{"id":1731,"date":"2012-12-06T16:01:19","date_gmt":"2012-12-06T14:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/?p=1731"},"modified":"2019-12-20T11:21:23","modified_gmt":"2019-12-20T09:21:23","slug":"what-to-tell-your-kids-about-santa-claus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/what-to-tell-your-kids-about-santa-claus\/","title":{"rendered":"What to Tell Your Kids About Santa Claus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Christmas is the only time of year when it&#8217;s generally considered OK to lie to your children! It&#8217;s an American tradition and it gets them to behave! We have no problem telling Billy that if he stops throwing a fit then when the man in the red suit comes for a visit he will leave presents instead of coal.<\/p>\n<p>Christina and I decided to diverge from mainstream American culture on this issue and instead just tell our children the truth!<\/p>\n<p>This is what we tell them about Santa Clause:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>He doesn&#8217;t live in the North Pole<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>He doesn&#8217;t give good kids presents<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>He doesn&#8217;t come down the chimney<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On the other hand:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h4><strong>He was a real person<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>He is often called Saint Nickolas or Nickolas of Myra, where he served as a bishop. He was born in Turkey around 270 and died on December 6, 343.\u00a0\u00a0Today his bones lay at rest in a\u00a0Basilica\u00a0in Bari, Italy.<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h4><strong>He gave gifts to children<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>He was known for his generosity and often gave gifts secretly to those in need but he didn&#8217;t limit his gift giving to children.<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h4><strong>He believed in Jesus<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>The reason for his generosity was simple, he believed in Jesus and was compelled to follow his example of love! He was such a fierce follower of Jesus that some say he slapped Arius in the face at the council of Nicea when he denied that Jesus was God!<\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_1747\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1747\" data-attachment-id=\"1747\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/what-to-tell-your-kids-about-santa-claus\/nicholas-myra1-1\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Nicholas-Myra1-1.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"290,360\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;Picasa&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1354798070&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Nicholas Myra1 (1)\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Nicholas-Myra1-1.jpg\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1747\" title=\"Nicholas Myra1 (1)\" src=\"http:\/\/69.89.31.195\/~sukofami\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Nicholas-Myra1-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"290\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Nicholas-Myra1-1.jpg 290w, https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Nicholas-Myra1-1-241x300.jpg 241w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 290px) 100vw, 290px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1747\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The real Saint Nickolas<\/p><\/div>\n<p>It&#8217;s ironic that the contemporary version of Saint Nickolas is oddly silent about his faith.<\/p>\n<p>Rather than just going along with cultural flow we need to stop and think for a minute about what we are teaching our children.\u00a0They need to know the truth! Christmas is about Jesus!<\/p>\n<p>Saint Nickolas can serve as a great example of a faithful follower of Jesus but he should never be raised above that.<\/p>\n<p>And by the way, December 6th is Saint Nickolas Day so <strong>Happy Saint Nickolas Day!<\/strong><\/p>\n<h4>Question: What do you tell your kids about Santa Claus? How do you help your kids keep Jesus as the center of Christmas?<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Christmas is the only time of year when it&#8217;s generally considered OK to lie to your children! It&#8217;s an American tradition and it gets them to behave!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[31],"tags":[68,59,114,246],"class_list":["post-1731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-writing","tag-children","tag-christmas","tag-parenting","tag-santa-claus"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Traditional-Santa-Claus4.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3izZc-rV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4820,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/merry-christmas-dear-friend\/","url_meta":{"origin":1731,"position":0},"title":"Merry Christmas Dear Friend","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"December 25, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Dear Friend, I arose while it was still dark this Christmas morning, Made my way past the children who were still soundly\u00a0snoring, Sat down on the couch and looked at the tree. It was quiet and peaceful as far as I could see. But then I remembered the news of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Family&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Family","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/DSC01609.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/DSC01609.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/DSC01609.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":313,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/0-years-old-birthday-party\/","url_meta":{"origin":1731,"position":1},"title":"0 Years Old Birthday Party","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"February 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Just one of many \"mothers\" for Nickolas.Nickolas enjoying quality time with his big brother.The Suko kids plus a few cousins all celebrating Nickolas' birthday!","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Updates&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Updates","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/updates\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1770,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/suko-kids-on-life-in-ukraine\/","url_meta":{"origin":1731,"position":2},"title":"Suko Kids on Life in Ukraine","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"December 10, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I interviewed 4 of our 5 kids (Nickolas was sleeping) about life in Ukraine. \u00a0They answered the following questions; Where do you live? What do you like about Ukraine? What kind of foods do you eat in Ukraine? What are some things you can teach us in Russian? How\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Family&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Family","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17251,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/nickolas-gives-his-perspective-on-life-in-ukraine-during-war\/","url_meta":{"origin":1731,"position":3},"title":"Nickolas Gives His Perspective on Life in Ukraine During War","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"November 8, 2023","format":"video","excerpt":"I interviewed our youngest son, Nickolas about his experience living for 1.5 years during war time in Odesa, Ukraine. You might be surprised by some of his answers.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Ukraine&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Ukraine","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/ukraine-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":331,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/new-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":1731,"position":4},"title":"New Life","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"May 31, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This is past weekend was our last in Minnesota. We have had a great time staying with Dick and Joy Ivance. Christina translated for the Ivances about 15 years ago when on one of their first trips to Ukraine. They have continued to travel to Ukraine several times a year\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Updates&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Updates","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/updates\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":324,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/1st-baptist-of-kirkland\/","url_meta":{"origin":1731,"position":5},"title":"1st Baptist of Kirkland","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"April 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday we had a wonderful time visiting our friends at First Baptist in Kirkland. Naomi and Anastasia look excited to get going so early in the morning. Mishael and Noelle got the privileged of sitting next to Nickolas. Noelle and Nickolas getting ready for worship.PS. Last time we visited 1st\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Updates&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Updates","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/updates\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1731"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12126,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1731\/revisions\/12126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}