I enjoy traditions just as much as the next person. I enjoy being festive, giving gifts, and spending time with my family and friends around Christmas time.

However, some traditions I care nothing about whatsoever. They do nothing for me so I feel little obligation to adhere to them. Call me Scrooge. Call me the Grinch. Call me an old fashioned stick-in-the-mud if you like, but as my maternal grandfather from Carbon Hill, Ala., might say, “Don’t make me no nevermind.” Therefore, getting an early start on the year end lists, here’s my very short holiday list of things that should be retired, changed or just totally forgotten.

First, the Christmas tree itself. It doesn’t really matter if it is real or fake. I couldn’t care less if it has homemade ornaments, tinsel, popcorn, or any derivation of the aforementioned clutter. Christmas trees are bulky, messy and just plain odd. Stemming from paganism and grossly unpopular in the United States until the early 1900s, the Christmas tree has absolutely nothing in common with the birth of Christ.

In fact, our spiritual ancestors condemned many of today’s widely used customs as “heathen traditions” which profaned such a beautiful celebration as the birth of the Savior. This time I side with the tree huggers - bypass the Fraser fir.

The second tradition to get voted off Christmas Island is the fat guy in the red suit. Some call him Santa Claus, but when Brooklyn and Faith were younger they thought that he was a strange depiction of Noah.

We always used to get the weirdest looks in Walmart when some well-meaning elderly gentleman would stop the buggy and ask our girls if Santa Claus was going to come see them this year. It was rather comical when the answer returned by two preschoolers in pigtails was, “No, sir, Santa Claus isn’t real.”

Nina and I made a decision long ago not to lie to our children about anything. Over the years we have chosen to take the credit for whatever presents they may open on Christmas Day, instead of giving same said credit to a fictional Grizzly Adams dressed in combat boots and a red and white velour suit that they will never meet.

God-fearing Mom and Dad, does it bother you at all to tell little Johnny that Santa Claus knows if he’s been good or bad? Just to be clear, St. Nick is not omniscient, but Jesus Christ sure is. Doesn’t it muddle the waters even a little when Susie gets an exorbitant amount of presents from everyone under the sun even though she has been a complete and unsufferable brat ever since last Christmas?

Last week in her kindergarten class, our youngest daughter Trinity was given a page to color with Santa’s likeness on it. When Nina went to pick her up that day, the teacher wanted to know a little more about how our family believes. All the other kids rendered Santa Claus in proper attire. Trin drew psychedelic Santa, decked out in purples, pinks, greens and yellows. Apparently she couldn’t recall what he would normally wear.

Yet, the same K-5 teacher thought it sort of abnormal that she thought on her own the day before to draw a manger scene. Isn’t that the way it should be?

This year, and from now on, why don’t we trade Santa in for Jesus and the tree for the manger? If we did it would be much more like Christmas.

Contact Michael Andrzejewski at preacher@mbcportugalmissions.com