Do your kids believe in Santa? When my kids were young, one of the greatest pleasures of the season was to talk about Santa. The night before Christmas, help the kids write a letter to Santa and leave a plate of cookies and carrots (hey, reindeer need to eat too!). Late that night, I’d leave my own letter “from Santa” in response and take a few bites of the cookies and carrots, intentionally leaving a few crumbs on the plate.
As my children grew older, they began to suspect something wasn’t quite right with the whole Santa thing. ”Why does Santa’s handwriting look just like yours?” one angel asked. I began to compose my notes on the computer instead. Ha! Outsmarted a six-year-old. I felt so proud.
Then, “why is the wrapping paper on the gift from Santa the same as the wrapping paper on presents from you and Daddy?” Gulp. Well, my dear, I’d respond, in my best Grinchy voice. ”Santa brought them here, but he has so many presents to deliver, I offered to help him out with the wrapping.”
They may not have believed me, but they went along with it. After all, we’re talking presents! But eventually, I realized that they were going to learn the truth, whether they found out from classmates, from a slip-up from me, or just from realizing the strategic impossibility of it all. To prepare them, I started talking about the “spirit” of Santa, and how it lives in all of us, emphasizing why we really celebrate Christmas, etc.
I don’t know when the blinders were removed, but, suffice to say, none of my teenagers still believe that Santa is real.
I asked one of my angels when he found out, and surprisingly, he was still kind of upset about it. Not that Santa wasn’t real, but that I had actively encouraged him to believe otherwise.
In my mind, I was building childhood memories, but maybe I was just setting him up for disappointment. Maybe I was just too influenced by repeated viewings of “Miracle on 34th Street” myself.
What do you think? If you celebrate Christmas, do you tell your children that Santa is real? How do they find out otherwise? If not, do you think the magical part of Christmas is as strong without that belief?
December 13, 2011 at 2:39 pm
My kids (10-16) don’t believe in Santa but I pretend that they’re crazy and that he exists. It’s the most harmless fun to me, and I have no idea why people over-think it so much. I was 20 and my mom played dumb when I suggested the jig was up. People are mighty uptight and serious about it if you ask me. It’s a total fun game at my house.