No Santa

When I was a kid my family DID Santa. My mom and my Grandparents took great care to keep up the Santa thing for me. The presents were done in special handwriting, with a special gold pen. They never left out receipts, boxes, bags, or anything else for me to find. The media helped as well. I loved the movie The Santa Clause, I took it to be close to the truth. My mom told me that the mall Santa's were just helpers. I had it all figured out and when my friends said there was no Santa, I thought they were crazy. At the age of nine, my step father entered my life and was a bit less careful with his evidence. I saw the candy wrappers for the candy that goes in my stockings, in the trash. So I asked and I was told that yes, Santa was just my mom and grandparents. Boy did I feel stupid. All of my friends were right. It took all the magic out of the holidays for me for many years.

Fast forward to now, I have a family of my own. My son is getting to the age (3) where Santa becomes important to children. So it falls on me and my husband to figure out what is going to be our family traditions. I would like to do it differently. Since we celebrate Yule, we will be focusing on that. I am not going to ban Santa but we will not have pictures done with him, read stories about him, or make any kind of big deal about him. I will tell him that I fill his stockings, and our family buys him presents. If he asks about Santa, I will answer his question and nothing more.

I did eventually figure out that there is a lot of magic in this world even without Santa. As for those that say I am somehow "robbing my children of the magic of childhood" I would say that we live in an amazing world with it's own beauty and magic. I don't need to make it up with a fat man and presents, it is already there. All I need to do is show it to them.