This morning, in the midst of our morning routine, as we were getting out of the house and into the car, my oldest looked at me and asked if we could listen to “our Christmas playlist”. I obliged, dug out my phone, clicked Bluetooth, and set up Spotify. I had the playlist playing yesterday on my way home from work; the violin soundtracks are my go-to music for decompressing during my commute home. I let the playlist pick up where it left off and play on shuffle by itself.

My boys and I usually use our drive to school as our praise and worship time, the best way to start our day. It helps lessen the bickering and grumpiness of such an early start. Tis the season, so we have recently been listening to “The Grinch”, “Hey Santa”, “Little Drummer Boy”, and all of the other classics. But this morning was different.

About 2 months ago, we sat down with our boys and told them about Santa….and the tooth fairy, Easter bunny, and their elves. At the time, it broke my heart to tell them. I felt like a part of their childhood had passed and now it was just mom and dad to put the presents out. Maybe the “magic” was gone.

But this morning, I realized I had been misplacing my focus. You know how we always tell our kids, “Christmas isn’t about the presents.”, “Remember the reason for the season.”, and so on. So often, I remind my boys to not focus on the gifts that they receive, it’s Jesus’ birthday and we need to celebrate Him. But do we REALLY celebrate Him?

This morning felt freeing and deep. “O come, O come Emmanuel,” came on the soundtrack as a suggested play. The car fell silent as we all listened and I believe my boys felt the presence just as I did. It was a sense of awe. All of a sudden, I realized that I was free, but the boys were free from Santa, we all were. By them knowing the “truth” about Santa, it took a distraction out of the way. Every year we talked about being good for their elves or for Santa, but now it goes much further for them. They have to listen to mommy and daddy, as expected every day of the year. Gifts are given from love and hard work, not because you acted a certain way. God’s son, his baby boy (those words hit me different with being a boy mom for sure), came to this Earth, lived the life of man, died, and rose again. But before each step, he was raised by a mother and Earthly father that sought God’s will for his life. That is the only focus this year.

Yes there will be gifts, there will be yummy food and family memories made. Those are priceless moments that we are gifted with. But above all, it’s Jesus.

Please note, I am not criticizing Santa or telling your kids about him. He was a great man with a powerful message of loving others and spreading joy. But I never thought that I would feel a spiritual freedom once we told our kids the real story behind Santa. I see that Santa, or should I say, being Santa, was a distraction to me in teaching my children the beautiful and heavenly side of Christmas. And I don’t mean them learning the meaning of the day, I mean a relationship, the magnitude.

This year, we are free from Santa. We are not distracted by what everyone if getting. We aren’t distracted by where the elves moved. It’s singing the Christmas songs, knowing the true meaning, and finding the classics like “Joy to the World”, “Little Drummer Boy”, “Silent Night” (the list goes on) to be another form of worship. All of these being a way to thank God for sending his son, allowing him to be raised into a man here, and for saving us. It is truly a season of reflection.