Right off the bat, I am going to take a stand and say I do not celebrate the religious aspect of the holiday. For many reasons. I am not religious and do not pretend to be for the holidays. Not to mention if you really research the history of Christmas (and not use the Bible in your bibliography) you will find it truly has very little religious roots unless you are Pagan.
I am the girl who is out shopping Black Friday for the best deals. Who starts playing Christmas music in October. Who makes lists and checks them twice....or two hundred times. I make sure that my kids see all the classics (Rudolph, Peanuts, Garfield Christmas, etc) and we make a big deal out of decorating the tree. We drive around looking at lights and go to see Santa. I try as hard as possible to make this a magical time of year. Because every childhood deserves some magic.
What gets me is when people question my values. Make comments about celebrating Christmas even though I am not Christian. Make comments about how much I buy or spend. About how it should be less about the gifts. First of all if you are religious, I respect that. If you believe you are celebrating the birth of baby Jesus, I support that. If you choose to not spend lots of money on material gifts, I give you props. As long as you don't try to tell me I am wrong. If you have mutual respect, so do I.
There is so much cruelty out in the world. I just read a story about a little girl whose father and stepmother went to prison for keeping her chained to a dresser and now a year later, in her mother's custody she was just found dead. She was 6. SIX. Her life was filled with horror and hell. There are children sleeping in cars and sometimes even the streets. There are children forced into sex traficking and there are children who suffer unimaginable abuse. So please don't ever try to question my decision to bend over backwards to make this a special time for my kids.
Christmas to me is about celebrating family and friends. Teaching about giving and charity. It is about celebrating winter and the end of another year of life together. It is about appreciating this moment in time and making it bright and jolly and joyful. There is nothing commercialized about that.
I find nothing wrong in letting my children believe in Santa, a true symbol of childhood and believing. I would get so excited waiting for Santa to come, I couldn't sleep. One time I was so sleep deprived that I got sick and had to be hospitalized. Out of sheer excitement. My sister and I would "practice" how we were to get up Christmas morning. We would rip out of our beds at 4am and just gaze in amazement of that tree, sparkling with lights and ornaments as it towered over piles of gifts for us. I know my parents had to have some financial hardships raising us, but you never knew it on Christmas Day. I remember Christmas Eve going down to play with all my cousins at my grandmothers and stuff ourselves on snack foods. Baking Christmas cookies with our Mom. Driving around to look at all the Christmas lights and on the way home from Grandma's watching the sky under our Dad's guidance for a sleigh and 8 tiny reindeer.
Now, my children sleep til 7am and usually it's me pouncing on them at that point to wake them up. We gather round the tree and someone passes out gifts. I could care less about opening mine because my favorite part of Christmas is watching them open their gifts, squeal with excitement and for just maybe a moment not feel one ounce of worry or any other emotion other than joy. I am beyond fortunate to be able to do what I do for my family and no one should be made to feel bad for about how they decide to celebrate the holidays, or for what reason they do so.
I love it all. The decorations. The carols and music. The get togethers. The glow of lights through a velvet black night. Wrapping paper and bows. Trees and garland. Polar Express and Rudolph. Hot cocoa and sugar cookies. Santa and his elves. Stockings hung with care. Family and friends. Sales and lists. I love it all. Maybe I enjoy the sheer commercialism of it all. But there was a reason that people read Charles Dickens' A Christmas Story and wanted to reenact the Christmas get togethers depicted in the story. Because in a world that can be very cruel, it's nice to have one day a year to focus on love, joy and giving.
So yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus in our home. And there is a Christmas without religion. And there is hope, happiness, laughter and sooo much love. There is magic and there is belief. There is childhood. You'd be hard pressed to find someone who has as much Christmas spirit as me. I know you know what is the right way to raise your children. So do I. So don't ever question my beliefs, traiditions or methods to raising my babies. Because someone will get run over by a reindeer.
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