I just had a horrible sinking feeling in my stomach.
What am I going to do once The Crew discovers there is no man in a red suit who delivers presents on Christmas?
I mean, I’m all about advancing the Santa myth. Heck, I believe in Santa Claus (though not necessarily in the traditional sense). I wrote about him last year (and that post continues to get the most hits of any on my blog!).
In any case, I had a sudden attack of guilt when I was threatening Bito with calling Santa Claus because his behavior has been so atrocious this morning. And then I thought: OMG. One day I will have to look Bito in the eye and admit there is no Santa Claus. He’s going to give me the most reproachful face and wonder why I lied to him all this time. Because, you see, Bito buys it hook-line-and-sinker. He loves Santa Claus and I think he’ll be extremely disappointed to discover it’s Mommy and Daddy who have been doing all the Santa-Clausing all this time.
I dropped my calling-Santa-threat and retreated to my computer to pour out my guilt-ridden heart here. I don’t know what to do, but I guess I don’t have to do anything about it right now. I still have Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to get through…then maybe I’ll be able to move past my guilt. I’m all for tabling it until next year.
Merry Christmas!
Wonderful post! Ahh, the magic Santa brings. You know my eight year old still believes. Oh, he’s wise enough to know that the mall Santa’s are just “helpers,” but he does still believe in the *real* Santa, which is lovely. I’m a firm believer of letting children enjoy their childhoods as long as they want (while they’re still children, of course!), and I think it’s wonderful that your kids still believe. Like all kids, they’ll come to their own understanding when it’s time.
Many blessings to you and your family this year! Hope to catch you ’round a knitting circle again
I don’t remember being angry at my parents for lying to me about Santa. I think I just felt like a big kid for figuring the trick out. I do look forward to many years of Santa induced good behavior. I’ll cross the guilt trip bridge when I get to it.
Merry belated Christmas!!
I’ve been waiting year after year for my older one to figure it out. She’s almost 8 now, and still believes.
One of my nephews believed for a very long time. Well into elementary school. And he has really happy memories of it. But he once said, as a teenager, that his favorite Christmas was the year he “broke the code.” Those were his words as he was telling this at a church gathering where younger kids were present and he didn’t want to ruin it for them.