The Santa Talk

Just like any parent, I’m confused about what to tell my child about Santa Claus.  Last year, around Christmas 9-year-old A1 asked:

“Mom I don’t get it, you’re usually safe and all so how can you allow a stranger to walk into our house in the middle of the night?” She was talking about Santa Claus of course.  I thought about it for a moment and decided it was finally time for the Santa Talk. I broke it to her gently.  I talked about Saint Nicholas, Christmas magic, the spirit of giving. I candy coated the whole thing and gave it to her as softly as possible. She listened to me until I was finished then swiftly answered:

“Nah! I think you’re wrong. He’s real”.

This year Jack was out one night and I was home alone with the kids. We were sitting by the Christmas tree and I had all my kids in sight when I suddenly heard a loud noise that came from upstairs. I quickly muted the Tv and asked the children to be quiet. After a few seconds of sheer silence, we heard a loud CRACK!  I was alarmed but played it cool for the girls. I got up to go check upstairs. Now let me tell you that it turned out to be absolutely nothing. I went to check, found nothing out of the ordinary. It was probably just another regular house sound or so. But before I went upstairs to check, the moment we heard that loud crack my kids took one look at each other and immediately started yelling from the top of their lungs:

“SANTAAAAAAAAAAAAA !!! SANTAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! IT’S SANTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! SANTA IS HERE!!!! SANTA IS HERE!!!! ”

They started jumping on the couches and became hysterical.  They were cheering and hugging. I had never seen such a site. They were so happy. I couldn’t believe it. I was stunned. 

Somebody could break into our house and our children would celebrate their coming, take them to the Christmas tree and probably try to feed them cookies as long as the intruder was in red.

And it’s entirely our fault.