Day 21: The Santa-conomy

We never made a big deal of Santa at our home. Yes, he "came," but he only ever brought one gift per child, and it was generally understood that we paid Santa for those gifts. Maybe it was our way of justifying the fact that he brought so little to our kids when their friends made a Santa haul. Don't get me wrong -- our kids had plenty for Christmas -- but the petty part of me wanted us to get the credit, not a fictional character.

I sometimes think about the weird Santa-conomy in our society, where everything revolves around getting stuff, and teaches that "he knows if you've been bad or good," and that he'll come to your home on one condition -- IF you've been good. Therefore, when parents have little or no resources to buy gifts for Christmas, the logical conclusion is not "Mommy doesn't have much money," (since Mommy isn't bringing the presents) but "I'm no good." It makes me kind of sick to think about that.

And while we're on the topic of fictional characters, I have to add my two cents about the Easter Bunny. While I get the correlation between giving gifts and the birth of Christ, I just can't do the same for the resurrection. And so the Easter bunny has not been part of our family traditions at all. My kids complained about the awkward moments when their friends would ask,  "What did you get for Easter?" I told them, "Just say, 'I got redemption, and the gift of life eternal." Their response was to roll their eyes and claim they'd be scarred for life.

I've been thinking about all this again, and I coincidentally received an email yesterday from Marilyn, in Idaho. She and her husband never led their children to believe in Santa Claus, but let them in on "the secret," and instructed them not to ruin it for others.

Marilyn's motivation for doing this was different than ours. she wrote, "Parents teach their children to believe in many things, and one by one they admit to them in later years that each of these fantastic characters they have believed in wholeheartedly are not real. A myth and pretend. Some children are devastated, almost all are disappointed."

So Marilyn's parents, and subsequently she and her husband, decided they wanted their children to be very clear about what was real and what was not, so that they would "never have reason to doubt their parents when they bore testimony of God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ."

I have a close friend who believes that Marilyn's approach is the only safe one, because basically, she says, everything else is a lie. And she would rather not lie to her children.

What do you think? Is this a legit concern, or do we just need to lighten up?