http://www.dreamstime.com/-image27977767The Great Santa Claus Debate.

As we hit the new year at full steam ahead, I find myself with a few minutes to actually reflect on the whirlwind season that is Christmas. As parents, Sonya and I have been through enough of these things to know the ins and outs of the entire experience, right down to the exact angle and background that is best for those infamous living room videos and pictures of every breath taking moment during the free for all session known as Christmas morning. And as the kids grow from year to year, the season takes on a slightly different twist each time from things like their attitude, knowledge, experience or gratefulness (and lack thereof, of course.)
Clearly, when dealing with kids of this age (6 and 4), the jolly ol’ elephant in the room in naturally Mr. Claus himself and the great Santa debate tends to weigh on the minds of many parents who aren’t exactly sure how to handle such a strange, yet joyful character. Confusion and despair is nothing new to parents as they have gone through struggles on what to say about the big guy for many years, but like many things in our lives, we tend not to worry about it to much until faced with the dilemma directly. Our oldest, Matthew, is bordering on figuring it all out. He has made a few comments about his existance but it’s easy to tell that he really doesn’t know what the heck is going on. I certainly can’t blame him in the least as the whole thing can be extremely confusing. You’ve got the guy showing up at your school, he’s at the mall, he’s on TV…how could this cat cover all this ground so fluently? And then you have those creepy little elves who apparently construct these toys based on our very own handwritten notes and letters. There are many questions and depending on who he asked, he might receive a different answer to each and every one of them. This will probably be his last go around with the portly fellow as I don’t see him making it another year. Our 4 year old, Katie, has a ways to go before she starts thinking logical thoughts as she is still deeply rooted in the hook, line and sinker stage of her life.
The real question is do you spell it all out from the get go, or do you let it drag along until you have no choice but to play along with the charade until they reach that inquisitive age of no return? While I don’t pretend to know the answer to this age old question, I am certain of a few things. One of which is the ‘meaning of Christmas discussion’ and the importance thereof. We had the initial discussion this year of what it all means and why it is truly better to give than to receive…which seemed to go over like a lead balloon as they both stared at us like the proverbial deer in headlights. Matthew definitely received a little clearer than Katie, which is to be expected but to say they were both on the ‘let’s take all of our presents down to the local shelter and drop them off’ bandwagon would be an ever so slight exaggeration of the truth. We also decided that this was the year to install a new family tradition/policy that will be a staple of our Christmas season for many years to come. As they are receiving all these new and shiny things from any number of willing participants, both of them MUST go to their rooms and pick out approximately 10-15 items that they no longer play with or care about and we (kids included) will take them down to our local donation spot (for us it will most likely be the Salvation Army) to drop off. After their initial shock, they both got into it a little bit and started rounding up a few things that didn’t really mean that much to them anymore but you could tell they weren’t fully grasping the gravity of the situation. We weren’t really worried about it in the least as this was just the introductory phase of what we believe will be a lifetime trait for them to carry inside their hearts and pass on to others as they meander through their lives.
I don’t know how either of them will react to the news of the Santa Claus verdict, but by instilling the giving gene at an early age, we have confidence that the blow will be softened quite a bit to the point that not only will they not be permanently scared, but they will handle it like a seasoned pro and will be even more eager to give generously to the kids that aren’t as fortunate as they are. Well….we can at least hope that will be the case at least. Of course, so few things we try actually work the way they were intended but if you get enough cracks at it, the law of averages will catch up to us at some point….surely!!!