Dear Mommies and Daddies (in whatever combination you are),
I was reading a blog by a seemingly perfect woman, who is raising her children perfectly with perfect manners, perfect grades, perfect posture, and, I am sure, perfect punctuation.
Already cringing, I was captivated by this unexpected line in her blog:
We (because she is pat of a perfect couple raising her perfect children) have decided to tell our children there is no Santa Claus.
GASP! SHUDDER! WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE WORLD????
She backed up her reasoning by saying she does not want to "lie to her children thus creating an atmosphere where they will lie to her (or them) in return."
Ooooookay. So kid turns 16, lies about its gender nuetral whereabouts and when questioned will not be able to say, "Oh yeah? Well YOU said there was a Santa Claus!"
Mommy Blogger also said "They would be telling the children the gifts came from them."
Do they want the temporary gratitude of gifts received?
My children were raised with a Santa Claus, an Easter Bunny, and a Tooth Fairy. As was I.
Sure as I grew up I did the math and figured out there was no possible way Jolly Ole Saint Nick could make it to all the children in all the world in one night. (I was under the belief that everyone had Santa and did not know Santa was only for some religiously based families).
I watched all the claymation shows I still love and adore. I would lie under the tree and look up at the lights. I had a favorite ornament that I got to put on the tree every year. (I still have it).
As I grew up, my friends and I would talk about Santa, about how each of us in our own way waited for him, tried to sleep, tried to stay awake to hear him, worried about the fire in the fire place. It was magical.
I believe in a magical childhood where children can believe anything they want to believe.
Okay so that ended up with one trip to the ER when my daughter believed she could fly and leapt wholeheartedly off the front steps. To be fair she DID fly, she just also landed.
For one of my daughters, we used to put tea cups filled with sugar water out on her windowsill for the fairies to drink. Her bleary eyes trying to see them as she fell asleep.
Years later when I hung sugar water for hummingbirds, she watched and said it reminded her of the fairies and thought it was beautiful. She did not go into a fit about why I lied and told her about fairies to begin with, much less set out water that only attracted ants.
My grown children all tell stories of how I was able to get them to do chores without fighting because "Santa was watching."
I often heard them say it to each other.
On Christmas morning as a parent I loved to watch as each child rushed up to me to show me what Santa had brought them. I did not expect a thank you -- seeing them so excited was enough.
Maybe I am just Saturday Evening Post and Radio Flyer optimistic. But if you are going to tell your children there is no Santa, be sure to get all the facts right and tell them, the tree is Pagan, it is the celebration of the Winter Solstice, and Jesus was born on or about April 17th. A Pope decided to set His birthday closer to the solstice to get the heathens in line and stop with their Pagan nonsense.
(You can bring that up again for Easter.)
My children dreamt not of sugarplums, but something very similar -- Hershey's Kisses and Chanukka gelt. So as you stuff your stockings with Fair Trade gifts, and candy bars that taste like cardboard, look back to your own childhood.
Did you believe in a Santa Claus? Was your heart so broken when you realized there wasn't one that you decided to take away any magic from your own child?
I hope my children take all of our traditions and pass them down to their own children, so they can experience the joy of remembering and the joy of watching it again with their children.
As for Perfect Mommy Blogger out there, enjoy telling your children you had to stand in line and wait two hours for that perfect toy that they will have forgotten by next Christmas. What memories are you making with them?
Happy Festivus.
