We had "the talk" with Stephen (and Zachary, but I don't think Zachary even paid attention to the fact that we were in the same room). You know, the talk about Santa Claus. We've "done Santa" from the beginning and I've hated it. It took a lot of courage dug up from my mommy instinct, but Sweet Hubbby and I finally agreed to 'fess up and tell the truth. Actually Sweet Hubby did most of the talking (and did a great job) and we told him that St. Nicholas was a real man who loved God so much that he did exactly what Jesus told us to do and he loved everyone, and he showed that love by giving food and gifts in secret to people who were very poor and had nothing. And then when St. Nicholas died, people admired him so much that they started to pretend to be him and they started giving gifts in secret (and also started calling him Santa) and telling stories about him. We told him that LOTS of people pretend to be Santa...even Daddy. At that point, it seemed to click for him. He said, "And Papa and Poppy?" We agreed and told him that we could still pretend and have fun doing all the stuff we did last year (baking cookies and leaving them for Santa and getting up together to see what Santa brought). We asked him if he had any questions and he said, "What about Mrs. Clause?" Lol.
So I feel like a huge weight has been lifted. We went to Wal*Mart the other day and they had a "Santa". Stephen was excited (this was before the talk) and went to take a picture with him. He carried the picture through the store and then a little while later said, very thoughtfully, "Mama, I don't think that man was really Santa Clause." We had a nice little discussion about most of the mall/store Santas not being Santa Clause. I think it was a good segue in to the talk we had the next day.
In protection of other children, we told them that this was a huge secret that only really big kids know, so they couldn't say a word to other kids about it. Stephen's surprisingly good at keeping secrets (he never even lets on that he knows a secret), so I'm not too worried. But there is a little nagging feeling that my kid will be the one to ruin it for someone else's kids.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Well, I did it.
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4 comments:
Good for you! We haven't really had that talk, but we've sort of avoided discussing Santa altogether.
And you know, your kid may be the one to ruin that particular thing for somebody, but he'll come home with words you didn't teach him and plenty of other stuff... it balances out in the end. :)
I'm afriad mine will ruin it for other kids too. They don't so much do the secret keeping thing. :)
I told them to just smile and be quite when people talk about Santa. Like that is going to happen. The hardest thing for us has been the strangers who ask them what Santa is going to bring them. I have to tranlate it into what do you want for Christmas and then the lists come.
We "do" Santa around here, but in a subdued kind of way. Of course the kids have picked up on the idea in a big way anyway. We read a book every year about St. Nicholas and it explains how he came to be called Santa Claus, but still leaves the idea intact that he comes to each house. So, they must have some confused idea in their heads. Sounds like your husband did a good job.
Brava! It sounds like you handled it beautifully. I like focusing on St. Nicholas bringing food and presents to poor people in secret rather than Santa shoving himself down my (nonexistent) chimney.
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