from adults. Why do we feel that we have to encourage their development to adopt our grown-up notice of what a healthy imagination is.
Maybe Al Gore is using it as a ploy to want all young people to keep the north pole from melting in order to save Santa.
John: “Setting up a foundation of material hierarchy, and expectation from a mythical person is a detriment.”—-My point exactly. I feel that its all too materialistic. Growing up in El Salvador, I would only receive gifts from my parents, who where here in Virginia. My neighborhood was poor and yet we managed to have an amazing time during Christmas. It was all about family, friends, and being together. Thats why its so important to me to keep this tradition alive.
And Edwin, you know you love the way we do it. It was so great to go up to Tio Jorge, my mom, Tia Sonia or your dad and be able to thank them for their presents. They got an immediate “thank you” with hugs and kisses. You know you will teach that to your kids! And since I’m the oldest, and the holiday hosting will be passed down to me, I’ll be damned if your kids come over and expect to be getting gifts from Santa. Hellz no, son! Not at Tia Judy’s house! J is gonna tell ‘em whats up! LOL!
Thank you Olga for sharing your (Jewish) Christmas traditions. I actually would love to hear how (or what) everyone celebrates during Yuletide season. Please share!!