Me: Why do we celebrate Christmas, Finley?
The Lady; Because when it’s Christmastime, we have Christmas!
Me: No, I mean whose birthday is it?
The Lady: Umm… (suddenly, exultantly) Santa’s!!!!!
This is an even funnier story considering the fact that we don’t even “do” Santa around here. For lots of reasons I can explain another time, Santa was placed in the same category as Frosty in our house: a fun story, a cute cartoon, and a sweet game of make-believe.
So basically, the little girl who has never sat on Santa’s lap, never written a letter to him, and has never been told he is bringing her one tiny present, thinks that Christmas is Santa’s birthday.
If this had happened with our first-born, we probably would have broken out the holy oil and prayed the devil right off of the poor heathen.
But, we have a few years of experience to draw from, and so Mr. Fantastic and I looked our little Christmas angel in the eye and delighted in her sweet enthusiasm.
We know that a month of Advent alone can’t make our children love God more.
A month of reading Luke 2 won’t make the gospel more real to her.
Four weeks of drilling her with scriptures wouldn’t make up for our error if we had neglected the Bible in the previous forty-eight weeks.
In one way or another we tell our children every day that God loves them, He died for them, and gave them the gift of grace freely.
Advent readings and plans, Luke 2, Isaiah 9, they are all a part of our lives at Christmas and all the rest of the year, too.
You can’t pin the gospel on your family any way other than to live it out every day.
Don’t worry if your kids don’t “get” that Christ is the center of Christmas perfectly this year.
Don’t be stressed if your advent readings fall behind a bit.
If Christ is the center of your family for the other eleven months, your children will understand His proper place in Christmas.
Making much of Christmas highlights who Jesus has been in our lives all year long.
There are lots of ways to make Christmas special that don’t all require Martha Stewart’s skills, Oprah’s favorite things, or a sleigh full of money.
Love your children. Kiss your spouse. Pray for them. Read to the little ones. Let the big kids read to you. Play games, sing songs, go look at lights, drink hot cocoa, call Grandparents on FaceTime and show them your crooked tree with ornaments that don’t match.
Like we say in Texas, It’s Christmas, y’all!
Jesus was born. According to my daughter, Santa was too. Let’s celebrate!
