The Sixth Post of Christmas: Saints and Santa

At Christmas time, inevitably someone will ask me what our family "does about Santa." Our Santa policy evolved over time and quite unintentionally, I must admit. Our eldest, Ethan, never really took to the idea of a strange man entering our house through the chimney in the middle of the night--a little too much like robbers, I think. So, to avoid traumatizing him, we quickly fessed up to the entire myth and very clearly told him that Santa did not exist. (Sorry to spoil it for you!)

Subsequently, we began to explain how the popular version of Santa grew out of stories involving a saint in real life, Saint Nicholas, who is celebrated for his devotion to God and generosity to the poor, and whose life is commemorated on December 6th--St. Nicholas Day. To enjoy some of the Santa-like "magic and mystery" surrounding St. Nicholas, we began leaving the kids' shoes out under the tree on St. Nicholas Eve to be filled with little goodies while they slept. While Ethan never did buy into this charade, he does enjoy receiving a few little gifts.

The gifts usually include a small Christmas activity to keep little hands busy (Christmas stickers, coloring books, etc.) and gold foil-wrapped chocolate coins--a reminder of St. Nicholas' generosity. As one story has it, he tossed a bag of coins through the window of a poor family to provide a dowry for a young girl. The coins landed in her stocking hanging by the fire.

After the children receive their goodies, we read a little about St. Nicholas and make care-packages for the people who stop by our house needing help with food or clothes. Here in this huge city, we probably have two or three people a week who ring our doorbell seeking assistance. Our care packages usually include rice, beans, non-perishable foods, a tract sharing the gospel in Portuguese, and a little something special for Christmas if possible--cookies, panettone, or chocolate.


And that's about it for Santa at our house. We sing the Santa songs, enjoy the old holiday TV classics, and sometimes make a Santa craft, but he doesn't show up at our celebration on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. I'm not suggesting that this is the right way or the only way to "do Santa," it's just our way.