This week has been a reality check for me. I have realized that Christmas is in fact coming whether I am ready or not. I think it was spurred by our first real arrival of snow. Yay, for our pretty snow! Stewart would be the first to tell you that I have been running around like a crazy trying to meet my deadlines for my business and keep us all feed and clothed while not having a car most of the week. And now with my business seemingly under control I have decided I better start Christmas shopping, planning, and tradition making. In all of this I keep returning to my on going dilemma about what to tell my children concerning Santa Clause. I realize my hesitance to tell my children that some fat man is going to fly to our pretend chimney and shove Christmas presents into our house makes me a bit of a Christmas loser, but I was raised knowing it was all just fun pretend so it is really hard for me to give into telling my kids there is a Santa. I know this is a highly sensitive subject as it delves deep into some of our most tender memories and traditions and I see both sides of the argument. Pro Santa: Its fun, it helps create the magic, its a national tradition, my kids will be missing out on some magical childhood experiences, and that they might be like me and grow up a little faster then most kids.
Anti Santa: Kids get way to wound up in a pretend God when they have a real one they should be focusing on, I don't want to put energy into lying to my kids, having to worrying about when they realize he is fake, and I turned out fine without a fat flying man in my childhood. So here I am undecided. I remember being in third grade and my friend sitting at lunchtime telling me that she saw Santa flying by her window. I just said, "don't lie". I never told her he was fake but I thought she was so lame. All the other kids believed her and wanted all the details. I didn't like feeling disconnected from my peers by not believing in Santa, but I didn't want to give up on logic and believe in something so obviously retarded either. And that goes for the easter bunny and the tooth fairy too. I did kind of believed in the tooth fairy when I was really young but the easter bunny was super lame to me. I just couldn't believe a huge bunny would leave me eggs. What was a bunny doing with a bunch of eggs anyways! But back to Santa; maybe I will not put energy into the application of either side of the argument. I will mark gifts "from Santa" but I don't have to make them write him letters if they don't bring it up themselves. I guess for now that is what I have decided I will play along but not try to make my kids believe, if they want to then I wont wreck it for them but I wont push it either. I hope then when we sit down to talk about Christmas I can tell them about Jesus and not a pretend man who will never make any of their wishes come true no matter how much they believe in him. So sorry to be a Christmas downer. :0) You can all carry on with your cherished traditions and know I don't think ill of them, I am just trying to figure out what will be my family's Christmas traditions. thanks for letting me have a platform to rant on.
2020 goals
6 years ago
2 comments:
Yeah, you and I have talked about this so you know I have the same issue. I guess what I think is that I love to pretend, as long as they know that it's imagination and fun we're doing. When the boys tell me that they want something for Christmas, I tell them they have to ask Santa, not me. So I go back and forth. I guess what I do is play along and talk about Santa until I think they are not just playing along anymore and really think he's real, and then I start to tone it down. I never flat out tell them that he's not real, but if they ask me questions about him being real, I always tell them the truth in a nice way, "There really once was a Saint Nicholas and he gave out presents, and we sure like to pretend that he's for real, even Mommy!"
In addition, we are thinking about having the same tradition as Dad and getting a suit for Lee to come and visit them Christmas Eve in. Then it would solve the dilemma! No kid can mistake their own Dad, no matter how silly he's being! Then we don't have to "ruin" the fun, it is fun to have Santa come. Yet, they intuitively will get it.
What a dilehma. All I know is that every kid in my kindergarten class is crazy for the big guy. Its a whole lot of fun for them.
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