The Christmas Fraud

A friend of mine posted this on Facebook, and I just had to share it.

I just love homeschoolers! Just when you thought the world was going to become like Ingsoc from 1984, and people were becoming dumber and more dependent with each generation......BOOM! Homeschooling bursts onto the scene, to the eternal chagrin of the state. Now arises a new generation of independent thinkers who are slaves neither to tradition nor public opinion. This video is a hilarious and clever example of what homeschooling is all about. (watch it all the way to the end!)



On a more serious note, I don't get all upset about Santa Claus. I grew up waiting on Santa every Christmas Eve, and my parents still managed to instill in me a love for Christ and an appreciation for the true meaning of Christmas. Jason was raised the same way. We are both blessed with Godly Christian parents and were raised in loving, stable homes. Even so, we've tried to break any molds that we started out with and raise our children the way that the Lord would have us to do so. We've made many mistakes, had to backtrack many times, and we readily acknowledge that our own children will have many opportunities to do things differently, and no doubt better, by their own children.

Having said that, we actually tried Santa Claus one year when Caleb was a toddler. Maybe it's just my personality, but I honestly could not keep a straight face. I felt like the most ridiculous tale spinner around! Anyway, long story short, we just decided that it would just be too difficult to try to reconcile the tradition of Santa Claus and the birth of Christ as having anything to do with each other. I've posted before about what our Christmas looks like. (Here's a link to KK and Sis quoting Scripture 3 years ago).

After studying out the holiday traditions, we came to some conclusions. First of all, that the Easter Bunny and Halloween both are decidedly and ENTIRELY pagan, and our family would have no part in these holidays. The tradition of Saint Nicholas, from which our Santa Claus supposedly comes, seems to be a harmless tradition. Though the history is sketchy, he apparently was a kind, compassionate person who left surprise gifts for the poor. No problem.

However, I have to admit as I was laughing at the explanations these girls in the video above were giving about the impossibility of Santa knowing the thoughts and whereabouts of all children at all times, and about the fact that, as a man, he could not possibly still be alive, I got an uneasy feeling. Is Santa just a harmless tradition, or is he a creation of the jealous one (Satan....S-a-n-t-a, S-a-t-a-n....um, you can't overlook that) to cause children to love an omniscient, omnipresent, eternal, benevolent being other than the TRUE Omniscient, Omnipresent, Eternal, Benevolent Being Who is Jesus Christ?

I don't pretend to be perfect, and I know that there are many traditions of Christmas that are of questionable origin, and I AM NOT THE SANTA POLICE. I don't mean to come across as a Pharisee, and frankly, I just don't have time to worry about what anyone else does. Tara Stringer keeps me so busy and frustrated that I can't monitor the rest of the world. This is just a little food for thought for parents.

Merry Christmas!