12.13.2014

Character Witness

Are you ready for the Holiday Season?  Its already begun in case you haven't noticed.  My six-year-old has informed me.  Actually, she won't let me forget.  I haven't brought it up with her much, so they must be talking about it at school.  A has told me what she wants for Christmas, when Christmas is, and ALL about Santa.

It bothers me a bit.  I feel as a parent, I should be truthful with my children.  I expect them to be honest and I want to model that for them.  Santa is one of those parenting issues.  Either you believe or you don't.  What do you tell your kiddos?

Personally, I wasn't a Santa believer as a child.  I knew other kids where, but we knew gifts were from parents and relatives, not a character.  I don't feel like I missed out on anything magical.  Christmas was and still is a special time of year.

I want to be honest with A.  So I sat her down and we talked about Santa.  She told me how he comes in a sleigh, down the chimney, and has a bag of presents.  I listened and told her that is a really nice story.  

She looked at me and said "Santa is a person."

Obviously, she knows about characters and people.  We've talked about  characters in movies, books, and games.  She knew what I meant.

"No, honey, Santa is a character" I replied.

"Mommy, Santa is a person.  Mario is a character.  Princess is a character.  H (her brother) is a character." she smiled.

I have my work cut out for me.  She know's what I mean but she is choosing to believe Santa is a person instead of a character.  I can tell by her facial expressions.

So a a few days later, my hubby took the kiddos to the mall.  I was at work, per usual.  Apparently, they looked around that their favorite stores, but the kids wanted to see Santa.  My hubby tried to dissuade them, even offering to go to the arcade, but to no avail.  The line was a hundred feet long, so I heard. Amazingly enough, the kiddos waited patiently for their turn to see the fat man.  When their turn arrived, A asked for a princess doll.  H asked for a dinosaur-dragon.  Obligatory picture was obtained that looks decent!

Once I got home from work, A and H were elated to tell me about Santa.  Of course, being the realist person I am, I asked what kind of Santa they saw. "Did you see a character?"

  A looked at me and said smugly, " I saw a person Santa, Mommy."