Elf On The Shelf And Santa Too!

As a little girl I remember believing in Santa Clause and the wonderful memories I have. Now that I'm all grown up and have children of my own, my man and I have carried on the tradition of good ole' St. Nick.

Four of my children are old enough to know the difference now. They all figured it out on their own and at quite an early age. I always answered their questions honestly when they started to doubt. I wanted them to figure it out and I wasn't going to lie to them when they asked for the truth about him. When they would ask if he was real, I would always ask them, well what do you think? And then the conversation would go from there. I always told them that Mommy and Daddy had so much fun pretending with you! And in the end there were no hard feelings only lot's of good memories that we still cherish today!

I was once asked "If you teach your children to believe in Santa Clause then how can you expect them to know that Jesus is real?"

And my answer was: Well, we don't go to church to worship Santa and we have never claimed that Santa can give you salvation. We have never prayed to Santa. He is just a jolly, chubby old man who gives gifts.

There is a great little movie put out by the makers of Veggie Tales that explains the story of St. Nicholas. It's absolutely wonderful to pull out when your littles begin to have their doubts about Santa. You can find it HERE.

Think back to when you were a kid and how much fun it was to make believe and pretend. We used our imaginations! That's how dreams begin and new creations and inventions are born! With out an imagination childhood would be very boring!

Last year I bought elf on the shelf for my youngest daughter but, I never got him out of the box. I feared that I was taking too much away from the real true meaning of Christmas. I was trying to figure out a way to incorporate fun and still have Jesus as the center of our attention,but I never came up with any thing, so the elf on the shelf literally sat on the shelf!

Until I ran across this one blog on Pinterest. She has come up with a creative way to use elf on the shelf and to keep Santa alive in their home with out putting Jesus off to the side, so to speak. You can find her thoughts and ideas HERE. She has put into words exactly how I feel about Santa. She also writes a letter to her children from Santa and in the letter Santa talks about Jesus and how Santa wants his little elf to get to know Jesus. She goes on to say that Jesus is all about grace.  Santa wants his little elf to learn how to make good choices. Well you will have to visit her blog to read the whole letter, it's very good!

So this year our little elf, Bo Jingles, is coming down off the shelf to play!

 I had also purchased some friends for him. It's a lot more fun to get into mischief when you have friends!

 So on Monday morning these little creatures will be on our front stoop waiting for little Autum.

 I have to tell you I'm not sure who will have more fun.......I bet it will be me!

I want to add that I am not against others not believing in Santa or not wanting to play with elves. I do understand and you have the right to raise your children the way you see fit......Just as I do.  *Smile*