I’m not sure if I ever believed in Santa Claus.
I’m not sure if I have stopped believing in Santa Claus.
One of my administrative interns, who uses the term ‘crack smoker’ way too much, let a cat out of the bag the other day to her 6 year old. One of my kindergarten teachers has guest readers come every Friday. One Friday Zorro came in full regalia: mask ,boots, and sword. He read a great story. I have proof he was there… see my blog about Zorro. Zorro, much like Superman, can’t make a living out of fighting crime and can’t make a living out of reading stories to little kids. He has to moonlight, or in this case, daylight, as a high school assistant principal. You see, many of the same qualities that are required of a Zorro or a Superman are required of a high school assistant principal. My intern’s daughter just happens to be in that class.
I digress. My intern saw Zorro at a high school sporting event sans the Zorro attire. She tells her sweet little angelic daughter… “see that bald guy over there… that’s the Zorro that came and read to your class!” Which makes me wonder… has she already killed off the tooth fairy, the Easter bunny and Santa with her daughter?
I believe in Santa Claus. I believe in the goodness of what Santa stands for. (Truthfully, the tooth fairy and the Easter bunny freak me out.) Should we encourage our children to believe in these things as well? I think we should. We should all have wonder and amazement somewhere in our lives. We should all have that secret belief that goodness exists. We should take whatever avenue is available to make the world a better place. If believing in Santa (and the tooth fairy and the Easter bunny) are the way to do that, then so be it.
Wonder and amazement are good. Two of the reasons to love elementary school.
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My family is German so we always celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve - I don’t recall ever believing in Santa Claus, other than as a storybook character.
My kids all get gifts from Santa on Christmas morning, they leave cookies & juice (plus carrots for the reindeer!) on Christmas Eve.
So far, whenever my daughter has asked if Santa really exists (she’s 9 now), I’ve escaped any parental lies by asking “what do you think?”
What I’m trying to figure out is how to proceed with this without outright lying to her or have her feel humiliated at school when other kids tease her about believing in Santa?
How do I maintain her trust and keep the wonder of childhood in her life at the same time?
I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Thanks!
Heidi