Be good for goodness sake

This has been an interesting holiday season for me. Christmas came and went by very quickly. It seemed like yesterday we were trying to figure out what to eat for Thanksgiving dinner, and voila! Christmas was here and then gone.

Aside from how quickly the joyous time of year passed, my reflection of the glorious day is less than admirable. I was a victim to the commercialization of Christmas, and not by choice. Since I have children, there was pressure on all sides to make this holiday about one thing: Santa.

Is Santa coming to your house? What did you ask Santa to bring you for Christmas? Are you being good...for Santa?

We place very little emphasis on Santa in our home. There are many reasons for this parenting decision. I'm not the Grinch and I'm not trying to squelch the imagination of my children. Instead, we have intentionally decided to simply make Santa a part of Christmas - a small part, mind you - and not the central figure and/or focus. Somehow, our good intentions were thwarted by others insisting that Santa IS Christmas.

Together, Liz and I had been teaching our oldest son how to approach Christmas with a healthy perspective, however, he went to bed on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day night with very little appreciation for what he had received and he wasn't satisfied. It was an ugly side of him that we were both appalled by. It was almost like he had been told by everyone that he was entitled to an abundance of gifts because everyone told him he was. He was a brat. And I blame Santa.

We had been building up "Jesus' Birthday" for weeks and we were really excited to celebrate it with Him. We had the party, but unfortunately, it turned out that Jesus wasn't even invited. Santa was, though, and he took Jesus' seat. Not only was Jesus kicked out, but many of his unique qualities were bestowed upon the man with the white beard - figuratively and literally - omnipotent, omnipresent, all-knowing, etc. When Jesus was born over 2,000 years ago, there was no room for him. It seems like things haven't changed.

Santa is watching you. You better be good or Santa won't come.

What ever happened to be good for goodness sake? That's what the Santa anthem says. That message wasn't communicated to my kids. They were told to be good or Santa wouldn't come. It was a bribe. In the end, Santa didn't come anyways. Isaiah didn't want him to. As he was falling asleep, he asked for Mommy and Daddy to come into his room. He insisted that we call Santa and tell him not to come because he was afraid of the idea of someone coming into our house while he was sleeping. I can't blame him. I don't want him around, either.