My sister-in-law wrote a nice blog yesterday about faith. In it she mentioned that she figured out Santa wasn’t real when she was 5 years old! Although her blog was about much more than that little fact, it was what struck me most. I suppose that’s because I have a 5 year old. To me, 5 years old seems awfully young to let go of the magical fantasies that typify childhood.
My 5 year old doesn’t have an inkling that there may or may not be a Santa (until we watched The Polar Express tonight, that is). Even if he were to walk into the closet where all the gifts are being kept, as smart as he is, he still would believe in Santa if we told him Santa was real.
Tyler loves to drive around and look at Christmas lights. He talks about what he “ordered” from Santa and commented that Santa didn’t bring him what he wanted last year. Instead, he brought him something “much cooler”! He likes to sit on the couch and watch the lights twinkle on the tree. He rearranges our nativity set to look like the picture on the box. He’s been diligent about practicing his songs for his Christmas program at school, and broke into a rather moving rendition of “Go Tell It on the Mountain” during his gymnastics class tonight. (Unfortunately he carries a tune about as well as his daddy.) He wrote his first letter to Santa this year – with my help – and asked for gifts for the dogs first. I can’t imagine Christmas without this “magic”. Tyler knows we celebrate Christmas because God gave His gift of Jesus to us, to the world, that day. We discuss giving and receiving gifts to celebrate God’s gift to us. Yet I can’t help but think once our kids are “grown-up” enough to think Santa isn’t real, the awe of Christmas will be somewhat diminished. Maybe it’s because losing the innocence of those beliefs signifies a greater loss. The kids are growing up so quickly. This is one magical area of childhood I'm going to cling to as long as I can. (And I will be extra careful about that wrapping paper, Leah!)
More examples of Tyler’s naiveté:
Tonight in the car we were listening to Christmas songs on the local Christian radio station. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir was singing “Happy Birthday Jesus”. The little girl was singing and Tyler was repeating the words. When the choir all joined in, Tyler said, “Now all the VeggieTales are singing with her!”
The station also played “Go Tell it on the Mountain”. Tyler got so excited because that’s his favorite song for his school Christmas program. He said, “I bet Mrs. M** teached that song to the radio guy, too!”
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2 comments:
I think the way I learned about Santa was pretty unusual. Most of the youth said they had just caught their parents putting gifts under the tree. But I think you're biggest obstacle will be kids at school. In my first grade classes, a handful of kids knew already and were more than happy to pass on their new knowledge.
I'm ok with doubts creeping in around 1st grade. That gives us another 2 years of unspoiled fun. Then we'll have to deal with Tyler not ruining Danielle's fun. Ron has always been super paranoid about the kind of wrapping paper we use vs the kind Santa uses, so I don't think that's how our kids will discover the truth. I don't remember how/when I realized the truth, but I do know it was always more fun to continue pretending. Of course, I was always big on holiday traditions and Santa falls into that category.
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