It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas

After three days of working on getting our glorious lights to work, we finally completed the annual Page family tree decorating on Thursday night.  It was a "Hallelujah" moment, indeed.  This past weekend we took the kids to downtown Clermont to see the gorgeously giant Christmas tree in Place de Jaude, saunter around the Marche de Noel and ride the ferris wheel and the magical carousel.  The city really does a great job turning downtown Clermont into a Christmas wonderland.

After many conversations, and some would say heated arguments, from the very first Christmas we celebrated together in 2004 with a 5 month old Joshua,  we have always told our children the truth about Santa Claus.  Freddie never believed in Santa Claus growing up where, in contrast, I have very fond memories of the magical and mystery that surrounded the jolly fat man from the North Pole who flew through the sky with a sleigh pulled by 8 reindeer and led by the famous, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.  As much as I desired my children to enjoy the same make believe experience, I desire for them more to not struggle with their faith in God so we decided that it wasn't worth the risk to lie to them.. telling them that someone was real who really wasn't and, often times in the same breath, telling them that Jesus is real and want them to believe that, as well... and to keep that belief past second grade.

Now, since I do now firmly believe in God and his son Jesus, I believe that the truth is the truth and a childlike faith in Santa Claus would not negate a truth like God.  However, I couldn't argue with the fact that the bottom line is we felt that we would be lying to our children and as a Page parenting principle, we don't want to ever lie to our children.. even about St. Nick.  So that is what we decided to do a long time ago one cold night in Greenville.

*Disclaimer - This was what we felt was best for our family.  We do not judge others who chose to do differently and we threaten our children with their mere parent given Christmas presents if they ever have the audacity to break another child's heart by telling them the unprompted truth while, of course, having the freedom of being very honest about what they believe if ever asked the question.*

Does that mean our wild eyed Emily wags her finger in the face of all of her friends who believe?  Oh no.  She is still dreaming of sugar plums and Santa (Ho Ho) flying through the starry night in his sleigh fitting his big bottom down our tiny chimney to deposit her heart's desire (which I found out tonight is a bigger than her brown stuffed dog at Toys r Us and a battery powered convertible pink Mini car) at the foot of our Christmas tree.

A child's imagination and desire for a little bit of magic is hard to extinguish.

So, we stick to our plan and principles and we clearly tell our children that it is make believe and pretend and use every opportunity to explain to them why we celebrate Christmas, all the while enjoying watching the children's eyes light up at the wonder of the season.

From the Pages to all of you, we hope you have a wonderful Christmas season filled with all of the peace and hope and joy that comes from knowing that Jesus was born and lived on this earth thousands of years ago and loved us so much that he gave us the greatest gift ever given - everlasting life for those who believe.