Santa: Fact or Fiction

We had a "surprise" visitor at school today--Santa! It was so funny to hear all the chatter throughout the gym as he walked into the stuffed cafeteria at the end of the assembly. Conversation the rest of the day went like this: "'Sally' doesn't believe in Santa Claus." "What??? She's not going to get any presents!!" or "Wow! I can't believe he came here all the way from the North Pole!!" or "Is that the real Santa?? I wonder what his reindeer look like!! Oh, I know! I pet one once! It was big. It was at Thanksgiving time."

I find it interesting to listen to the differences in beliefs of Santa Claus at the age of 8. I would say a majority of my students believe in Santa and are adamant about it. (I even had a boy who told me that the REAL Santa was coming to his ward Christmas party. He admitted that there are fake Santas out there, but the REAL one was coming to his party.)

I had a good conversation with some AMAZING girls in my Relief Society about Santa this week. We all grew up with differing views of Santa in our homes. I really like the idea of not putting an emphasis on Santa with my own kids one day. Santa is a fun thing to talk about at school and maybe go visit at the mall. But what is the real, true meaning of Christmas? Our Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the one we should be putting our focus on, year round obviously, but especially at this Christmas season.

My students were writing letters to Santa in class yesterday and one of them asked me how to spell Christmas. I showed it to him on his paper and he goes "Ooooh!! There's CHRIST in Christmas!! Because Christmas is all about the birth of Jesus Christ!!" It was like a light bulb went off in his head, it was so great to watch. I've heard several other conversations amongst my students about the same thing this week--the name Christ is in the word Christmas because He is the reason we celebrate Christmas. It's not about Santa. It's not about all the cool presents we might get. It's about worshiping our Savior and Redeemer. And how grateful I am for that!!


--Funny story of the day. Reading group with 2 kids. The book is called "My Hero." After we read it, I was asking comprehension questions and asked them who they considered a hero. The boy goes "My uncle Brian because he's in the army." I thought that was sweet. Then the girl goes "My brother because he brings home pizza!" I guess we also all have different ideas on what qualities heroes have. :)