Every year around this time it comes up that our family does not do "Santa" for Christmas, and there is always a ton of questions surrounding that.  First, I want to say that I am not telling you what you should or shouldn't do for your family.  I am simply telling you the reasons why we have chosen NOT to do Santa.

I think the first thing when people hear that we don't do Santa is, "You're taking all the magic out of Christmas. Don't your kids miss out by not doing Santa?!  And most people mean this super genuinely and not mean.  And a big part of why I want to share this post is because people feel like they HAVE TO to do Santa because it's what everyone does and you're a mean parent if you deprive your kids from that. 

So first lets start with why we don't do Santa.  Again, no judgment if you do, but this is where our convictions lie and each persons convictions are their own. My parents never did Santa with us.  My mom said she remembers the year that she found out Santa wasn't real and it scarred her enough to know she didn't want to do that to her kids.  As her faith deepend she also realized that she didn't want to take any focus off of the real magic of the season.  A God who came down in human form in the most humble of ways to literally be a Savior for each and every one of us.  Isn't that the most magical thing you've ever heard?  It truly is the most important reason we celebrate Christmas and she didn't want to confuse that with a man who came down chimneys and left presents for kids. 

So I will say since we never did Santa as a kid, ( I think Ryan did to some degree but not too intense) it wasn't a hard decision to choose not to do it as well.  I understand that for a lot of people this is a huge part of their Christmas tradition and too hard to give up.  But, I also know that I never as a child felt like I was missing out by not believing in the magic of Santa, so I wasn't worried my kids would miss out.  As my faith became my own and I had my own family, I knew that I didn't want the focus of Christmas to be on Santa, but try to keep the season truly about Jesus and family, my two favorite things.  I just couldn't justify lying to my kids about a make believe man to create magic in their Christmas.  And I will say that for a couple of years we did the tooth fairy with our kids, and after failing at that and forgetting to put money under a pillow, Tate told us one night, "it's okay mom, I know its not the tooth fairy.  I know it's God."  Oiy! I felt so convicted as to why we chose to lie to him about who really was putting money under his pillow that from then on we told him the truth and realized we never wanted to do another made up character for our kids to believe in for the sake of magic.  It wasn't worth it to trade our convictions for it.  And we have never done one since. 

My mom did such an amazing job of creating fun traditions that we got so excited about every year when Christmas came that that is what became the excitement of the season.  Traditions run so deep in us and I thank my mom for being so intentional with them because it truly is what holds family together for years and years.  I had a deep desire to do this for my kids, and during holidays is a perfect time to create traditions that focus on Jesus and family.  One tradition that our family started doing when the kids were little were fun activities each day.  I write up 25 cards with different ideas on them.  I like to make them range from all sorts of things such as winter inspired ideas, to service projects, to family time together.  It has truly become the kids very favorite thing to do each year.  They take turns reading the card in the morning to see what the activity is, and it helps me to be intentional to do fun things with the family that they will remember forever, such as family sledding/skating days, game nights, and special movie nights.  It's easy to let the season go by and be so busy to not truly enjoy it with the family.  And I never want this to be one more thing to weigh me down during the season, so I try to make them things that we will probably already do at some point, but it gets the kids excited and expectant to see what the day holds.  Here is an example of ideas of some of the things that we've done in the past.  Feel free to use them or to create your own if you decide to try this idea!