Santa

So, last year before Christmas, we kept reminding Cal that Santa was not real. We didn't want to celebrate Santa for these reasons:
1. Santa really isn't real (gasp).
2. We wanted the focus of the holiday to be on Jesus' birth and what his God-man life means to us, as believers.
3. We didn't want some bogus fairytale man to get all the credit for the presents (yeah, selfish, I know).
4. We didn't want our kids to be devastated when they found out the truth.

This year, however, I haven't told Calvin that Santa is not real. Although he does not come to our house, we just don't really talk about him. They got to see Santa at the mall, but we decided not to really mention him for these reasons.

1. We didn't want him to tell all of our friends' kids who believe in a bogus fairytale man (you know who you are).
2. We don't remind him all year long that Micky, Frosty and Barney aren't real.
3. We are trying hard enough to get the focus off of presents (for me, especially).

Today, on the way home, Cal yelled, "Guess what?! God is like Santa! God gives us presents, too!" I was speechless and didn't know how to respond, but my husband calmly replied, "No, Calvin. Santa is like God. Santa is a story that shows us how good God is to us and how people can do good to eachother."

I'm not sure if Eric read that somewhere, but I was impressed by his response. I like him.