Thanksgiving is now behind us.

We've enjoyed family we had not seen since the last Thanksgiving.

We've eaten too much, and will continue to do so throughout the weekend.

That means it's officially the Christmas season. Sure, I know the TV commercials have been telling us it's Christmas season for about a month, but now we can actually get into the Christmas spirit.

But what does that mean?

As a nation, America generally celebrates one of two Christmases.

For some, Christmas means trees and lights and gifts and Santa and shopping and food and shopping and shopping.

It's a spirit of whimsical lightheartedness. For these people, you haven't truly entered into the Christmas spirit until you feel like you're 5 years old again, preparing to go to bed early so Santa can leave you all the toys on your wish list. That feeling disappears once you know the truth, and it almost never comes back.

Then there's the other Christmas.

It's the one where celebration means remembering the birth of Jesus Christ.

For those people, getting in the Christmas spirit means acknowledging the faith it took for a young Jewish girl to believe that she could be the virgin with child mentioned in Scripture.

It's acknowledging the faith it took for a Jewish man to believe that his fiancé was pregnant, but had never cheated on him.

It's acknowledging that the birth of this one child changed the world — to the point of pushing the re-set button on the world's calendar. (For school-age kids, there was a time when your school system wasn't afraid to teach that B.C. means "Before Christ" and that A.D., or anno Domini, means "the year of our Lord.")

It's acknowledging that if Jesus had not been born, I couldn't be born again.

For many Americans, Christmas involves a combination of all those things.

Front-yard manger scenes will have Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus being visited by the wise men and Santa, all flocked by farm animals, reindeer and elves.

What's the harm? It's all in good fun, right?

It depends.

Is it possible to teach our children that Christmas is about the Son of God being born into this world so we could be saved by faith because we can't be good enough, but also tell them that a fat guy in a red suit named Santa Claus is going to bring them a bunch of goodies if they'll just be good enough?

Could that be a confusing message?

I was not a Christian when my two boys were toddlers. My wife and I went all-out in celebration of a secular Christmas — the tree, the shopping, the toys, Santa, the whole nine.

But I was a Christian by the time my little girl came along, and she's never believed in Santa. All she's ever known is a Christian Christmas. And I have no regrets about that.

If we put as much effort into making Jesus real as we put into making Santa real, maybe the real Christmas spirit would last past adolescence.