Swapped the tree for Jesus’s birthday cake.

Hello all!

So when I was little, Christmas was this huge deal that took up a whole month at school. Cutting and pasting decorations, writing letters to Santa, and all that. But never do i recall learning in school about the birth of Jesus. And on Christmas morning, I never got what is asked Santa for. I seemed to always get mostly clothing, socks, sweaters, snow boots…..

As a child, I assumed Santa wasn’t impressed with me, and my parents never seemed to be either, so I learned to live with disappointment.

So fast forward to when mine were little. We were honest about what requests we could afford once they could understand and let them share the Santa delusion with their peers by telling them Santa would bring them one gift. We let them think we didn’t have much money for Christmas but we’d actually save all year for their one big Santa gift. Our kids though Santa was a billionaire.

Once they learned Santa was a fraud, we swapped the tree for a birthday cake for Jesus. We told them we were excited they had learned the truth and matured enough to celebrate Christmas for what it’s really about. The birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

We still squirrel away for Christmas all year, but we give them the money so they can get exactly what they really want without disappointment or feeling let down. They’re grown now but we’ve been doing it that way forever.

How about you? Have you changed anything about how you celebrate Christmas now, compared to how your nuclear family celibated it? Did you get backlash from your parents?