What about Santa?

Several people have asked me what to do about Santa. That is totally a family decision. We are still trying to figure it out ourselves. My husband and I spoke a lot about this very topic. We did not want our children to "be nice" because elves or Santa were watching. We wanted them to be nice because that is what the Lord calls us to do. "Be kind to everyone." 2 Tim 2:24 We also did not want to feed them a lie... to teach them to believe in something and then someday find out that that very something wasn't all the way true. We thought about the impact that might have on our eternal perspective, their understanding of God. After all, God, although we cant always see Him, he is still there. We did not want to cause any confusion. So we stuck to the basics, the facts. 

Thus far, we have explained that there was a nice man named Saint Nick and people called him Santa Clause. He brought gifts to kids a long time ago. Some people still think he gives gifts but in our family on Christmas we give gifts to celebrate Jesus' birthday. 

Fast forward to this week when I took my son to the mall:

Me- "Look O, there is that man, remember, Santa Clause?" (I am thinking this is going to be a great reflective moment in his life...)

O- "Who is that?"
Me - "That is a nice man named Santa Clause."
O- "No Mommy, that is a fire fighter."
Me - "O, he is dressed in red, but he is Santa."
O-"He is weird."