Anticipating Santa

12.23.2010

I’m taking a pass on writing anything remotely interesting. I’ve just been cooking for the past 4 hours and I have to wake up early tomorrow. Boo!

I will say, though, that while I prepped food, I thought about all those times growing up and spending Christmas in Chicago, and how my sister and I would be taken out after dinner to go see all the different decorated houses. We were told that when we got back Santa might be there dropping off gifts so as much as I enjoyed seeing all the different homes, I couldn’t wait until it was time to head back to my grandmother’s. And, of course, every time we arrived, Santa had “just left,” and I remember the feeling of disappointment that I, yet again, wouldn’t be the only kid in my class to come back to school and report that I had, indeed, seen and met Santa. Oddly, almost 30 years later, I could still remember that feeling of anticipation…

What Do You Mean Santa Isn't...?

06.26.2010

Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, leprechauns…remember when you believed they all existed? Do you also remember the day you found out they actually didn’t exist? I think to a kid finding that info out – mostly about Santa – is like adults remembering where they were and what they were doing when JFK got shot. I was in 3^rd grade when a boy told me that Santa doesn’t exist. In true form, I began to debate him and he entered into evidence the fact that he found his gifts in the hall closet wrapped and tagged “from Santa” and we were still weeks away from the actual holiday. Suddenly, at age 8, my world came crashing down on me. I prayed and hoped so much that it wasn’t true but then I saw signs in my own family that proved this boy was correct. If you want to know the truth, 27 years later, every x-mas, there’s still a part of me that thinks…”What if?”

But after all is said and done, would you go through all of it again despite the sadness that you go through when the truth is revealed? I know that some parents are vehemently against telling their kids about Santa or any of the other “silly” cultural lies and, as much as I understand that side, I’m not totally convinced it’s better to not participate in it.

Some argue that it’s a cruel conspiracy in which to include a child and this “plotting” against them is just unnecessary. But I kinda think that’s going a bit overboard. I don’t see how this has become a “conspiracy” or how it has evolved into a “plot” against children in some way. If anything, it’s a plot against parents to suck their bank accounts dry.

I think if I had a child now and he/she found out the truth, it would warrant a discussion about it and to talk through any feelings of sadness. I remember that first x-mas when I knew and as sad as I was, I was hell bent on making sure that my sister, who was 1 ½ at the time would have a kick-ass x-mas. And I made sure of that for every year thereafter until she found out herself. It became a game for me and, if anything, a sort of “initiation” into the world of adulthood: I knew something that other adults knew and the “children” didn’t. Contrary to what some might say, I don’t see the harm but I welcome a different point of view.

p.s. I know it might seem weird that I’m writing about x-mas stuff in the middle of the summer but my brain operates within its own kind of linear progression.