Our Christ Centered Christmas

Today I received an answer to a silent prayer I have been offering for some time now.
Let me explain. Karl and I have had the feeling for several years now that we should take "Santa" out of Christmas. He has become so commercialized and very few people really stop to think about what he represents. This is sad but obvious. The commercialization of Santa has become a tool that Satan uses to create greed in the hearts of men. It is always amazing too me how Satan takes so many good things and uses them to actually become exactly opposite of what they represent. It's so sad.
This year we decided to go with our feelings and let our children know that we were going to have a Christ Centered Christmas, no Santa. At first they were a little surprised. They were worried that they wouldn't get "lot's of fun stuff" for Christmas. This confirmed my thoughts on Santa creating greed, because my children have never been what I would call greedy. They have never been the type to write a long list of things they want, and their response to Santa when he asked what they wanted for Christmas was always: "I don't care, I know I'll like whatever you bring me."
They are still a bit unsure about Christmas without Santa and I have been also, but I just kept getting this overwhelming feeling that this is what we needed to do. Then today I was reading in my May 2008 Conference Report Ensign and read Sister Lant's talk "Righteous Traditions". I had an overwhelming feeling of peace as I read these words: "The most important traditions are connected with the way we live our lives and will last beyond us as our children's lives are influenced and shaped. What kinds of traditions do we have? Are they what we want them to be? Are they based on actions of righteousness and faith? Are they mostly material in nature, or are they eternal? Are we consciously creating righteous traditions, or is life just happening to us? Are our traditions being created in response to the loud voices of the world, or are they influenced by the still, small voice of the Spirit? Are the traditions that we are creating in our families going to make it easier for our children to follow the living prophets, or will they make it difficult for them?"
As I continued to read my Heavenly Father again spoke peace to my heart through Sister Lant as she said: "Our efforts must be toward hearing the interpretations of the Spirit rather than the understandings of the world."

As she asked this questions towards the end of her beautiful talk: "Will their hearts and lives be full of traditions that make it easy for them to accept and follow the Lord and the latter-day prophets?" my heart was gladdened to know that the Lord approved of what we were doing with our family because we could, in regard to this tradition, shout "YES!"

I'm so thankful for the tender mercy of my Father in Heaven. He, despite His endless work, granted me a knowledge of His acceptance of our actions, and gave me peace in knowing that He approves of us striving to put our Lord and Savior at the head of our Christmas season.