Following up with breaking up with Santa, I wanted to give a little more insight to the Christmas season.
As a Believer, we are placed with specific convictions to lead our lives to glorify God. The will of God for ALL our lives is to be thankful. This season, I find myself less and less thankful as the years go. It starts with good intentions leading up to Thanksgiving, then all the shopping sales of the weekend have led to a spiral downhill. Remembering my first husband and I meeting Thanksgiving week, then engaged on Christmas break- the best memories together before his death the next year. Years later, checking into a mental health hospital just a couple weeks before Christmas, is a trauma reconciled but still present in memory. It’s heavy, y’all! And I am after J O Y!
Truly, right now more than ever, I want others to see Jesus! It’s a slippery slope for a lot for humans during the holidays; falling back into old patterns of retail therapy, drinking too much at holiday parties, destroying our bodies with over indulgence of food, mental health patterns getting darker with … insert whatever it is <<please don’t think I’m calling out just these sins if they are yours, there’s hope. How can I show Jesus to this world?
Back to Santa… This year I started doing a season themed bookshelf for the kids. Searching McKay’s for used books back in the beginning of November, I realized how the many duplicates were of Santa books. I had to dig to find books just about winter, being thankful, or Jesus and the manger. My heart started to cave as I thought, “Does this represent the majority of mankind during the month of December? A heavy focus on imagination and this image of Santa being someone who gives us what we want?”
Sure, beginning with Dallas, I was so into Santa Claus for him. Being a teen mom, I remember shopping Black Friday sales at Toys R Us and being super thankful for being able to afford those sale prices and gift my son with a good Christmas. Years later, I decorated the hallway with “snow boot prints”, had video cameras set up to capture the magic. Jesus was minimal in our Christmas Day celebration those first few years.
We did the traditional Christmas Eve candlelight service to set the mood of recognizing Jesus’ birth. My home wasn’t decorated with Santa but instead the nativity scene.. I really didn’t give much thought to making MORE of Jesus and less of tradition and culture. It literally wasn’t on my radar!
A Costco trip to their dozens of kids books was the final straw, no Jesus. Nowhere. He was absent in the store on this holiday that is His, the way we celebrate it as Believers. I wanted to rage right then and there. “Is this what it’s come to, Lord? How can THEY do this?!” “Full stop, Mrs. Righteous pants.” << was not God’s audible answer, but where my mind turned.
The conversation continued as I stood with jaw clenched, staring at the happy North Pole images. “What are you doing in your home to resurrect the image and teachings of Jesus this Christmas season? What books are your kids reading the most of. The movies- are they glazed over with the North Pole and Santa’s Elves making gifts for the kids on the “nice list”?
What about MY list? Where the names of Believers are written down in the Lamb’s Book of Life? How are YOU being Jesus to a lost and darkened world?”
Super convicting. “And anyone who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” <Straight from the mouth of Jesus.
Okay…. Christmas and the meaning of it were now on my radar! With my kids being six, seven, and 11, it not only makes sense to have a bigger conversation about Jesus, it was now pertinent. We had already broken the news to them the year prior that Santa was just a false representation of gift receiving. But really, that was done only because I didn’t like that Santa got credit for the gifts I bought for the kids!
I’m not here to convict you that Santa is bad or wrong. I pray you haven’t made him an idol in your life, and I know many friends who celebrate with good balance. We aren’t called to lay down Santa in the Guess home because we are holier. Much the contrary!
This season, ending 2019 and going into 2020, I need Jesus more than ever. My kids need a firm foundation of being good stewards of the Spirit filled gifts they’ve been given. We are so lowered in life at this moment, that all days, He is pushing me through the day. All other images much decrease; Jesus must increase in our lives.
And to that, we are breaking up with Santa. Dallas my big boy that has a large imagination, struggled with every facial expression when we pulled out the Reindeer Food Bar sign while decorating for Christmas. He joyfully made up a new celebration in his mind, “This can be the Dove food bar! Because the Holy Spirit is like a dove!” LOL
I guess this year, we are making bird food, wrapping less presents, and being mindful of Jesus and what His birth means for us today.
With Jesus, we have hope.
With Jesus, the dark winters give us yield to seek Him more in the safe, warm walls of our home.
With Jesus, we can extend grace to our neighbor.
With Jesus, we can gift to others and be less concerned with the receiving.
With Jesus, we have a true reason to celebrate!
There will be stockings and a gift exchange Christmas morning. There will still be Christmas breakfast and Christmas Eve services. A friend shared on Facebook how her family makes up a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas Eve! I was so relieved to hear that suggestion. I sure do look forward to eating Santa’s swiss cake roll and reindeer carrots like the 11 years past!
Now, the icing on the cake is still there- just with a different person’s name on top.
With a humble heart,
Danielle Guess