Who is Santa?

Going with the Christian religion of Christmas and how we are celebrating Jesus being born and it is his birthday...How does Santa Clause tie into this all? The presents, I can see as gifts to give one another in relation to this being a birthday celebration and rejoicing the miracle of Jesus being born. The Chirstmas tree is of a Pine tree vs. some other trees, like an Oak tree, because it is a tree that has kept its leaves/needles all season and the other trees have all fallen bare. The pine tree is what is still full of life and still green in the dead of Winter. So the Christmas tree makes sense too. This holiday gets mixed up a lot between the Santa Clause version and the Baby Jesus being born version. The Commercialized Santa version usually dominates, and gets out of hand. It's so fitting that Santa Clause is in the Mall, as we are all starving for Christmas shopping and listening to the Christmas music for two months long, and drinking the Eggnog.

We took our daughter to the Mall to see Santa Clause and get the photo opp done. We are not eliminating the whole Santa Clause/Eggnog version at all. I love this part of the season. I just don't want to forget the importance of celebrating Jesus being born on Christmas Day as well.

The Nativity scene with Mary and Joeseph and a couple of farm animals all huddle around to see the baby Jesus. Their faces are lit up with pure joy and happiness of this miracle that they just witnessed. If a virgin girl, named Mary lived today in 2011 all of the sudden was pregnant and had a baby boy...people would not think of this as a miracle. People, today, would speculate that "Mary" drank a little too much one night, at a party, slept with some guy, and doesn't recall it. Then 9 months later is having the baby. BUT way back in BC times this other virgin, named Mary, becomes pregnant and it is called a miracle. I never really got that part of the story. But anyways, I DO believe that Jesus was born and that Mary IS his mother.

I also am curious with the stories of what Jesus was like growing up as a kid? Some how the Bible covers Jesus being born and then skips a couple of decades to when he is older as a young man and he then goes on the cross to die for our sins. I want to know the rest of the story and what he did between those two big moments... of being born and dieing on the cross...?

Back to Santa Clause, his name is Saint Nicolas and also Chris Kringle. There are many stories explaining his existence and the background is all covered in different movies from generation to generation. I enjoy the magical side to a child believing in Santa and all the fun times it will be watching our daughter grow up with that glimmer in her eye, and hopes to see reindeer in the sky on Christmas Eve.

I think I will continue to celebrate Christmas with both versions of Christmas intertwined to be able to celebrate it all. We can go to the church services on all 4 Sundays in December during the Advent calendar and learn of Jesus being born and at the same time we can decorate our pine tree and hang up stockings on the fire place. I will even do the photo opp at the mall and see Santa.

The funny part, is our daughter (she's 2 1/2) tells me that Santa lives in the mall, and goes to church too. That made perfect sense to me. Santa is always seen at the mall, why would we think he lived way up in the North Pole where it is snowing all year round and in some Mythical place? We never actually see this place, but the Mall we have seen him in countless times. Why couldn't Santa live at the mall, he is always there around this time of year. Of course he goes to church too. Why would he not go to church? Maybe this would tie Santa into the gift giving side of Christmas...in that the presents that he leaves for all the little girls and boys are birthday gifts in celebrating Jesus being born. This would then tie the two versions together. I guess I am just grasping for some answers to be able to celebrate both and believe in both to combine them together this way.

I am about to raise this little girl of ours, together with my husband. with many more Christmas times to go. I need to know how to celebrate with both Santa and Jesus in the mix, and how to pretend and be the parent. This has been going on for generations. I am doing what many before me have done... and it is scary that parenting doesn't really come with a manual. We (parents) have to just figure out Santa Clause and other kid traditions, as we come across it all. We'll take her to church and teach her the Biblical holidays as well as the imaginative commercialized holidays. She is going to have her own assumptions, like Santa living in the mall and going to church. And I am going to just roll with it and play along.