Looking for the North Pole and Santa.
We went to the Houston Science Musuem this past weekend. While looking at the globe sculpture, Noah was reminded of Santa and the North pole. The conversation between Kyle and Noah went something like this:
Noah: I want to see where Santa lives.
Kyle: (restraining from obscene sighing and keeping his Santa frustration in check) Buddy Santa isn’t real. We already talked about this.
Noah: YES he is real! (in his best three year old “hell yes he’s real” voice).
We haven’t tried to shield Noah from Santa. This was the first year we did absolutely nothing for Christmas. The past few years we have been visiting Christmas because my family celebrates the holiday. He was too young to understand what was going on. Apparently 3 is the magic age when children wake to the world around them.
I’m not sure which is more significant building up the idea of Santa only to have it dashed away because children know it isn’t real, or to strip Santa down to the person who is wearing the suit, and flat out telling our children he isn’t real.
But I told Kyle if we push it, like we did with potty training (a whole other stressful episode in parenting), he’s just going to fight it. And he’s 3, he’ll believe almost anything we tell him. I’m sure if we focused on Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo, he’d be all in to it. Then we’d have to find the place where Mr. Hankey lives on the globe.
This is a child who believes the sun can engulf the Earth at any moment, believes everything he does and is is bigger than anyone else’s.
And so Santa has made his presence in our Jewish household. Hohoho!
"Life is a great big canvas; throw all the paint you can at it." - Danny Kaye
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Mr Hanky the Christmas Poo….ROFL That is awesome.
My oldest is starting to try to ruin Santa for my youngest with little smart remarks. He’s a beautiful child. LOL
Swinging in from SITS!
I think it’s better to find out the truth from a parent rather than from some kid at school. I’m sure much guilt would follow if my child came home crying and looking at me like I was a liar.
I just cracked up at the Mr. Hanky reference though. Ohhh Christmas Poo….
I don’t know…I read somewhere one mom told her kids the truth about Santa and forever after that all they talk about at Xmas is “Remember the year Mom ruined Christmas?”… Fortunately Sybilla doesn’t quite understand the whole Santa thing yet. I think we’re going to have to come up with some weird “Santa is the pagan embodiment of the Baby Jesus” explanation for her when it does come time! Don’t sweat it though, you’ll figure something out! Happy Chrismakah to you guys! Enjoy the rest of Channukkah!
Yes, Santa made an appearance at our Jewish household as well. For our 3 1/2 year old daughter, he is as real and big as life!
I do not remember ever believing Santa was real, and I was struck with a kind of stare-at-an-accident awe because of the mass deception by parents at a holiday party when a guy dressed as Santa came in and doled out the gifts (books we all brought for an exchange). All of these 2-5 year old kids just convinced this guy was Santa, parents smiling, etc.
Growing up, I lived in a house with no Christmas, and I have to admit that I basically felt snobby about my grasp of reality at the age of 5 because I knew that there was no such thing as Santa. Now, I have no clue how to handle this with Noah. I refuse to lie to him, so I guess it’s best to say nothing at all. For now.
I believe Mr. Hankey lives in South Jersey, FYI.
We never did the Santa thing at our house. But my kids went through a phase where they insisted that he is real because their friends said so. And their teachers pushed it at preschool, too. Very frustrating.
Oh dear! Lol!!