St. Nick

So, Santa.

Bizarrely, kind of like with circumcision, I assumed we would go with the flow when our baby was born and do what many other people, only to find that we just couldn't do it.  Similarly, although involving much less physical pain, with Santa.  I always thought we would just pretend Santa was real and continue to do so until our kids figured out the truth. 

Then, last year, before either kid was old enough to know anything about Santa, I read on a friend's blog about her struggles about what to tell her kids about Santa.  Somehow, that started me thinking about the whole Santa thing and the purpose of it all and in the end, I decided that I just couldn't do it.  I know the whole Santa thing is magical, but I just don't want to lie to our kids if I don't have to.   Sacha and I talked about it, and when Mateo first asked about Santa, I told him the (gentle) truth:  that Santa is a character kind of like Spider Man, who we like to pretend about, except that his character gives out presents on Christmas instead of helping random strangers.

It's come up a couple of times since then and I've repeated the party line, but we haven't discussed it in detail.  Other people have brought up Santa to Mateo (Tali is much too young, obviously) and it's been very interesting, because he has acted like Santa is real when talking to other people.  I certainly don't want to rain on his parade, and I feel fine about pretending about Santa now that we've put it out there that that's what we're doing.  And, I should say that in no way do I judge other families' handling of Santa, because almost every parent we know tells their kids that Santa is real.  It just makes me feel better to tell them the truth, and hopefully to do it in a way that Santa can still be fun and cool to them now without that moment of unfortunate realization later on in childhood.