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Christmas goodness December 6, 2006

Posted by spacemom in : Kids, Religion , 5 comments

On Sunday, I took the girls to a kid movie place. We saw "Noddy
saves Christmas" and "Candyland". They love Noddy (G-d knows why) and
so I thought they would like it. Candyland got a little too scary, so
we left before it ended. Then the questions started.

Soleil: Mommy? Why doesn’t Santa visit us?
SM: We’re Jewish. Santa is only for Christians.

Soleil: But everyone in toyland got toys and Santa visited everyone there.

SM: Maybe they were all Christians.
Soleil: Mommy? Santa said only good people get presents. Does this mean Jewish people are bad?

SM:(oh boy!) No honey, Santa only visits Christian people.

Soleil:So Jewish people are not good?

Oy!
I finally let her onto the SUPER TOP SECRET that Santa is not real. But
that her Christian friends believe he is real and we can’t spoil the
secret. I explained how Christmas is a birthday for one very important
person to Christians. And Santa really doesn’t have much to do with the
very important person’s birthday, but it is a good way to give presents.
We talked alot about how it was SUPER TOP SECRET.

I can’t believe she associated that if you don’t get a visit from Santa, you are bad with all Jews are bad…

But then again, I have trouble with the whole Santa thing anyway. Okay, so to celebrate Jesus’s birthday, you have a fat guy give you presents based on your behavior? Huh? And it’s a myth anyway, but it’s okay for your parents to lie to you about this, but you can’t lie about eating that last piece of candy? You see my difficulties, no?

How do Christian parents deal with Santa and the birth of Jesus? Really? I am curious. Do you tell your children the good and naughty crap? Yet we are all good and bad, so shouldn’t we all not get presents? And is this about gifts? Or about the gift of Jesus?

So far, Soleil has agreed to the super top secret. She even agreed when one friend said Santa was real. I am now waiting for the question of "Mommy, I am lying when I say Santa is real. Isn’t that bad?" And we will discuss when lying is and isn’t okay (a grey grey line indeed, but something that IS okay in Judaism).