Wednesday, December 23, 2009

I Think She Knows

My six-year-old daughter asked me if Santa Claus is real.

I think it was a visiting cousin that prompted this. Talk about putting you on defense.

I've never really supported the whole Santa Claus bit, but my wife — and my mother — wanted to do it. And a number of people pointed that telling her all along there was no Santa would cause problems among her classmates. So I put up with it.

But I don't really like the Santa bit for two reasons. One, I don't like giving credit for what my hard-earned money buys to someone else, especially someone ficticious.

But more than that, I don't want her to wonder if she should add God to the list of imaginary people we told her about. True, my outgrowing Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy didn't cause me to wonder about God, but it still strikes me as asking for trouble.

So I've been very non-committal about the whole thing from the beginning.

And when she asked me if Santa Claus is real, I told her, "Santa Claus is a game we play that makes Christmas more fun."

"Like the Tooth Fairy?"

"Yes."

"Cool!"

Yeah, I think she knows.

3 comments:

Vinny said...

I was always a little uncomfortable with my wife's insistence on telling our children that Santa Claus was real since I had never believed it growing up and had enjoyed the stories nonetheless just as I had enjoyed any other fairy tale.

Happily, they seem to have survived.

ChrisB said...

I probably worry about these things too much.

Vinny said...

Enjoy it while it lasts. Before you know it, she'll be giving you real stuff to worry about.