She said he wasn't real...

Well-it finally happened. Friday Madyson came home from school and said "*friend* at school said that Santa wasn't real and that her mom is Santa and the tooth fairy AND the Easter bunny!!! and that because I believe in Santa I am hurting Jesus' feelings." 

My response: "oh how sad"

madyson; "Well...what do you think?"

And I answered honest and this is what-as an adult-I truly believe.

"I think that's sad. A long time ago a man named Nicholas lived in modern day Turkey-he had inherited money from his parents who had passed away and he enjoyed using this money to give gifts to people-especially children. Sometimes he would hang socks filled with small gifts for the kids. As he got older-he became a  well known Christian man. He spent his life having a servants heart-doing good for people. He died in the month of December and his legacy lives on today. I believe in the magic that giving to others brings. You know how good you feel when you make gifts for people. That smile they get? That twinkle in their eye? You give them a token of you. And I believe-we need magic and wonder and we need to embrace our imaginations. And we use Santa as our outlet for this.

Christmas is many things to many people. To Christians-it is the birth of Jesus. That is why we focus mainly on celebrating him and we read the Chrismas story and we have our Happy birthday Jesus party and we decorate with the manager and go to live nativity scenes-because we are learning and growing more in our faith. but Jesus is NOT just a part of our life on Christmas. Jesus is real-and He is apart of our life everyday. We can not be the people God wants us to be without Jesus-every day.

So if you are asking me if I believe Santa is real-I certainly do. I know he is because every year for the last 7 years I have seen your smile on Christmas morning when you receive gifts from him. I see the twinkle in your eye when you dump out your stocking and I feel the magic when I watch you and your sisters enjoy simple gifts that brings you happy memories each time you play with them.

And I don't think you are hurting Jesus' feelings by believing in Santa-it is no different than being excited to see the princesses in Disney World or taking a picture with the Chickfila cow. Both the princesses and the cow make you excited and happy-as does seeing Santa.