“You’d better not shout, you’d better not cry. You’d better not pout, I’m telling you why. Santa Claus is coming to town.”

For many parents, the promise of Santa’s imminent arrival can serve as a useful behaviour check for otherwise unruly (or sugar-poisoned) offspring. But as Christmas rolls around once more, inevitable questions surface around the barbecue: “do you do Santa with your kids?”

Children’s ministry worker Matt Gorton from QuizWorx leaves it up to his kids.

“We talk to our kids about how some people play a game called Santa, and it’s up to them whether they want to play that game,” he says.

“We tell them it’s not a good idea to wreck the game for anybody else, and that we’re happy if they want to play along, and we’ll play along too. But we want the to know what Christmas is really all about– Jesus.”

In 2012, Matt is touring schools with QuizWorx’s Christmas puppet message, and it’s all about Santa versus Jesus. The puppets keep coming up with reasons why Santa is better – “like, ‘he’s the most Christmas-sy guy around”, says Matt – but those reasons are countered with the truth about Jesus.

“We say, Jesus is the reason for Christmas. Christmas has Jesus Christ’s name in it. No Jesus, no Christmas. So Jesus wins that round.”

“We keep repeating over and over again – Santa might be good, but Jesus is better.”

Matt says a similar conversation can play out at home. “I don’t think you want to trash Santa too much, but you can use him to point to Jesus. The kids could even make up their own reasons why they think Santa might be better, and the parents can respond and point out how Jesus tops it.”

Julie Miller, mother of four and blogger (at The Useful Box) loves the excitement and anticipation of celebrating Christmas with her children. “I love making new traditions in our family,” she says. “Those things that will be repeated year after year, and that our children will remember. I also love that we can centre many of those traditions around remembering Jesus.”

Julie and her husband Matt use every opportunity to direct their children to Jesus at Christmas. For example, she says, “When they point out the giant decorative Santa Claus on a roof, we will say something like ‘That’s huge isn’t it, but is that what Christmas is really about…?’”

In helping their young preschool age children learn the Christmas message, Julie and Matt try to engage with the Bible in a few ways. Firstly, they read the overall story from children’s Bibles and books (most of the pre-bed reading in December is Christmas stories). Secondly, they read short passages (2-3 verses) from their Bibles for detail, and add in a few craft activities or play activities (such as making a nativity scene, using a doll for baby Jesus) to help their children engage with the details.

One of Julie’s most engaging ideas is using a family advent calendar as something other than a chocolate storehouse.

“To keep us focused in the lead-up to Christmas, I put together an advent calendar with Bible readings which we use throughout December.”

“The calendar divides up Bible passages with questions and relevant activities. We do the Bible readings/ questions after dinner (with my husband), and I will usually do a follow-up activity during the day or the following day. Some days the activities don’t get done and some days we do three or four in a row, but the Bible readings do tend to get done, and that’s the priority.”

Here are some practical tips from Julie to keep your kids engaged with the real Christmas story this year:

• Start small – Use established routines – like breakfast or dinner times – to read the Christmas story from the Bible. Or take a secular Christmas celebration to promote discussion around the Bible’s version of Christmas.
• Use music – Our kids learn so well from music, and know the lyrics to most of the songs. We love Colin Buchanan’s The King of Christmas DVD and CD.
• Make a popular tradition Christ-focused – instead of (or in addition to!) chocolate, have a Bible verse or Bible-centred activity in your advent calendar.
• Promote generosity and giving – Giving and generosity are part of the secular message of Christmas, but it’s an outworking of Jesus’ grace to us and in us. Get kids involved with something like Operation Christmas Child or the Kmart/Salvation Army wishing tree, or making their own cards or gifts for people who serve them throughout the year.

Here are a couple of other tips and encouragements we’ve stumbled across on engaging kids with Jesus this Christmas:

John Piper:

• “Build God-centred anticipation and expectancy and excitement into your home – especially for the children. If you are excited about Christ, they will be too…Bend the efforts of your imagination to make the wonder of the King’s arrival visible for the children.” From Good News and Great Joy, 2012 Christmas advent e-book, Desiring God.

Billy Graham:

* “…Once the excitement dies down, take time to teach your children about the greatest Christmas gift of all: the Lord Jesus Christ. Each of them will probably have a favourite gift once all the presents are opened, and they’ll probably be happy to talk about it if you ask them…Some day (you might point out), that gift might break or be lost, or they’ll grow tired of it… But remind them that God’s Christmas gift to us never grows old or gets broken — because His gift is eternal. (1 Peter 1:4).” From Billy Graham’s My Answer 

Check out Bible Society’s Christmas animations for kids. Here’s a taste, or click here to view the series.

More practical tips, courtesy of Pinterest:

“This Christmas give your kids four gifts, one thing they really want, one they need, one they can wear and one they can read. If children receive only a few gifts, each one means so much more. I’m doing it this year! Image: Tori Crook

“Have a shelf of kid-friendly Nativities for my grandchildren to play with so they will learn the true meaning of Christmas from a very early age.” Image: Debby Taylor-Stringfellow

Have paper tags with written messages. “Have kids write what Christmas means to them, and put their pictures on them. Have friends/family write notes of encouragement and gift.” Then use the paper tags as tree decorations / ornaments. Image: Sara Pruegert

“Have a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas – fun for kids & helps to bring the true meaning of Christmas into focus for the little ones & grown ups too!” Image: Julie Gee-Fouhy