Ann and I have never made a huge deal about Santa Claus. When I was a kid, my parents told me the truth about Santa when I was about six, and I recall thinking that I kind of already knew it was all a big myth. I want my kids to have enough fun with it to not ruin it for the other kids, but I also don't want them to ever have reason to question the REAL Christmas story.
A couple weeks before Christmas the Monkey and I had the following conversation:
Me: "Hey, buddy, you know Santa Claus isn't REALLY real, right?"
Him: "Yeah." (Long pause). "But if that's true, then who leaves the presents under the tree?"
Me: "Well, Mommy and I do."
Him: "But then who leaves the presents for you and Mommy?"
Me: "Mommy and I leave those presents too."
Him, after another long pause: "But then you know what the presents are."
Me: "Yeah, that's right."
At this point I made a critical error. I blinked. I imagined his confused little mind, and somehow thought I would make it better by blurting out:
"Unless Santa really does it."
Him: "Daddy, you're making this ALL up."
And that was the end of that conversation. He'd determined that I had no idea what I was talking about. About a week later, out of nowhere, he asked, "Daddy, who really leaves the presents under the tree? For real?" I said, "Mommy and I do." I guess he decided that I'd told him the truth this time, because he said "Okay," and that was that.
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4 comments:
We had trouble with Santa too. We kind of ignored him until this year. Our compromise is that Santa leaves the gifts in the stocking which are small and we give the good gifts. We figure this will decrease the emphasis on Santa now and the disappointment later.
So.....THAT'S why I didn't have anything under the Christmas tree this year!!! I've got to leave them myself???? Bummer!!! Now I've got to figure out what the "Rain Deer" droppings in my yard on Christmas Day really are!!!
santa leaves 3 presents for the kids - because the 3 wise men left 3 for Jesus. our santa honors Jesus. :) but he does not wrap presents. they only have one other present, the one from us. it's slim around here on Christmas morning. since they know Christmas is not about presents they've never complained about only getting 4...but they are 2,4 & 6. i'm sure they'll figure out they are getting jipped soon enough.
I grew up with Santa giving unwrapped gifts then the rest coming from family/friends. This is what I want for Joy also. We started this year and will continue to try to have Santa only do 3 gifts and the rest come from Mom and Dad. Difficulty there is Santa doesn't wrap and mom hates to!
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