Visiting Father Christmas

Today I took the boys to visit Father Christmas (Santa) at Hatton Country World.

Whilst this was fun and the boys got nice gifts we do have the difficult question of do we say that Father Christmas is real or not?

Visiting Father Christmas at Hatton

What do we say?

• Presents are from Mummy, Daddy and relatives
• Jesus who we celebrate at Christmas is real (see some of my other posts about being a Christian)
• Many people believe in Father Christmas but we don't

What don't we say?

• If you are naughty you won't get any presents (would we really follow this through?)
• Father Christmas is real and brings you gifts
• If you don't believe in Father Christmas you won't get any presents

Why don't we say he is real?

We want our boys to really know Jesus for themselves in their lives.  We are worried if that they find out one day that Father Christmas is not real then they may think that Jesus is not real.

Does this make us bad parents?

I don't think so.  We have had one difficult moment when Philip was in Reception class (aged about 5) and told his friends that there was no such thing as Father Christmas.