There has been much discussion this holiday season about God, Jesus, and Santa. I was really hoping I had a few years before we really had to talk it over but Leah just can't let it go. Her dear friend has made many comments the past month or so about God and Jesus and it really started all the questions! Add to this the baby Jesus story in her preschool program and MANY Christmas songs and well......Keep in mind also, we are studying Ancient Times this year and with that comes much religious study including the bible. We have presented all this information simply as "myths" from this or that culture or "stories from the past". I tell Leah that it is not so important what she decides to believe, only that she respect that there will ALWAYS be others that believe differently. When she asks if Santa is real my go to answer is always, "I don't know, what do you think?" . This week, while driving home from piano she said, " Mom, are God and Santa the same thing?" "UMMMM AAAAA, GULP, what do you mean?" was my response trying not to say the wrong thing. That's all I need is my atheist kid going around the neighborhood telling all the kids that God is just Santa for adults. We live in a VERY MORMON neighborhood. She said, " They both give you stuff you want, and you get in trouble if you do bad stuff, and people talk to them(her friend has been telling her she will teach her how to ask God for things and he will give them to her. Even showed her a toy puppy she asked for and got!) I won't go into the rest of our discussion here but I will say that between the two of us we found SO MANY similarities between God and Santa. I was so surprised I had never made the connection before. And the end she decided that she did not want to believe in God or Santa. Mostly because of the punishment aspect it seems. She does not want "burn" or "get a rock" if she does something "wrong". I can just hear all the family members gasping now!!!! No SANTA!!!!!! When I tell people this story they always seem more concerned that my kids don't want to believe in Santa than that they don't want to believe in God. Funny. Stop fretting! Happiness, joy, giving, peace, family, togetherness do not need a label of God or Santa to be real. We will have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS! The same stuff is under the tree if they believe or not. Although now I kinda want to just get them a bunch of rocks for fun!
