Ali wants nothing to do with Santa Claus this year. She doesn’t want him visiting her house (unless he promises to be gone by the time she wakes up), and she CERTAINLY has no interest in visiting HIM at the mall.
And, up until she actually opened one, she wasn’t a bit interested in presents. Every time someone asked her what she is getting for Christmas, she would say flippantly, “Nothing.”
Although we are still trying to do the whole Santa Claus thing, I’m actually pretty thrilled with her lack of interest and obsession with Santa Claus this year.
I love it because I know that there will be many Christmases ahead of us where she IS all about some Santa and presents and toys and stuff.
This Christmas is…special.
Every time she hears a Christmas song come on the radio, she starts excitedly asking, “Are they singing about Baby Jesus? And Mary? And Joseph? And the Shepherds? And the Wise Men??!!”
Every time we pass a nativity scene, she does inventory of all of the characters, and if any are missing, she demands repetitively, “Where ARE the wise men?!?”
(The first time they were absent, we tried to explain that they came much later in the story. But as we were explaining, we passed another nativity that DID have a set of Wise Men, so we gave up with historical accuracy and said, “There they are – they were just visiting THAT nativity first.”)
She loves her little play nativity (or “entivity”, as she calls it).
She loves talking about each character in the story.
She won’t talk about frankincense, but she adores gold and myrrh.
She’s singing Christmas carols and excited about singing about Baby Jesus.
And Mary.
And Joseph.
And the Shepherds.
And the Wise Men.
It’s precious. And it’s everything that I want to be focused on at Christmas but struggle to, due to the shopping.
And the baking.
And the wrapping.
And my million to-do lists.
And the activities and parties and events.
Dear Ali,
Thank you for your two-year-old innocence, passion, focus, and unabashed love for Baby Jesus. I strive to be more like you.
Merry Christmas, and thank you for sharing your faith with me as I share my faith with you.
Love, Mommy.
That was incredibly sweet!
Jack also does not care so much about presents and Santa Claus yet. He has been excitedly announcing "It's coming. It's coming. The special gift is coming." thanks to our God Made Christmas video. I too love that his big focus this year is "Gah luhs you." [God loves you] and not what am I gonna get. Can we keep them this way forever? hmmmm….pretty please?
So sweet. As a child I told my mom to tell Santa to leave the presents on the porch. No way I wanted him in my house either. :)
I wish mine were like that. They both prepare all year for their presents at Christmas. Everytime they see something they like. They will ask if they'll get it for Christmas. Even when it's Aug. But on a good note. The older one did start a nativity obsession when he was 2 or 3. I'm not sure how many we have but they both love to play with them all the time.
Good seeing you & Chris (and the whole SMI church):) last night! Fun concert.
And what a sweet post this is, love it. We all sure need to slow down and think more about Jesus. I'm trying to intentionally do that myself.
So sweet and precious Rachel.
Just awesome.
This morning I realized I had let the busyness take over and my focus had shifted. Getting it back takes serious attempt, it doesn't just happen with everything else going on around us.
My girls are the SAME way! We went to see Santa at the Galleria the other day and neither one of them wanted to go sit in his lap. They were terrified. So we just looked from afar:)
But they were mesmerized when we went to BWD's Walk Through Nativity and are always talking about baby Jesus and that His birthday is on Christmas. Good reminder's to the rest of us who get wrapped up in everything else:)
I love this post. Our two-year-old has been very intrigued by the nativity story as well. It warms my heart to know that he's learning the true meaning of Christmas so early. I just hope that we can keep it up.
That is wonderful! I hope she never loses this feeling.
I love Ali's sweet heart and the reminder that it holds for each of us. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Rachel, this is beautiful. Sometimes it takes the simplicity of a child to help us remember what we should be focused on. Great post.
We are going through the same thing at our house! I love it! It makes me feel like as much as commercialism has taken over Christmas that we are doing something right. :) I hope they stay like this for many years to come!
You are so wise to cherish this phase. Time really does fly by.
She is so perceptive to notice who is missing from the scene.
That's really sweet. My two year old doesn't get any of the Christmas concept beyond the fact that he loves to turn the lights on and off the tree.
Love the green chapstick, it looks delicious
It's so wonderful that our toddlers are able to remind us to stop and remember what Christmas is really about.
I was all into the Santa thing growing up, it was what made Christmas magical to me, but now that I have my own kids, I realize that I want Christ's birth to be what makes Christmas so special to them1
Ok – I'm SO not trying to be…weird…or opinionated…or anything other narrowminded/traditional/fill in the blank…but am just providing this as food for thought–
john piper and his wife noel wrote a thought-provoking post this year on the santa issue. PLEASE don't read more into this than just me saying, "hey, this is interesting, check it out." (whew) now that that's off my chest, here's the link. =)
http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/2141_thinking_about_santa/