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PiscesMy Kids Still Believe in Santa Claus
Christmas is a big holiday in our house, with lots of family traditions.
Beth Falkenstein: My kids have already written their letters to Santa Claus. Tonight they are baking cookies to leave out for Santa Claus. And on Christmas Eve, they will scatter carrots and apples for Santa's reindeer.
By the way, my kids are 11 and 14 years old.
I find it amusing that they have chosen to so defiantly defend this peculiar reality; especially considering they don't believe me if I tell them that they need a coat when it's fifty degrees outside. But my story about a jolly man in a red suit who circumnavigates the globe in one night, that is one hundred percent fact.
Ever since they were very young, I have been waiting for the day when they would come up to me and ask, "Mommy, is Santa Claus really real?" I didn't know how I would respond, but hoped that inspiration would come to me in the moment. Instead, the scenario that plays out between us is more like this: Around this time of year, they come home from school and relate in incredulous tones how so-and-so told them there was no Santa Claus. I merely shrug and give a noncommittal reply such as "That's too bad for them."
It's kind of like an unspoken "Don't ask, don't tell" policy between us.
I have to admit, there are times when I think it would be easier to just come out and explode the myth ... such as when I have to wrap two sets of gifts (Santa has his own special wrapping paper, you know). But that would signal an end to an innocence that I am not ready to accept.
As long as my kids believe in Santa Claus, then they can't really be growing up, can they? And they won't ever leave home, will they? And they will always need their mommy, won't they?
Okay, I'm not sure which one of us is living in the bigger fantasy.
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Beth Falkenstein was a sitcom writer and freelance contributor to "Self," "Redbook," and "YM" magazines before taking a full time job in her kitchen. She loves her new bosses (ages 13 and 10), and is grateful that they approve of inter-office romance, because Beth thinks her co-worker (Jim, age 45) is really hot. |
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- 11 Comments
When 14 yr old (who doesn’t believe anymore) was first told in kindergarten that there was no santa, I asked him if there was no santa then how do you get presents? So, he decided to continue to believe. Even when he really did stop believing around 11, he wouldn’t tell me because he was afraid that he wouldn’t get anything. He knows better now but it is sad when they stop believing. Now, he gets to help me wrap presents for his little sister so there is a bonus to them knowing. My 9 yr old is questioning me a lot this year and now my response is that there really was a St. Nick and as long as you have the belief in your heart, then santa is real. I still can’t bring myself to just come right out and say no. They grow up soooo fast, so I don’t think there is anything wrong with letting them believe in goodness for as long as possible.
that is sweet:)
When I was 14 I was a Freshman in High School. He will be an adult in 4 years, no one else see’s a problem with this? In my opinion that is too old to believe something like that. Has he never taken a science course? I think he should have figured it out by now. To be honest he probably has and is just humoring you and his younger brother.
sam - thats kinda how i feel about it. i mean 14??? seriously, he will have his drivers permit next year! my 9 year old asked this year (and i told my husband that if he didn’t ask that i was going to tell him). he was the only 4th grader that still believed in santa. 11 is pushing it, 14 is crazy! BUT, to each their own.
I eventually had to spill the beans last year with my nine year old. Kids at school were saying that santa wasn’t real and our son was so adamentally sticking up for the realness of Santa. I finally had to tell him so that he wouldn’t be getting picked on for being the only one who still believed…
Just because your kids pretend that there is a santa doesn’t mean that they actually believe.
Honestly I’d be worried if my child at 14 hadn’t figured out that Santa was a myth.
My kids believe in Santa but they are two and eight. I can see the eleven year old still believing but does the fourteen year old go to a public School? The reason I ask is I have a really really hard time believing that the 14 year old believes in Santa, my eight year old says that most of the kids in her third grade class don’t believe in Santa.
I recently told my now almost 10 year old daughter the same thing I told my almost 12 year old daughter a couple of years ago.
The guy in the red suit is a symbol. Santa is as real as you and I are. Santa is the feeling of love and the desire of parents, grandparents, friends, family to make Christmas a happy and magical time for children.
So, yes, Santa does exist.
It is good too read your website again dude, i see some interesting updates here…
That is cute! My parents still put “From Santa” on the gifts they mail to me and my children. We have never had the “is there a Santa?” conversation either.