My son looked me straight in the eyes last week, and boldly blurted out that he knows Santa Claus doesn’t exist. I didn’t know how to react, especially because every year, I complain about the fat, jolly, white bearded man that gets all the credit for flying his pimped out sleigh around the world in less than eight hours to squeeze through chimneys, climb fire escapes and climb through basement windows to leave gifts that his underpaid elves built…just for all the well behaved and deserving children of the world. I stand to the side every year as my child rips through all the gifts that me and babe buy with our hard earned money…only to give a man that I have yet to meet face to face, the credit for brilliantly knowing every detail of my child’s greatest desires and wants.
So I should be happy that I no longer have to put up the charade and act as if Santa Claus exists – right? Well, that’s a tough pill to swallow…especially since my childhood memories are so close to the forefront of my mind, and I can remember every detail about Christmas as a child. The magical notion that sleigh bells rang throughout the thick darkness of the midnight hour as families slept through the night, and everything on my wish list appeared under the Christmas tree. Christmas was the most happiest, magical, spiritual and exciting time in my life as a child. I remember life being so hopeful and bright. Everyone around me seemed joyful.
I believe I was the same age as my son is now, 11 years old, when my world was disrupted from the evidence that Santa Claus was a myth. I held onto his existence as long as I could…until a friend of mine thought it was her duty to show me all of her letters to Santa that were recovered from her mother’s dresser drawer. I look back often on the conversation between her and I, where she felt it was her obligation to turn my world upside down. I guess I didn’t want my son to loose his innocence and the magical feeling that brings happiness among children during this season.
However, in the parallel realistic universe where bills, mortgages and full-time jobs exists, both mommy and daddy can finally get the credit that we deserve for sacrificing so much to see our children smile.
I guess it is time for both of us to realize the truth and own it…there is no Santa Claus flying around the world in a red sleigh…but there are Reindeer, and no one can take that from me!