I was horrified to learn recently that some of my friends who are also parents don’t even bother to pretend to their children about Santa anymore. Apparently, the danger of building up the whole Santa myth with your child is the possibility that the second she or he is in a group of other children, who are on speaking terms with older siblings (translation: they’ve old enough to talk and understand) or, really, anybody for that matter, they are told Santa is all made up. Santa doesn’t exist. Etc., etc.
This makes me sad. Perhaps I grew up in a more innocent time?
On the blog, Motherlode, by Lisa Belkin of the New York Times, this week she’s taken up the topic of the Santa Claus dilemma–“Believing in Santa”–and the quandary of how to handle this with your child–she grew up in a family that “didn’t celebrate Christmas, but [they] did have Santa.” With guest writers, she’s exploring “the lengths to which parents go to keep the magic alive”–Garrett Rice chimes in on this one, as well as, “what to tell children when they stop believing”–she turns to Martha Brockenbrough for thoughts on that situation.
Both stories are interesting, though Rice’s is my preferred one. I’m curious to know: are my friends (not all of them, but a bunch) the only parents who aren’t even bothering with the fantasy that Santa is real, even for a few years? Am I just nostalgic for a different time?