Tell Them The Truth About Santa Claus

Christmas! The word stirs up feelings of excitement and invokes anticipation! It is rightly so.
However, you can direct your children to the real reason for the excitement and cheer by helping them to understand what the holiday is about. As an adult, you understand the basis for the celebration for Christmas, the Birth of the Savior. But your children may not understand this holiday the way you do.

How can parents help their children understand the facts of Christmas? How can we plant the seeds of love and adoration of Jesus in them? How can we explain Christmas to them in terms that they will not only understand but hold on to and hold dear their whole lives?

Here are some guidelines to teach and talk to your children about Christmas.

Repeat the story of Christmas over and over in terms that they will understand.

Never weary of
re-telling the wonderful story and of explaining what each section of the story means.
Consider renting or purchasing videos of The Birth of Jesus. Read to them from children’s books
about the birth of Jesus. Coloring books can be a big help in explaining about Christmas to younger children. Children in a home where the parents are Christians should never be able to remember when they first heard the story of Jesus birth and the Gospel story! Start early and don’t let up!

Help your child realize that Jesus is God’s gift of love to us.

This is done mainly day to day in your life as a Christian. The love, kindness and patience that the child sees at home will be reflected in his response to the story of Jesus and to the Gospel. Nurture the feelings of thankfulness and love that will spring up in him as a result of hearing the story. Avoid the usual bustle and hectic-ness of the holiday that so easily makes the children feel left out. Plan to do things together as a family for Christmas. Things like Advent, fasting, singing hymns, praying together, serving others and reading God’s word will help the children feel like a part of the holiday with the whole family.

Your children will want to express the feelings of excitement and joy of the season, so help them to do this.
Making decorations, gifts and cards will help the children to learn joy and gladness for the season.
When you sing songs of the season, show gladness and joy in your expressions. Limit the singing of secular songs and concentrate on songs of Jesus Birth, and of God’s great love for us. Learn songs that your children may be learning at church and sing them together with them. Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and talk to the Lord openly with the children through out the season, and throughout the year, thanking Him for His gift of Jesus. Allow them to hear you thank God for Jesus.

Talk about and demonstrate the Nativity.

Set up a Creche in your home. Use creativity in setting up the figures. Perhaps leaving out the baby Jesus until Christmas morning. Have the children search for Him every day or so until Christmas, when they will find Him lying in a manger in the creche. Leave it up until after Christmas and add the Wise men later. Talk about the story in God’s Word, how the Wise men did not visit Jesus until He was an older baby and lived in a house with his mother and father. Discuss the meaning of the gifts they brought to Jesus.

Children understand birthdays. Make a birthday cake for Jesus and celebrate His birthday.
Discuss gifts you can give to Him. Give Him gifts of self-sacrifice. Examples could include, money donated to a worthy cause, time given to a cause or organization, a visit to a shut-in, a gift of food, etc. Give gifts of love and time to those who are needy in some way. Include your children in this, don’t merely talk about it, actually go out and do it! Find some traditions for your family to share. Ask each of you children to choose one gift that they have received and re-wrap it to give away to a needy person.

Tell them the Truth about Santa Claus.

Contrary to what you may have been told, telling your children the truth about Santa won’t harm them or deprive them of a childhood necessity.
It may however cause your friends to look askance at you when your own children begin to tell other children what they have learned about Santa Claus, so take this into consideration.
Explain to your children that Santa Claus is a legend based on a real man named Bishop Nicholas who loved the Lord Jesus and gave to the poor. You can learn more about this man and help your children put him in his proper place at Christmas……a man who no longer lives on earth but in the presence of Jesus.

Avoid asking “What do you want Santa to bring you for Christmas?” and “You’d better be good or Santa won’t bring you any presents!”. When your child talks about Santa, listen to him very
attentively. Then bring the discussion around to the real Nicholas and how he loved Jesus. Explain that we too should love Jesus with all out hearts as people like Nicholas did and as godly people we know today do. Help your child point out individuals in his own experience who show the love of God to others by giving and serving, pray for these people and thank God for them with your child.

Finally, show your children every day of the year that we are to be thankful for the birth of Jesus and show them the Joy that you have in your own life as a result of forgiveness of sins through Him.

Are you wondering why Christmas often seems so hollow and so meaningless? Its because we have filled it with many things other than the One whom we celebrate on that day. Help your children see the reason for Christmas, you will be so glad you did!

Click here for a site to start learning about St. Nicholas

Sweet Memories

Happily, I gently rock you cradled against my heart,

Your eyes fixed onto mine in trust and wonder;

Yes, I believe you have your Mother’s eyes-

You have a cowlick at your nape

Just like your Uncle has….

Sweet memories.

I’ve smelt your newborn skin a thousand times before:

Firstly in your Uncles, then your Aunt and Mother:

Still the sweetness of your smell intoxicates me,

Evoking the memory of long gone days

Joyful in my maternity….

Sweet memories.

Your soft spot beats lifting your downy baby hair;

Once more I’m amazed at the miracle of you;

I delightedly grin as angels whisper to you

As you grimace and smile with wind:

So my Mother says….

Sweet memories.

You’re unique yet not unlike babies who’ve blessed me;

Your pink fingers extended and begging to be kissed,

As I have done a thousand times before

To babies who grew under my heart,

Grownup but there abiding….

Sweet memories.

© Glenys Robyn Hicks

“Lo, children are an heritage from the LORD and the fruit of the womb is His reward.” Psalm 127:3

Unmet Expectations ~ Thanksgiving

For years I have written about bringing traditional values and practices back to our US Thanksgiving holidays. This year, I want to write to you out of my own experiences with preparing for Thanksgiving and other holidays through the years. Hopefully I can encourage you to take a new look at how you go about getting your home and mind ready for Thanksgiving.

Americans seem to have lost so much through the years and people yearn for those simple, peaceful occasions. Many of us go looking for what we call old fashioned ways of celebrating Thanksgiving so that we can recapture something we hope will fulfill us and our family. We often go to great lengths to find this fulfillment and very often our efforts end up in arguments or stressful confrontations in the family, overspending and profound sadness.

Holidays aren’t peaceful or simple if you find yourself strung out, worn out and tensed up over making a the occasion into something that meets unrealistic expectations. I want to encourage you to let go of your expectations for a perfect Thanksgiving get-together this year and to redefine your ideas of Old Fashioned.

What does an Old Fashioned Thanksgiving look like anyway? To most of us it means food, family…. and beyond that, what? Perfectly decorated tables? An immaculate house? New furniture? Lots of going and doing? Shopping with family and friends? A quiet evening or two before the fireplace with family? I think it can, in part, mean any of those things but conspicuously missing from those descriptions is the Lord Jesus Christ and the particular peace and fullness He brings to our lives. It seems so easy for most of us to get busy and involved with making the perfect Thanksgiving celebration that we forget about the reason for all our blessings.

When we set up a picture in our minds and make plans for a perfect Thanksgiving we set up expectations. Expectations can be dangerous things to family harmony and peace.

Unmet expectations = Discouragement

Thanksgiving and other holidays often leave us discouraged and frustrated with the people and preparations of the seasons. We somehow believe that because we spend money, time, thought and energy on preparations for these holidays that they must turn out a certain way. And then they don’t and we are discouraged and frustrated and we show that by the way we treat our family members.

Food for thought ~ We have no rights to expect anything in this life except the promises of God. Yet our sinful nature tells us that we have rights to our expectations. We have the Gospel and we have forgiveness in Jesus. Is that Good News enough for you? Or do you insist on having your holiday expectations met?

Everyone has their own ideas of what constitutes an Old Fashioned Thanksgiving, but I think the main things that people think of when they think of a holiday being old fashioned are peace and simplicity. I believe we can have those beautiful attributes in our present day celebration of Thanksgiving, if we focus our minds on what we are grateful for and on enjoying the people God sends into our lives.

Certainly, go shopping, lay around the fireplace with family, play games, go for a walk…. do all those things but do them with an attitude of thankfulness and with an eye on the fact that these luxuries are gifts from God; we don’t have a right to any of them. When I think in those terms I become even more thankful for what I have.

This next week as you prepare for the Thanksgiving meal, open your heart to the Holy Spirit and allow Him to prepare it for giving thanks. Focus your mind on Jesus and serving others as He has done. Focus on people and being thankful for what God has given you. Then your Thanksgiving will be simple, sweet and truly old fashioned. No matter what happens, no matter if things don’t go perfectly and according to plan, you will have thankfulness and peace in your heart….and I think that is the very best kind of old fashioned Thanks-giving there is!

#5 Thanksgiving Preparation - Monday through Thursday

At the beginning of this week you should start thawing your turkey. Thaw it in a pan of cold water in the frig. I have also thawed a turkey in a large pan of water on my deck outside in the cold weather. If you normally brine your turkey, this is the time to start that process.

Here is a day by day suggestion for getting ready:
Monday
Count your blessings and Thank the Lord for providing them to you!
Straighten house
Laundry
Clean bathrooms
Change sheets

Cook ahead every dish that you can and store it in the frig or freezer. Mashed potatoes can be made ahead, most casseroles can also if you don’t add toppings until reheating right before serving. Potatoes can also be peeled and chopped and put in water to cover and allowed to sit in the frig for 3 days.

Bread can be made up until the first rise and then frozen. Remove from freezer approximately 6 hours before you will need to bake it. Allow it to defrost and rise, then bake. Or use your bread machine!

Cranberry Salad can be made today, sweet potato casseroles, etc.
Make pies
Begin brining turkeys
Make frozen desserts
Make breakfast foods for Thursday. This year I am planning on making coffee cake and fruit salad. Than later in the day I will offer crackers, fresh veggies and dip. This kind of food helps my family not be starved and in the kitchen all day but doesn’t fill them so much they don’t want to enjoy the TG meal. We usually don’t eat until late after noon.
Tuesday
Pray for the people you have invited to dinner. Ask the Lord to bless them through your hospitality.

Wash and dry all the table linens if you have not done so already. Store them rolled or folded until TG Day.

Go through all your pots and pans and note which ones you will use for which dish. I sometimes label the glass casserole dishes with a piece of masking tape with what will go in the dish written on it. This is especially helpful when you are rushed or have help in the kitchen.

Make sure you have all the dishes, glassware and utensils you need. If you are using plastic, make sure you go to shop for them before too close to TG. Other wise you may not find those cute Fall motif plates you wanted.

Cook any other dishes that can be made ahead and store. Bake pies and cakes today too.

Make stuffed eggs ingredients today. Assemble them Thursday.

Wednesday
As you pray today, as God to guide your hands and offer your work to Him as a sacrifice of praise.

Make cranberry sauce
Make mashed potatoes
Prepare vegetables to roast
Make Sweet potato casserole
Make corn casserole

Bake your turkey either today or tomorrow, early. There are several ideas about when to bake the turkey. Some like to bake the turkey on TG Day so that they can carve it right on the table out of the oven. Some like to bake the turkey so that they will have the juices from cooking to make dressing and then they carve the turkey and serve it on a platter.

I have done both and which method I use depends on how many people are standing around hungry! If I have a house full of people, I will cook the turkey on Wednesday. Then I will carve it and refrigerate it. I have also waited til Thursday morning and cooked it right before I cook the dressing because I like to use the broth and juices in the dressing.
Turkey is GOOD reheated. If you keep it covered well and in the frig, it will be delicious for dinner.

Get your kitchen cleaned up for tomorrow!

Thursday
Get up early
Spend time with the Lord and thank Him for my blessings and for allowing me to prepare this meal for my family!
Shower, dress comfortably but nicely
Straighten bathroom
Put first of turkeys in to roast by 7 a.m., second one by 11 a.m.
Lay out breakfast foods
Make yeast roll dough and allow to rise
Make 7 layer salad
Heat casseroles
Bake yeast rolls
Carve turkey

The girls help me a lot on TG. Here are a few of the things they are responsible for:
Setting table
Folding napkins
Making iced tea
Making coffee
Cutting pies
Making sure there are serving spoons in everything
Keeping the dishes and pans washed up and kitchen clean
Keeping the floor swept in the kitchen
Offer family a breakfast of purchased Danishes and juice OR a casserole prepared ahead of time.

I don’t like to mess up dishes and pans on Thanksgiving morning for breakfast. So many times I will bake a delicious coffee cake the week before and freeze it for TG morning. I also have the family use paper plates, cups and napkins. I place breakfast on the table and move along…….

The main idea is to do as little as possible cooking wise on TG Day. Have it all done before hand so that you just have to reheat. The only things that I make on TG Day are:

Green salads
Fruit Salad
Yeast breads
Dressing
Gravy
Bread in the bread machine
Assemble Stuffed Eggs

Everything else is done and just needs to be reheated in a slow oven. Set your oven temperature to about 250* F and place the foods to be reheated in the oven about 1 hour before the meal. Remember to cover them tightly. If the foods need a bit more moisture before heating you can add a few tablespoons of water to each casserole dish.

#4 Thanksgiving Preparation - More Gathering, Preparing

This is the week to buy your perishables. Go ahead and prepare all the vegetables by washing them and drying them before placing them in the frig. If you want to save even more time for yourself, go ahead and chop up veggies and put them in sealable containers in the frig. You will also begin cooking some dishes this week. You can give the house a once over this week and have the children clean up their rooms. Ask family members if they can tidy the yard.

Dishes that can be prepared ahead and refrigerated for up to 4 days:
Sweet potato - unbaked
Green bean - unbaked

Mashed potatoes

Plain vegetables

Yeast roll dough

Cranberry salad