After much inner-turmoil, considering others' advice, and listening to Josh's perspective, we've decided to let the childhood continue. The deciding factor was Josh's response to my previous post: "DON'T DO IT! PLEASE!"
When Josh was growing up, Christmas was a very stressful time of year. To the extent that he didn't like Christmas. I know you're thinking, "What???? That can't be!!!" And I had no idea until a few days before our first Christmas after we were married. We had gotten a tag to go cut down our own Christmas tree. Unfortunately, Josh had been in a sledding accident just prior to our tree search and had a broken tailbone (although we didn't know it was broken at the time) and after a miserable trek through the woods, we returned to our little home with our tree. Josh was tired and we were bickering, so he went to bed. I tried to wake him so we could decorate our tree together, but he didn't want to get up. I was pretty upset because Christmas is definitely my favorite time of the year. I love the smell of the fireplaces, the Christmas goodies, the spirit of giving, the love and laughter of family and friends, the Hershey's Kisses bells commercial, and of course the celebration of the birth of our Savior. Every single bit of Christmas makes me happy. So when Josh wanted to sleep instead of decorate with me, I didn't understand it.
I later learned that Josh was trying to avoid the stress and arguing he usually associated with Christmas. I promptly taught him that he had the wrong attitude and we needed to have a wonderful Christmas together. Slowly, every year Josh came around a little more and then a little more.
Now my husband loves Christmas almost as much as I do. And for him to want our children to believe in Santa longer means something to me. Christmas is the time of miracles. We take the lessons that Jesus taught us and amplify them. We love, we give, we remember the importance of our family, we spend as much together as we possibly can. We won't do our usual bundling up and running through the blizzard outside to get to and from the car, but maybe it'll cool enough for us to drink hot chocolate and not die of a heat stroke. We'll let the Spirit of Christmas live in our home. And I love Pam's advice of "If you don't believe, you don't receive." I remember being told something like that growing up. Because we all need to believe. Believe in the miracles, believe in the goodness of Santa, believe in the happiness that accompanies this time of year.
So, yes, Virginia--I mean Emma, there is a Santa Claus!
2 comments:
Yay! I'm so glad that was your decision! It's fun to see the excitement grow as the kids await Christmas! And being Santa's helper has it's perks too!! ;)
This story made me cry! My husband is the most passionate person about Christmas and he will argue with anyone that Santa exists. Sierra wanted a DS and a four-wheeler last year. I expressed my concern about it to her, but she still asked. When it came down to it--she didn't get either and she was totally fine. I worried about the let down, but kids have to learn sometime that they can't have everything. I like to cite the Polar Express and the kid who asked for everything and all he could find in Santa's bag was underwear. Spread the joy of making others happy and she will get over it (I think :)). Loves and Christmas wishes....
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