I do not wish to tell him no. Because I don't believe it's a lie. He is a real saint in heaven. And I want to preserve my children's sense of wonder and faith.
How do you all feel about it I wonder?
http://www.catholicallyear.com/2014/12/not-believing-in-santa-claus-is-like.htm
GK Chesterton, from a letter he wrote to the Tablet of London:
What has happened to me has been the very reverse of what appears to be the experience of most of my friends. Instead of dwindling to a point, Santa Claus has grown larger and larger in my life until he fills almost the whole of it. It happened in this way.As a child I was faced with a phenomenon requiring explanation. I hung up at the end of my bed an empty stocking, which in the morning became a full stocking. I had done nothing to produce the things that filled it. I had not worked for them, or made them or helped to make them. I had not even been good – far from it.And the explanation was that a certain being whom people called Santa Claus was benevolently disposed toward me. . . . What we believed was that a certain benevolent agency did give us those toys for nothing. And, as I say, I believe it still. I have merely extended the idea.Then I only wondered who put the toys in the stocking; now I wonder who put the stocking by the bed, and the bed in the room, and the room in the house, and the house on the planet, and the great planet in the void.Once I only thanked Santa Claus for a few dollars and crackers. Now, I thank him for stars and street faces, and wine and the great sea. Once I thought it delightful and astonishing to find a present so big that it only went halfway into the stocking. Now I am delighted and astonished every morning to find a present so big that it takes two stockings to hold it, and then leaves a great deal outside; it is the large and preposterous present of myself, as to the origin of which I can offer no suggestion except that Santa Claus gave it to me in a fit of peculiarly fantastic goodwill
4 comments:
I like this! I remember knowing Santa Claus wasn't real long before admitting it to the family because it was so much more fun and magical that way (and you chumps just had go to on with it because we were the littlest). I'm sure Charlie kind of knows he's not real, but felt happy that you didn't confirm it.
Just as long as it's not the same Santa with the 5 o'clock shadow and a ratty coat who walked outside the Homestead and haunted your kids' dreams, say, on Christmas Eve 2011. That guy was a bastard.
Preserving a sense of wonder ~ for child or adult ~ who can argue the beauty of it?
Christ was a gift ~something we, as fallen, didn't deserve; His birth should always fill us with wonder.
Celebrating the wonder of Christmas ~ the gift of a Savior.
For children this concept is a bit over their heads (for many adults as well, let's be honest) so that Santa Claus becomes the one who "gifts" the children and fills their heads with awe.
We are meant to be like those children. We are meant to not loose that capacity to be filled with awe.
Let Charlie find his way. He'll know. He probably already does. He'll push you more when he really wants to admit to himself what he already strongly suspects. One more year of Santa Claus? Why not :)
Holy moly, HOWWW is Charlie old enough to be questioning Santa? Stop growing!!
I loved his and I love, love, love the wonder of Christmas. Agree with what Mom and Aloise said above. Also, finding our Santa isn't real doesn't end the magic of Christmas. I have a hankering that Charlie is going to love being the one in the "know" and seeing his sisters so excited. He's that kinda boy.
Oh man, I don't understand others who don't love Christmas.
So he asked me this morning! And I reminded him that he was a saint in heaven. And he lit up with relief. My boy. He didn't even press about the reindeer and all of that. He clearly wants to believe. I love that I get another year.
And Schmidt, you were a horrible, horrible Santa.
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