Is Santa Real?

In our house the answer is both yes and no. We do not give our children gifts from Santa Clause. We do not repeatably stress the fact that Santa is watching them. We do not bring them to the mall to sit on his lap and get a photo. My children do believe in Santa though. Watching Christmas movies and hearing Christmas stories just automatically make a child believe in Santa and I see no harm in them doing so. At this point, when my daughter asks a question about Santa, such as "How does he get in the house?" I just ask her how she thinks he gets in the house. This is how it was when I was growing up. My parents didn't tell us Santa was real but they let us believe it. I don't even recall how old I was when I realized that he wasn't real but I think deep down I always knew it and the experience of realizing there was no Santa wasn't traumatic. It is similar to the Tooth Fairy, Fairies, Unicorns, and the like. You just assume those really exist until you reach an age when you realize they don't. If one of my children were to come out an ask if Santa was real I wouldn't lie. I think by not telling my child one way or another about Santa we are not betraying their trust, but are rather letting them believe in something magical until they realize themselves that there really is no such thing as Santa.

I do tell the children stories of St. Nicholas. He was real, and is who "Santa" is based on. St. Nicholas was a very generous man who did kind deeds and left small presents in the wooden shoes that were left outside the doors at night. We celebrate St. Nicholas Day each December 6th by leaving the kid's shoes on the porch and filling them with little treats. While they know St. Nicholas lived a long time ago, they also aren't sure if it is mom and dad or St. Nic putting those treats in their shoes. And they don't ask. When they ask, they will be told that we are just recreating the special thing that St. Nic did, but I see no harm in them believing in a little magic for the time being.

We do make sure the focus on Christmas is not about the magical or the make-believe. Maybe that is why Santa is no big deal in our house, we could live with or without the idea of him. It is the birth of Jesus that we focus on. They know that it is the birthday of Christ that we are celebrating. And while we know that by Biblical accounts Jesus was probably ( or most certainly) not born in December, it is a symbolical symbol of his birthday, if one must get technical. We tell the story of His birth, we speak about Him and point out all the nativity scenes when we drive around looking at lights. We attend mass on Christmas (with the terrible weather headed our way I hope that we can make it to church this Christmas!). After all, THAT is what Christmas is all about!