Yes, we’ve had this discussion before. Is it right to continue playing the Santa Claus hoax to our kids? Should we let them through all this only to find later in life that it was all a lie?
Some parents have altogether thrown away their Santa uniforms vowing never to teach an untruth to their kids. The fantasy of some jolly fat dressed-all-in-red man with a funny looking cap on his head, sliding thru the chimney and leaving gifts to the worthy kids – some parents have deemed this unworthy to live on. It is a lie as big and fat as the subject. And so, during the Christmas season, they make sure any image of Santa Claus is excluded from the whole set. And as soon as the young ones start asking questions about Santa - because they heard the other kids excitedly talking about the gifts they receive from Santa, telling about seeing all-red Santa tiptoeing out of their house in the middle of the night, or perhaps wondering why some giant elf-looking man is dancing around in the mall – the parents tell them the ‘facts’. That Santa Claus is a make-believe character created by our great, great grandparents for their children. That Santa never really existed. That the Santa that other kids are telling you about is really their own dads masquerading as Santa!
Every time this topic arises, I always find myself sticking it out with the side I believe is right. I say, yes, let the fantasy live on.
When I was a kid, living in some rural nowhere, Christmas always invoked the thought of gifts from Santa Claus. My parents playfully and secretly place the gifts on our sacks as soon as we children fall asleep. And when we wake up and find these gifts and excitedly rush to their beds announcing our treasures, they would put on their perfectly planned and timed surprised expressions and asked us what we got and who gave them to us.
This fantasy played on unbroken until after the 6th grade. I’ve always been fond of reading. Every now and then, I read of some stories about the Santa thing. Some stories tell of the Santa hoax. But this was always overwhelmingly overridden by the children’s book stories of the ‘real’ jolly Santa from the North Pole that I re-read every so often. Sometime after the 6th grade however, I read about the ‘hoax’ thing again, and then got feedback from some of my friends. My dad, on being confronted about it, paused and looked at me, looked at mom, and said: “The kid’s grown up now, mom.” And he proceeded to tell me the truth. But he warned me not to tell my other younger brother and sisters about it. We, grown ups, should keep this a secret, he said. If emotions could be heard, I would probably have heard the sound of things crumbling and shattering, as I was then feeling like some little inner world collapsing as its supports were suddenly ripped away. Knowing that Christmas will never be the same again, I felt like I lost a very, very dear friend. It took a few silent moments to settle down. Then I began to feel better again as I looked at my dad. So, he is our Santa Claus! My very, very dear friend is still with me after all. But, like I said, some of the magic of Christmas was lost. The side that was secret and funnily mysterious was gone.
So, am I going to let my kids, now that I’m a dad, suffer the same fate I had? Absolutely!!! Remembering the Christmases I had during my childhood years always makes me feel warm and fuzzy, Santa being one of the central figures in it. And I can’t help but thank my dad and mom for letting me believe a lie for a few years in my life. And I am not about to deny this much excitement and magic for my kids.
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