[nitehawk]

Originally Posted by Uptown Girl

When my daughter was little, we integrated the spirit of Santa Claus with the baby Jesus.

I told her of the real St. Nicholas- who honored the Christ-spark within children and emulated the acts of the Magi as a remembrance.

I told her that it was such a beautiful thing, people who have come after St. Nicolas decided to keep that tradition- and that those who dressed as Santa Claus were 'helpers' to remind everyone at Christmastime.

She knew her presents came from us, but with the 'spirit' of Santa Claus in our hearts- to honor the Christ-spark that she had within HER.
I explained that 'littler' children were not old enough to understand the full story, so their parents just started with the "Santa" part- and would add the rest of the beautiful story as they got older.
She was happy with that- felt special that I considered her mature enough to know, and agreed to let the little ones discover when it was time for their parents to tell them.

Each year, she and I went shopping for a toy to be donated. We made a special day out of it. She would pick it out and we'd wrap it to her liking. We'd take it to the Post Office that day and she would carry it in and place it in the 'Toys for Tots' bin. On the way home, we'd talk about the story of the wise men giving their presents to the baby Jesus. Sometimes, she would tell ME the story. It was beautiful to hear her rendition!

We had one other tradition, gosh, until my daughter was grown- she and I would make a 'snowball' dessert for Christmas eve. Ice cream balls rolled in coconut. We would make a circle of them on our fanciest plate, and put a red birthday candle in each one. We'd light the candles, turn down the lights and we (and everyone at the table) would sing, "Happy Birthday Baby Jesus, Happy Birthday to You!" and she would get to blow out the candles.

I asked her (as an adult) how she felt about the way we did it when she was little. To her, it was perfect.

Thank you for sharing