Don't Stop Believing
Alexis has already visited Santa this year.
I know, I know.
A ton of you get all sorts of twitchy when I mention anything that has something to do with Christmas when it's not yet Thanksgiving. Well, TOO BAD. If I waited until after Thanksgiving to get all of my Christmas tasks started, I'd be in big trouble, mister. I'd barely manage to get started before Christmas blew past me at 90 mph.
Besides, the Santa thing wasn't really my fault.
Alexis started begging to go see Santa at the mall the very second she found out that her bus driver would be doing a little moonlighting as one of Santa's elves. We positively adore our bus driver, so we didn't mind that Alexis got it into her head that she had to be at the mall promptly upon Santa's arrival. She really just wanted to see her bus driver while she was working her other job, so fine. Whatever.
Off to the mall we went.
In the past, I would have wondered if Alexis would chicken out while waiting in the line. I knew she wouldn't this year because she would be all "Loooook! It's my bus driver!" I was right. She was far too delighted to get to spend more time with the bus driver to stop and notice that she was in the proximity of a slightly senile old man with a beard that HAS to be hiding yesterday's lunch.
So. Here's the thing. Alexis KNOWS about Santa. She figured it out a while ago all on her own, but since she's only five years old, she desparately doesn't want to know. She is determined to alter her own perceptions so that she can keep on believing. She has chosen to think with her heart on this little issue, and her heart is pure and innocent and clings to magic.
She got her photo taken with Santa.
And she was all sorts of giddy and happy and pleased with herself.
Then we got home and she started paying attention to the folder that holds the photograph. Apparently mall Santa is now part of some sort of franchise because several malls in Pittsburgh have this exact same folder. It features two Santas that are very clearly not the Santa she met.
An aside: All of you giving me crap about starting with the Christmas decorating can just back off since Santa has agreed to appear next to the Easter Bunny. That's pretty much giving all of us permission to celebrate all of the holidays year round. SO THERE.
Anyway, the two Santas on the folder are definitely not the Santa that Alexis met. She noticed this fact.
She stared at all three Santas for several minutes.
She looked to me for direction. "Momma, why does this Santa not look like this other Santa?" The tone of her voice made it obvious that she KNOWS THE FREAKIN ANSWER, but she really needed me to give her some sort of out. I could have told her that Santa forgot to take a bath for a week in that photo and she would have been satisfied with that answer. She just needed an excuse to keep believing. Any excuse.
I was a tiny bit too slow answering her question.
Just as I was about to make up some random lame lie, Alexis came up with her own.
"Oh, wait! This is YOUNG Santa. I met OLD Santa!"
The explanation makes no sense whatsoever, but let's just go with it, mmkay?
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Reader Comments (19)
I am glad that she is choosing to believe. I am totally not ready for when mine figure it out.
I think my mom thought I believed in Santa until I was in high school, because I never told her when I figured it out for sure, haha.
The best part, though, is that my brother was two years older, and being him, he probably had it figured out when he was like 3 but he never once told me. He's a good brother where it really counts.
hold on Alexis to that Fee-ee-ee-ling-ing!
No judgements here at all. I love it.
If my 5 year old knew that Santa was in fact me....I would be forced to have another kid!! I am so not ready for that.
I'm not having my kids believe in Santa. I STILL remember the exact moment my cousin told me about Santa (I was almost 4) and I was soooo mad at my parents for lying to me. I mean, I was furious at them for years anytime anyone brought up Santa/EB/tooth fairy, etc. All lies, all the time.... I was a bit dramatic I admit. But I'm going to save myself the drama because I'm sure if I was that mad, my kid will only be worse... and no, I didn't ruin it for my siblings- my brother somehow managed to believe til he was 13! He only figured it out after we TOLD him, and even then I think he still thought we were lying for a bit.
Plus maybe Alexis is afraid the 'Santa' present will stop once she confirms she no longer believes? :)
She is so cute! Jack, is turning 5 next week, and I was just thinking how we only have a few years at most of believing in Santa. That just makes me so sad! I'm putting all of our decorations up this week.
I was just TEASING you about the christmas tree yesterday - lol! I love Alexis' explanation. We've told Bear that the Santa he gets his picture taken with every year is the REAL Santa and all the other mall santas (we frequent a few different ones) are his helpers. So far, he seems to buy it. But, this Jewish girl is groping in the dark related to all questions Santa.
i'm curious how in her head she compensates for KNOWING the elf is not really an elf since she is a bus driver in pittsburgh, not the north pole. honestly, i would love to know how in her head santa is here smiling for photos instead of running things in the north pole. regardless of how she lines everything up in her head, i love her pure heart. she is such a wonderful kid.
My kid is in third grade. I shudder to think this could be her last year believing, particularly because she has never gotten up the courage to sit on Santa's lap (which means I have zero pictures of her and the fat guy). Most of my classmates and I had figured it out by fourth grade, though a few of us (including me) tried to do an Alexis for that Christmas. The priest at our school confirmed it for us in fifth grade, which was a shame for those few holdouts.
Friday is Light-Up Night (I prefer the hyphen, even if Pittsburgh does not). That is when the season starts for me. Not sure I am quite ready to start hearing the Christmas songs that Wish and that other station are going to start playing then. But I will do my best!
Confession. I loved Christmas growing up. I was in high school still "pretending" I refused to open gifts until Christmas morning after my brother and sister moved out. It made Christmas last longer. My parents couldn't wait to give us our gifts so we always had it Christmas Eve. I remember being around Alexis age and coming home from my grandparents house and Santa had come. I still have the little rocking chair I got that year.
I think my daughter figured it out too. I have some decorations up, and I have the picture with Santa from last year out, she picked it up and very seriously said "this isn't the real santa." I had NO idea what to say to her, and she said "Is santa even real?" So instead of lying to her, I just said "What do you think?" she nodded vigorously and walked away.
She can believe in the magic of Christmas as long as she wants, whether she's pretending or not. I love it.
@Terra--That's how we've been handling things, too. No direct lies, but a lot of deflection and opportunities for her to make up her own mind. It's interesting watching them figure out how to process it all.
If the gifts are real, Santa is real!
Period.
I can't hear anything beyond it... La la la laa....
My kids still believe in Santa (18 & 22) but neither will get a photo taken with him.
I have always dreamed of a good Santa picture and now I know that it is possible.
The Howler is slightly more relaxed about Santa...but I'm thinking it's because she' s 9, and desperately hanging on to the idea that not believing = no good gifts. So we're getting all the good from believing, for this one year. We've got no problems with that, and we'll take what we can get.
During a particularly lean year, my dad was a mall Santa. He was a special effects artist so he rocked the Santa suit.
I was forewarned about my dad's temporary employment by being told he was "helping out Santa." I basically "understood" that mall Santas weren't the real thing, but rather helpers/buddies of the real guy because, while the big guy could deliver presents all over the world, he didn't have the time to sit around in all those malls before of Christmas (after all, he had to worry about checking lists twice and stuff at the homestead).
It's a pretty creative explanation and fits the Santa lore quite well.
We were just wondering the other day about how long we have until Maggie figures it all out. I took Maggie to Ross Park on Wednesday and Santa was there. We usually do the Santa thing with the grandparents at The Mills, it's become a tradition for us. Immediately she was all LET'S GO SEE SANTA! I made up some lame excuse about how Santa has a rule that if you have a brother or sister, you have to go together, so we'd have to wait until Audrey was with us (QUICK THINKING, WOO!) She accepted that, and then later we saw Santa coming back from break, just walking toward the escalator. She got all giddy and waved and he waved back. (it was adorable) Then a few minutes later, she said 'Mommy I like this Santa better than the other Santa at Grammie's mall.' So... she's obviously noticing the differences, but I'm not sure yet how she's rationalized it all. I'm guessing by next year, it'll be all over. Seems SO YOUNG! gah!