The "talk"

As we do every year, we went and saw the best Santa Clause in our area. He tells the children about Jesus and explains that He is the real reason we have Christmas. You also get an extended time with Santa. This year we didn't even have to wait in line. It was so great and so sweet. Santa wanted to talk to Rinny but she got straight down to business "I want an Ariel costume...Where are the reindeer, where are the elves?." Creed took a little more time to chat. Finally, Creed told Santa that he wanted a guitar, a helicopter, and could he please help his brother get home. Gulp. 

Creed has been asking lots of questions about lots of things lately. We've been studying in Bible class about how God is the only God. About how even though you cannot see Him, He is very real. So, Creed has been questioning that alot lately. He has also been feeling more conviction and always wants to talk about baptism. Un-related he has been asking "Is Santa real?". My answer is always "what do you think?" Micah and I have talked about it and we realized that soon we would need to answer his question truthfully because we don't want "Santa" to bring confusion about God and the reality of the True God. (I know many of you may differ in your approach to how you teach your children; some of my friends have never done santa, some of you will do santa for alot longer than we have....this is just simply how we have felt we need to handle it...that's my disclaimer :)

It happened today. At lunch, Creed asked the question, again. (of course, Micah had stepped away from the table to take Rinn to potty...urgh). I just explained to him that there had been a real Saint Nicholas but that now, it is in our imagination. I also talked about how we have been answering that question with "what do you think?" because we never want to confuse him and we want to be truthful. I told him Jesus was real and we know that because the Bible talks about Him, we see His work in our lives, etc.etc. but that Santa was just in our imagination and that mommy's and daddy's help have fun on Christmas that way. We can have all sorts of fun in our imagination, I said. 

It was really a sweet talk. I think he understands and I think we will still have lots of fun for Christmas imagining fun and crazy things together. My big boy is growing up.