<<So, I don't believe that the two have to be mutually exclusive. We "do" Santa here ( sorry... have to chuckle when ever I see that), but as a fun, fantasy, imagination "game" with a bit of history throw in (about the various figures from whom the Santa Claus character was derived). >>
It is interesting to read everyone's responses to this. We "do" Santa here as well (we are actually Pagan, but celebrate Christmas and Easter as well as dh and I were both raised Catholic), but have a multicultural spin on it. Each day in December, we learn about how a different country celebrates Christmas, Luciadagen, Hanukkah, etc. This involves reading stories from that country, making traditional holiday foods for dinner and discussing Santa in his many forms (even a gril and a goat, depending on what country!).
My family has a history of really believing in Santa (as someone else said, the yes Virginia there is a Santa) - one of my aunts (actually named Virginia, lol) still insists that she saw Santa when she and my mom were little girls, and my youngest brother insists he saw a reindeer on the roof only a few years ago (he's 17). But we don't really push the idea at our house - in fact, last year, we wrapped all the presents as we bought them and put them under the tree with tags that they were from Santa, and it made no difference to dd!
It is interesting to read everyone's responses to this. We "do" Santa here as well (we are actually Pagan, but celebrate Christmas and Easter as well as dh and I were both raised Catholic), but have a multicultural spin on it. Each day in December, we learn about how a different country celebrates Christmas, Luciadagen, Hanukkah, etc. This involves reading stories from that country, making traditional holiday foods for dinner and discussing Santa in his many forms (even a gril and a goat, depending on what country!).
My family has a history of really believing in Santa (as someone else said, the yes Virginia there is a Santa) - one of my aunts (actually named Virginia, lol) still insists that she saw Santa when she and my mom were little girls, and my youngest brother insists he saw a reindeer on the roof only a few years ago (he's 17). But we don't really push the idea at our house - in fact, last year, we wrapped all the presents as we bought them and put them under the tree with tags that they were from Santa, and it made no difference to dd!
