"I just don't understand, Mommy."

This is what Carolyn said to me while we were reading a book about the history of Santa Claus called, Santa, Are You For Real?. It's so difficult to help her understand why we don't choose to encourage Santa. I'm all for pretend and using their imaginations, but I won't lie to them. I love telling her the history of Saint Nicolas and how he helped people who were poor BECAUSE he loved Jesus, not because he wanted to be made into an idol years later. One of the things I really don't like about the idea of Santa is that parents use it as a tool to get their kids to behave. "You better be good or Santa won't bring you any presents!" I hate that! Jesus is about grace and love, no matter if you are naughty or nice. I don't want to focus on it, but she has lots of questions. I just want to be prepared and not afraid of the subject, because I don't really have a problem with Santa. I'm just not telling my kids that he comes to our house and brings presents. They can't see Santa, and when they find out he's not real, will they believe me when I tell them Jesus is real, but they can't see Him, either? A wise friend made that point to me once. I don't want my kid being the one telling the other kids he's not real, either, though, which is exactly what happened at school on Monday! She got into an argument with one of her classmates saying, "No he's not real!" I tried to tell her how some people like to pretend, and that's OK. She doesn't need to argue with them about it. She said, "But it's not true, Mommy. He's not real." How do I argue with that? The history is real. I want her to know about Jesus and how He was born to give us eternal life and peace; that we choose to celebrate that and remember Him and look forward to His return for His people. That's what I want to talk about at Christmas and all year round. I'd love to here others' thoughts on the subject.