To Santa or Not to Santa...

While I was pregnant, Mr. Sass and I had this "debate" about Christmas. I grew up with the whole Santa charade and he did not. For him, it was never about Santa, always about the birth of Christ. My family balanced the 2. He didn't want to "lie" to our child, and I...well I want to "lie" to him!! It was always so much fun as a kid waiting for Santa and looking out the window trying to see him. Waking up in the morning and seeing the mess he made with the cookies, and the presents he left. I wanted that for Mason. I don't want to forget the real reason of the season either.
This debate was ongoing. Luckily Mason was born 11 days before Christmas so that first year was easy. We did stuff him into a stocking and took him to see Santa though.

Let me fast track to current day and save the rambling: I won.
We have a nice balance of secular and sacred. Mason believes in Santa but knows all about Jesus and is learning that we are celebrating His birthday. We've kept traditions of both families and I think we got the best of both worlds.

Christmas is so much fun this year. Mason really gets it. He's so excited for Santa. He watches his MAGIC SANTA video a lot (parents..check that out!!) and even visited the good ol' Mall Santa. He went straight over and shared a good laugh with Santa. Santa took lots of extra time with him (since all the other kids were apparently at the Santa Clause Parade in town that day). When Mason hopped down I heard him say "ohhh thank you Santa" when he got his candy cane. Santa was laughing and shaking his head. He looked over at us and said "well, that was a first!" It came as NO shock to us that Mason had asked for a ceiling fan for his room (with a remote). That's ALL the sweet boy wants for Christmas. A fan for his room.

I told Santa he better deliver or the kid is going to be crushed!

He asks me frequently if it's time to bake cookies for Santa and get his fan. We got him an Advent calendar to help him count down.

Have I mentioned how much fun this is?!

As a side note, I'd also like to say that I am proud of Mason. He's learning that it's not all about presents (which by the way I'll be shocked if he opens..he's not a present type of kid so far!). We did 2 Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes which he picked out a ton of things for. We picked a boy and a girl of the same age as Mason so he could pick out things he liked. We explained to him that there were some kids that wouldn't get toys and treats like he does. He asked me if they were crying. He didn't want them to cry. He took it very seriously. It broke my heart and made me proud at the same time. We have a great little boy.

So the moral of this here story (if there is one) is that:

1) I always win.

2) You can have the best of both worlds.

3) My son is damn cute. Check out his Santa picture:

Of course Lion made the cut there too. I had no intention of seeing Santa so he's kind of dressed like a little Pooker...but what can you do?