Santa...Easter Bunny...Tooth Fairy

Deciding what to do with fictitious characters such as Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy has been a bit of a journey for Brett and me.

Before our children were born, we had decided not to play into them. In our reasoning, we wanted to be truthful and honest. Though these characters are fun, it involves quite a bit of dishonesty. Furthermore, we didn't want them to confuse fictitious characters with Jesus, who is very real even though we can't see Him.

And then our kids were born. Born with wild, wonderful, incredible imaginations.

I remembered my childhood and how magical it was to wake up on Christmas Day to a present laden living room. And the excitement of waking up on Easter morning, rolling over, and seeing a super fun, candy filled basket on my nightstand. And the joy of discovering a crisp $20 bill under my pillow the morning after losing a tooth (the "tooth fairy" remembered to go to the ATM but obviously forgot to get change! ha!).

The anticipation of Christmas, Easter, and losing a tooth was almost more exciting than the actual day.

So now I'm in a conundrum. On the one hand, I want to be truthful. But on the other hand, kids are only kids once.

I, then, had a revelation. Jesus is alive in our home. He is the reason we live. He is our everything. We are not perfect, but we do follow the Lord will all we have and all we are. We talk Jesus multiple times a day.

Santa does not hold a candle to the King of Kings. The Easter Bunny never rose from the dead.

So, after thinking through it, I want my kids to have an innocent, magical childhood. I want the best for them. They are only this little and this imaginative for a short time, and I want to savor it as long as I can.

And in comes the ironic part.....
Tonight, after I tucked her in bed, Chloe started wailing! When I asked her what was wrong, she tearfully told me she did not want the Easter bunny in her room. She is not a fan of costumed characters. At all. I assured her the bunny would not get in our house but would drop off the goods for her.

A few minutes later, I went to check on Caleb. He said, "Hey Mom, I looked in your room and saw a really cool Batman basket."

Umm.....

He also found his Christmas presents two years ago.
He is such a realist that he has never quite believed in Santa/Easter Bunny/etc. Though we do make them a part of holidays, we don't overemphasize them. I still try to be as honest as possible :). Consequently, Caleb has a hard time truly believing in any of it.

Well, what about you.....do you do all of the make believe characters? Or no?

Comments

  1. We do the holiday characters, but we don't make a big deal about it. It's more that we play along when others ask our kids about S.C. and the E.B. Honestly, we've hardly played along with the E.B at all, because...really!? A human sized bunny? I mean, flying reindeer is so much more realistic. :)

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