My Christmas Mission: to Shift the Focus Back to Christ this Christmas
Changing our shift this Christmas back to Christ with simple and easy changes and how we are improving our education on Saint Nicholas
If you know me, then you know that I am a huge sucker for the magic of Christmas. My tree goes up before Thanksgiving, I binge watch Hallmark movies and I Christmas Carol it up for about two months.
But as a Christian mother, last year I felt a stirring in my heart that I could be doing better. For some reason suddenly, the magic of Santa Claus, had almost become worrisome to me. There was a constant battle internally of “lying” to my children to keep up with their questions and a constant focus on Santa. Despite my often reminders to my children that Christmas was indeed about Jesus Christ, I realized we were also discussing the jolly man quite a bit.
After a recent and brief conversation with our priest, I was reminded of how wonderful Saint Nicholas was. To be honest somehow growing up I missed all the details on him. I suppose this is what happens when you’re a young child only concerned with presents and magic. Somehow the details of his placement in Catholicism and the good deeds he did passed me by.
After some research I’ve been able to understand that Saint Nicholas is truly a wonderful thing to continue on with my children but I do believe that in our home we can make some small changes to reset our focus back to Christ and to also learn just who St. Nick really was. In other words, I believe we can shift our focus off of Santa a tad, reset it back to Christ and in the process learn more about Saint Nicholas.
Below are some ways to change our shift this year with new traditions and activities. Nothing major, but simple changes that over time can make the “magic” more about the true meaning. Feel free to join me if you feel called to do the same!
My Christmas Mission: to Shift the Focus Back to Christ This Christmas
Don’t use Santa within discipline. I’ve always felt this was a no-no, but like many parents, I’ve surely used it. In fact, I think I did just last week in a fit of annoyance. As parents I feel we can totally do better with this. Good behavior should be coming from good parenting and respectful children, not from a constant threat to tell Santa or setting up Santa cams.
Teach our children about Saint Nicholas and how this transformed him into Santa Claus later on. As I grow in this process, I’m trying to educate myself on who Saint Nicholas was. A giving man who interceded for Jesus Christ - giving to those in need and later became a Bishop. I think it’s important to connect the ties of St. Nick to Jesus and the saints, so our children realize that in a sense, he’s always “working for Jesus.” While overtime Saint Nicholas has evolved to Santa Claus and the date of his celebration changed from December 6 to Christmas Day, the background and groundwork for the story remains the same. “Santa Claus represents the boundless love of God and the spirit of goodness and generosity that surrounds us, especially as we prepare to celebrate Christmas. He teaches us that we are surrounded by good spirits who watch over us. This can be a basis for children to understand the Communion of Saints.” Saint Nicholas defended Jesus Christ repeatedly and was even imprisoned for his faith. The feast day of Saint Nicholas is December 6, the day of his death (another day you could celebrate with your children).
Use a Christian alternative to Elf on the Shelf or work with what you have. I’ve been researching for a couple of weeks now to learn that there are multiple Christian alternatives to Elf on the Shelf. They follow the same fun - moving overnight for kids to find the next morning. But instead of the emphasis being on Santa and good vs bad, these alternatives are typically on the search for Jesus. However if you’re like me and your family already has a beloved elf, you can’t just toss the elf. But you can change up his habits, traditions, and purpose. Your elf can search for Jesus with Shepherd on the Search; he can bring a new advent card daily; write a new scripture daily; move the Star from Afar daily and more. I wish as a young mother I had known there were alternatives (although truthfully these may not have existed six years ago) but now I know.
Make Santa less of the focus by bringing down the hype. I’m an organizer and planner. I start asking for Santa wishlists around late October to start making my lists and getting a good idea because I shop for everything online and at once usually. Because of this habit, the name Santa comes up often because well, “Santa” wants to get it right. There’s so much hype around Santa and while I believe a little is still fun and jolly, the more we focus on him and his gifts the less we remember the true gift. For me personally, this is a huge area of improvement. I know I can personally do better to bring down the hype and shift the focus from Santa and what he does.
Create fun traditions with the family. We decided a couple of years ago that we didn’t want to run the roads on Christmas day. We wanted more home based traditions and one of those was to bake a birthday cake for Jesus and sing him Happy Birthday. There are so many fun traditions you can incorporate into Christmas. Visit a Nativity play, watch Christian Christmas movies such as the Star or Angela’s Christmas on Netflix, purchase a Nativity scene that the kids can move around and play with (unlike your vintage one from your grandmother), celebrate advent, make sure your home has decor that reflects Jesus Christ and not just Santa and reindeer, have a special Christmas story book to read each year and so on. There are countless ways to do this! Even a simple Pinterest craft or color sheet is a great place to start.
Search for a Bible box this Christmas. Last December was our first bible box from Hello Bible and the lessons, story and activities were perfect for Christmas. You can read more about them here. There is also Kids Faith Crate and Catholic Crate.
Santa can give Christian gifts. Our children have been asking for a plush Jesus and Mary that they recently seen at a Christian store, so this year Santa is filling their stockings with those as well as Proverb books for kids. Tying faith and Santa together within your gift giving is added fun!
Give like the wise men. When I was growing up I received three gifts from my parents and three from Santa (and a stocking full). The emphasis was on the three and it wasn’t until later in life I realized my parents did this because Jesus received three gifts from the wise men. In a time where many parents are trying to cut down on the amount of toys and gifts their children receive, consider sticking to this fun tradition. We started it with my daughter’s second Christmas and I have enjoyed it since. In fact, my oldest knows why Santa only leaves out three presents for them. It is a simple lesson to remind them of the true Christmas story.
I’m sure there are many more ways you can bring Christ back into Christmas. I think that no matter what we do, the odds of commercialism and modern culture are always pushing against us - therefore I think we can ALWAYS do more.
If this is something you feel like you need to improve on just like I do, then take it in baby steps. Figure out what easy fixes you can make and how to incorporate more into the season. It’s not about not enjoying the magic of Santa, reindeer and cute little elves - but understanding that those things are just extra “fun” and not where the emphasis should be.
I hope that no matter what, your Christmas season this year is a holly, jolly and blessed one! Feel free to drop a comment with me to let me know of some of our Christian traditions or what you plan to incorporate more of this season! I can’t wait to hear all about!
Advent Devotional // Advent Story Book // Jesse Tree // Magnetic Jesse Tree // Shepherd’s Treasure // Shepherd on the Search // Advent Cards // Star from Afar Elf Alternative // Nativity Set // God Gave Us Christmas // Jesus Calling / Saint Nicholas // The true Story of St. Nicholas // Angela’s Christmas
For a full list of books, movies, songs and more on Christ centered activities for Christmas, visit here.