A long time ago, way before children, Darin and I made the decision not to do the whole Santa thing with our kids. We are still sticking to that. We don't look down on or judge anyone who does (we are fully aware we're in the minority), but we have our reasons for why we aren't. So, since Zoe is in preschool this year and she's old enough to understand the whole Santa concept, it's been a little bit of a struggle to try and figure out how to go along with our plan without telling her he wasn't really real. The last thing we want her to do is go and say to some other kid, "Santa is just pretend." and spoil their Christmas. And that would be a guarantee since our little girl is such a chatterbox.
Zoe is fully aware of who Santa is...well, aware of the big man in a red suit anyway. We have santa decorations and books with him in there. So it's not like he's taboo in our home. But what she doesn't know is that for most other kids, "Santa" brings all the gifts. What we've decided to do until she's old enough to know not to share her knowledge with everyone around her is just to treat the Santa situation like it's just not that big of a deal. She know's there's a Santa, but she just assumes he's a person just like anyone else. And we're not adding anything else to that. All gifts we do in our house are either from us or from grandparents.
Luckily, she hasn't questioned anything when people ask her, "so what is Santa bringing you this year?" She just sort of gives them a funny look. Hopefully we won't have an issue after Christmas when people ask the same question in past tense.
So anyway, we went to the breakfast with Santa. Zoe even sat in his lap...or rather next to his lap. Instead of doing him reading the "Letters to Santa" that kids did while they were there, she just took him one of her other crafts and began telling him what she did.
Ethan really enjoyed the crafts...he enjoys just about anything as long as it's what big sister is doing. :)
And of course, when I mentioned earlier about the mom's snapping away on their cameras, you know I had to be one of those. So here ya go.
Alison, we are in the exact position as you are with Andrew. It is the first year we have had to deal with the Santa issue and are working through the same concerns that you mentioned...how do we handle him being asked what santa gave you, not bothering other parents'/kids' fun who play the santa game, etc. But we feel strongly with our reasons why it is not right for our little family...but it is hard to be in the minority!
ReplyDeleteKristi