Oh, to “do” Santa or no to “do” Santa. If you’re a new parent, that is the question around this time of year, isn’t it? There are people in both camps all for good reasons. I kind of came to my conclusion without much thought. My own parents were fairly neutral about Santa, which is probably why as a parent I remain fairly neutral about him as well. I don’t recall my parents ever cautioning me to “be good for goodness sake” as though that would be a deal breaker for presents (if that were the case, I was on the naughty list my entire childhood because I never got presents from Santa!). I can’t recall ever going to see a mall Santa, writing him a letter and telling him what I wanted. It would seem that we didn’t “do” Santa as a family, but on the flipside my mom and dad never told us that Santa didn’t exist either so we were given the liberty to believe if we wanted. We grew up watching holiday classics like Miracle on 34th Street (both the original and the remake) and The Santa Clause and it never came across to me as odd that Santa was played by so many different people. Santa was just part of the magical Christmas culture that surrounds us, like poinsettias and Christmas trees and gingerbread houses. And because my parents never intentionally embellished things with us, there wasn’t really a feeling of disappointment or betrayal when my siblings and I put two and two together. My husband on the other hand was raised to believe Santa was not only real, but a very big deal. Going to the mall Santa was high on the list, cookies and milk were laid out with great care on Christmas Eve, and well, I don’t want to brag or anything but my man was apparently quite the good little boy because he hit the motherload with special Santa packages (probably the perk of being an only child?). Needless to say, his spirits were crushed when he found out in a rather cavalier way that the man in the red suit did not exist.
Our oldest was six months old when he experienced his first Christmas and my mother in law asked if she could take him to get his picture taken with Santa. Neither my husband nor I had really put any thought into how we would handle Santa, but we figured with how much it meant to my mother in law we would go ahead with it. The Santa we visited had a real, snow white beard, rosy cheeks, and eyes that twinkled… he looked legit! Our six month old just stared at him in wide-eyed wonder and we have a precious photo of them both looking at each other with their mouths wide open in surprise. A year passed and we found ourselves back at the same mall, in line to see the same Santa. Five years have now passed, and we now specifically call to make sure that “our” Santa is the one on duty when we come. We’ve enjoyed documenting our visit with Jolly Ol’ Saint Nick, noticing how our boys have grown through the years, but our Santa looks very much the same. My husband and I have married our childhood traditions as our children visit Santa (like my husband did growing up), but we don’t give gifts from Santa within our home (like my family did growing up). In some ways, going to see him is the gift in and of itself. And it’s also a family tradition, which as I’ve previously mentioned is a pretty big deal. The Christmas my firstborn was three, my mama heart was fit to burst when Mr. Clause asked him what he wanted for Christmas and he responded, “Oh, I don’t need anything. Besides, I got what I wanted- I got to see you!”
This year marks our sixth Christmas with “our” Santa and our newest member of the family will sit on his lap alongside his two older brothers. Sixth Christmas, same Santa. It’s a pretty big deal!
How do you handle Santa with your little ones?