Where Does Jesus Live?
When we were setting up the Christmas decorations on Friday (another tradition currently being test-driven: decorating the day after Thanksgiving) I pulled out our Nativity set and as we were setting it up Soren and I talked about each of the characters. Earlier in the week I had picked up a "story of Christmas" kind of book, so I took this opportunity to pull it out for the first time. We sat down and went through the story. He really liked it ("The angels have beautiful dresses.") but he got confused on the whole gift giving idea. The book says that we give gifts at Christmas because it is Jesus' birthday. He's been to birthday parties before and is pretty clear that the birthday person gets the gifts...not all the other people.
It was so much fun to watch his little mind working out the details. His biggest concern was where Jesus lives. (Obviously, we need to get there to bring him presents). I had a hard time answering that one "in your heart" felt too abstract for a 2 year old, and "in heaven" was a bit off.
It was a special moment deliberately introducing him to something so integral to our culture - the story of Jesus. Most stories like this are just part of something that we feel like we've always known. But there actually is a first time we really hear them.
We have yet to tackle how Santa Claus fits into the whole story (since he doesn't.) The whole Santa thing is pretty interesting. For the past few years Peter and I have discussed whether or not to "do the whole Santa thing" with Soren. Peter clearly remembers finding out that Santa wasn't real and feeling so misled. So we had talked about not really perpetuating that story. But the thing is, that Santa is real! I saw him at the mall just this weekend! It is interesting to see how I have just jumped into the "if you are good, maybe Santa will bring you that present" mind set. Oh well, I guess you can't be so deliberate about every little thing...hopefully he'll get a good therapist someday to get over it when he finds out that Santa isn't real.
As a sidenote, can I say that there are some really lousy Christmas books on the market? Most of the stories are too full of non-kid language but one of the books had all the characters looking like children. How confusing would that be? "Mom, is Mary 7 years old?"
It was so much fun to watch his little mind working out the details. His biggest concern was where Jesus lives. (Obviously, we need to get there to bring him presents). I had a hard time answering that one "in your heart" felt too abstract for a 2 year old, and "in heaven" was a bit off.
It was a special moment deliberately introducing him to something so integral to our culture - the story of Jesus. Most stories like this are just part of something that we feel like we've always known. But there actually is a first time we really hear them.
We have yet to tackle how Santa Claus fits into the whole story (since he doesn't.) The whole Santa thing is pretty interesting. For the past few years Peter and I have discussed whether or not to "do the whole Santa thing" with Soren. Peter clearly remembers finding out that Santa wasn't real and feeling so misled. So we had talked about not really perpetuating that story. But the thing is, that Santa is real! I saw him at the mall just this weekend! It is interesting to see how I have just jumped into the "if you are good, maybe Santa will bring you that present" mind set. Oh well, I guess you can't be so deliberate about every little thing...hopefully he'll get a good therapist someday to get over it when he finds out that Santa isn't real.
As a sidenote, can I say that there are some really lousy Christmas books on the market? Most of the stories are too full of non-kid language but one of the books had all the characters looking like children. How confusing would that be? "Mom, is Mary 7 years old?"
Hey - it is so great that you are asking the same questions I am...should we do Santa?...Are abstract answers to religious questions OK?..(Ex: Tootsie went to live with Jesus). BTW - when I was little I also did the "build up jesus' bed thing. I was always trying to do something nice so I could get a little piece of yarn.
ReplyDeleteWow, you guys should get together with Travis. Before we had kids he was almost adamant that we not have the kids believe in Santa. He'd say just move a few letters around and it would spell Satan! Well I quickly put that to rest. You can't have a childhood without Santa! That's the beauty of being a child. That make believe world out there. I did compromise though. We really down play the Santa thing. It's just not really talked about in our house much. I think you can have a Santa and teach them the real meaning of Christmas at the same time.
ReplyDeleteI think Santa is a fun Christmas tradition! I guess it really depends on how you feel when you find out it is not true. I still believe in Santa.
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