I don’t get it.

Not “santa” or “Christmas gifts” or “celebrating christmas”.  I don’t get all the people- mostly Christians- who are coming out and saying they are not teaching their kids about Santa or giving their kids gifts or whatnot because they want to get back to “the real reason for the season”.

Now, I’m a Christian, so I suppose I’m shooting myself in the foot here.  I totally think that the reason we celebrate Christmas is because of Jesus’ miraculous birth.  However, I do not think that there is any Biblical basis for not giving gifts.  I enjoy giving gifts.  I give gifts to friends and family who I love dearly.

And I’m even more amused by the people who are trying to shelter their children from the “evils” of Santa Claus.  My parents told us about Santa Claus when I was a child.  Every Christmas eve, I laid out milk and cookies on the fireplace.  From a pretty early age, I figured out that Santa wasn’t real.  I’m not sure how- maybe it was because I saw my mother buying the same “gifts” that Santa gave me, or maybe it was because Santa wrote my name on the gift tags the exact same way as my mother.  But it wasn’t a big deal.  We still, today, “play” Santa.  We still put out milk and cookies (and then eat them later!).  We still sign gift tags as Santa (though we usually can recognize each other’s handwriting).

I can get it if parents tell their kids, maybe, Santa isn’t real but he is this game that we play around Christmas time.  But I don’t think there is anything intrinsically evil about Santa, and in fact there is quite a bit of wonderful history in the story of the real Saint Nicolas.  Celebrate Christmas, and have a great time doing it.

And with this Christmas wish is missed
The point I could convey
If only I could find the words to say to let You know how much You’ve touched my life
Because here is where You’re finding me, in the exact same place as New Year’s eve
And from a lack of my persistency
We’re less than half as close as I want to be

And the first time
That You opened Your eyes did You realize that You would be my Savior
And the first breath that left Your lips
Did You know that it would change this world forever

And so this Christmas I’ll compare the things I felt in prior years
To what this midnight made so clear
That You have come to meet me here

To look back and think that
This baby would one day save me
In the hope that what You did
That you were born so I might live
To look back and think that
This baby would one day save me

And I, I celebrate the day
That You were born to die
So I could one day pray for You to save my life