It's fun to see her excitement, the anticipation of this wonderful day she is just starting to understand.
However, I also feel bad that she has to wait. I can only imagine how frustrating that is to someone who barely understands the concept of time and days of the week. We have learned to not tell her too far in advance when we are going to do something fun, but it is kind of hard to keep Christmas a secret!
I also struggle with trying to explain to her the true meaning of Christmas. A 4-year old loves the idea of presents, but has a hard time accepting that they also go to other people. She doesn't get why we donate books at the book store instead of taking them all home. Or especially why we give money to the bell ringer in the grocery store, instead of putting it in her piggy bank. She is excited and confused about the Christmas story, because this is her first year of Sunday school and apparently we have not done as good a job explaining it.
The other night at dinner she grabbed a Christmas decoration with Santa on it and said, "I think this is Jesus dressed up like Santa". We had a good laugh, then had to explain to her that that never would be the case. I suppose it is confusing when we have a manger scene next to a Santa scene in our livingroom.
We want her to have all the wonder and joy that Christmas brings, but also to understand its true meaning. Celebrating the birth of Jesus, being with family and loved ones, giving to people who don't have as much as we do. We want her to get excited about getting presents, but to also love giving them.
I have to remember though that she is four, and that it takes time to understand these things. All we can do is make sure to lead by example, and continue to teach her and explain to her the true meaning of Christmas. That Santa is more about the spirit of giving, and that Christmas is actually a very important birthday.
In the mean time, we still have a long, LONG, long wait!
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