Seeing Santas

We are not much of a "Santa" household. When I was growing up my parents would talk in passing about "Santa," but they never made a very big deal out of it. Their Santa talk trailed off more and more as I got older, and pretty soon I figured out for myself that he wasn't a real person. So maybe that's why I don't emphasize him much to my own kids. In fact, for a while Nathan and I would straight-up tell our girls, "Santa isn't real!" However, that led to some heated arguments ("YES HE IS REAL! WE SAW HIM AT THE MALL!", etc.), so we have backed off somewhat and let them believe what they want about Santa...but we don't usually bring him up ourselves, because we don't want them to feel all betrayed and call us liars when they grow older and learn the truth.

I am an opponent of the "if you don't believe, you don't receive" mentality. To me, Christmas is a celebration of the birth and life of Jesus Christ, and I think "requiring" kids to believe in Santa might obscure that simple fact. It could easily confuse kids as to what their belief "priorities" are. My girls talk SO much about Santa every December, with all the frantic excitement that teenagers show for the latest pop stars. When Lorelai was asked to write an essay in school about Christmas, she said it was "about Santa...and Jesus, too...but also SANTA." I have to repeatedly remind my kids that Christmas is NOT just about Santa & presents, it's about Jesus Christ. When I do this, I am sometimes met with rolled eyes and "Yeah, of course, Mom"s. Is it any wonder that I don't want to talk about Santa in my household any more than I have to?

In spite of all this, let the record state that I am not a "Santa-hater," and I will indulge my girls in their belief so long as they keep a proper perspective on things. And yes, I will also take them to visit "Santa" during the Christmas season, should the opportunity present itself. And this year, my oldest kid visited "Santa" not once, but TWICE.

The first visit came at a town holiday party, held at Sahuarita's Municipal Center. There would be kid's games, booths, activities, and a holiday parade! The parade is what persuaded Lorelai to go with me to the holiday party in the first place...the other girls couldn't be bothered (our usual Saturday laziness had crept in).

I was lazy that morning, too...so much so that by the time we got to the activity, the parade was over! (In fairness, friends told me later it was a very short parade.) Although Lorelai was initially disappointed, when she saw who the party's "special guest" was, she cheered right up.

A week or so later, when the girls were out of school, I decided to brave the pre-Christmas mall crowds and take all the kids to see a mall Santa. The line, as you can imagine, was pretty long, but the kids were so excited they didn't mind the wait. Hopefully this same trick will work when we're standing in long lines at Disneyland later this year.

The mall, of course, wanted me to pay an exorbitant sum to get my kids' pictures taken with Santa. No thanks, I said...and the kids totally agreed with me. They didn't care one bit whether they had a picture with Santa or not; they needed to tell him what they wanted for Christmas!

 

Afterwards, my inner devil's advocate won out for a brief moment. I asked them, "Doesn't it seem weird that Santa was in Tucson, of all places, just two days before Christmas? Why would he do that? Shouldn't he be back getting the final preparations ready in the North Pole? How can we be sure this is, in fact, the real Santa?" Without missing a beat, the girls responded that of course that was the real Santa, and that the elves had all the last-minute preparations well in hand at the North Pole on Santa's behalf.

Ah, the sweet, undying belief of my kids...and many other kids too. Sometimes I wonder if I am a terrible parent for poking holes in their Santa belief. Regardless, the kids don't believe me anyway when I tell them the "truth" about Santa! Hopefully they will believe me later in life, when it counts; ie, when I am teaching them the gospel truths or important life lessons!