Attention Parents — Spoiler Alert
I was dancing around the topic for months, perhaps years.
My daughter would ask the usual questions…
Who is Santa Clause? How does he deliver so many gifts around the world? How does he get into our house? Is he real? What does he look like? Are you Santa?
For a while I got away with turning the questions back around to see what she thought were the answers. One of my better responses that garnered some chuckles was…
“You think I’m Santa?! Ha! Do you think I have time to run around to every kid’s house in the state, in the nation, in the country, in the world and deliver gifts in one night?! Yikes! Can you imagine mommy putting on the red suit, pulling out a sleigh, strapping on some deer and going to work after you go to bed? Climbing down chimneys, flying around?! HA!!”
We laughed hysterically at that visual and I said good night. Bullet dodged.
But then one night when my daughter was 9, she cornered me once again. The jig was up and what came out of my mouth made her smile in awe. I have no idea how this answer came to me. I’ll share it with you as perhaps this will make your discussion a little easier and more magical.
“Come on Mom, you’re Santa. Right?”
“You are.” I said
“What?!!”
“You’re Santa Clause. You get to be Santa Clause.”
“I’M SANTA?!!” she said with one of the biggest grins of excitement and discovery I’ve ever seen.
“Yes, you’re old enough and are ready to know. You are Santa. I’m still Santa too for you but now you get to be Santa to others, like your little brother. You get to deliver magic to others whenever you want to. But you can’t tell anyone else you’re Santa or that they’re Santa. The’ll find out in their own time.”
Simple.
Truthful.
Magical.
There was no drama. No disappointment. No loss of wonderment. Just an amazing and satisfied smile as she went to bed. I saw her energy change to feeling empowered and amazed.
I did it-I had that conversation! (Score! One point for mommy on the list of “conversations that could screw up my kid for life but didn’t.”)
And even though she knows it’s Mom and Dad putting gifts under the tree and eating the cookies she puts out, she’s all in for continuing the magic for herself and others.
Don’t we all want a little magic in our life?
Here’s to believing.
#christmas #santa #magic #believing #cantdimmermyshimmer
Originally published at www.huffingtonpost.com on December 8, 2016.
Originally published at medium.com