The Spirit of St. Nicholas

I have a wonderfully compromising husband. I was told in a blessing given by him early in our marriage that he is "mold-able" and though he often at first is less than open to a new idea, he also often, after some thought, comes to his senses and agrees with me or lets me have my way. :) Apparently the Lord saw this as an important characteristic that the man who was to marry me must possess. Odd.

This particular instance of our at first clashing ideas came up with the Christmas season. Joshua is now old enough to care and understand about Christmas, why we celebrate it, and Santa. Joshua has a unique little personality and is always asking me what people or characters are real and which are pretend. He often clarifies to me that "Superman is pretend and Jesus and Heavenly Father are real." Well, Justin really wanted to teach Joshua about Santa Claus, but I couldn't bring myself to lie to this child who was asking me, "Mom, is Santa Claus real?" To some people it may not feel like a lie, but to me it did. All I could say is, "Well, some people think he's real, but I don't. Maybe you can see what Daddy thinks."

As luck would have it, Joshua approached his Dad and said something to the effect of, "Dad, Mom said Santa Claus isn't real!" Ahhh! No! That's not what I said! Crap! So no, that didn't go over well and Mommy got in trouble. I told him how the conversation really went and it didn't appease him much. In the middle of our not so quiet discussion over the matter, Jayden came and saved the day and proceeded to tell Joshua all about Santa Claus, where he lives, etc. Lucky for that moment and any chance of having the spirit in our home that day, Joshua believed him and went around the house excitedly talking about Santa Claus and that he IS real. Thank heavens for older brothers.

I was still undecided about how I really wanted to handle Christmas and the children and Justin and his Mother both came up with the idea to teach the children about St. Nicholas-the REAL Santa Claus. I did some research online and learned about St. Nicholas and shared the story with Justin. I was touched by what a giving, self-less, and Christ like man he was and how much he just wanted to glorify God and serve him secretly. Together we decided that this was a good man to teach our children about and that his story could amplify the spirit of Christmas and that as a family we could follow the example of St. Nicholas and take on the spirit of giving to glorify God, celebrate the birth of Christ, and bring people happiness. This year and years to come our stockings will be filled by a secret someone who loves Jesus and wants to make people happy like St. Nick.

Here's the story we read to the children one family home evening to teach them about St. Nick:

http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=167

-Mama Gurr