I still believe in Santa

When I was growing up, Christmas was the best holiday of the year. To me, it was even better than my birthday because everybody had a gift to open. On Christmas Eve, I would sing/recite a poem/play hand bells/usher at the Christmas service and then lay awake in anticipation of the next morning. My parents had a  rule that we couldn't get up before 6 a.m., but please believe at 5:59 me and my brother were at their bedroom door begging and pleading, "Can we go downstairs, now? Pleeeaaaasse." They couldn't even get the complete "yes" out their mouth before we hit the stairs, the rumbling of our feet sounding like it was ten of us instead of just two.Then after the "oh, wow's" and the "look what I got" dances, we would run back up the stairs with what we could carry and dump everything in the bed with our parents because they hadn't got out of bed yet and we were way too excited.

Being a kid on Christmas Day was some of the best times I can remember and I try to recreate that for my kids. Even though I explain to my kids that we give gifts as a celebration of the birth of Jesus (let the church say "Amen"), I still want them to feel the joy I felt when I would see gifts under the tree on Christmas morning. If that means pretending that I didn't see two Santa Clause's in the same mall or that I didn't just hear somebody reveal the secret in a movie, than so be it.

If people don't want their children to believe, that's on them, but don't be a jerk and ruin it for the rest of us who go through the motions of trying to create lasting memories for our kids. It's so much negativity around, from bullying, missing kids, hearing about economic issues and sex scandals on the news everyday, it's about time to bring something good in. You may not think that your kids are paying attention, but they are. My son's kindergarten teacher sent home a newsletter telling parents that this is the time when kids not only observe, but repeat back what they hear, so if there is something we don't want the class to know about, keep it to ourselves (she didn't use those exact words, but I know what she meant).

Let your kids be kids. Stop demanding that they grow up so fast. When I found out the truth about Santa I wasn't mad, I was grateful that I had parents who loved me enough to create a magical world for me. Will the big reveal always go that smoothly? Who knows, depends on the child, but as long as they believe I'm gonna keep it going. I'll get up in the middle of the night and put out gifts and My kids don't really want for much- every time I ask, they keep saying the same two or three items, and I think that's mostly do to the fact that I make time for them. We color, we play the Wii together, I take them to Jungle Java or the playground (weather permitting) and we read together some nights. So while the best gift I could give them is my time, the Santa thing is just extra.  I'm going to continue to create those moments because I'm grateful in Santa's ability to make a child's eyes light up and believe in something that they can physically see. The fact that they are on good behavior for a little while helps, too.

Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas!