In about seven months, I’ll hit the half century mark of my time on this planet. And yes, I most definitely still believe in Santa Claus.
Santa and I have been buds for a long time.
Just before I hit the years ending in “teen,” I realized there was a great deal of similarity between my mother’s handwriting and the scribblings of Father Christmas. I kept my suspicions to myself, for the sake of my parents and younger sister. It wasn’t too long after that mom and I had “the talk” but even so, I knew, knew with every fiber of my being, there was more to the story.
Now, approaching two decades of parenthood, I can state definitively we couldn’t have created the magic for our three kidlets without the help of the Big Guy. I can’t count (but I bet my mother could… *grin*) how many times we were positive we were about to “fail” the day by not securing the big Santa gift, and every single time, something serendipitous happened (sometimes, the aforementioned mother), and the holiday was saved. In fact, it wasn’t until a particularly bad year (hubby’s mother was diagnosed with dementia shortly before the holidays) when the kidlets were 10, 13, and 15, that we had to spill the beans that their perception of Santa wasn’t accurate. The youngest has told me many times since that we were more upset about the revelation than they were.
In the years since that dreadful day, Santa still appears, without fail, every year. Our family unit is healthy, happy, and hangs together happily. The eldest did the shopping this year, since I was down for the count with a bad chest cold, and she did an amazing job. The youngest gave me & hubby a stern talking-to, letting us know that the season was about family and being together, and to get over the whole “we ruined Christmas by telling you about Santa” thing already. The boy was ecstatic that we made a point to start watching, “Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood” with him (subbed, of course). Hubby & I spent most of the day smiling while “A Christmas Story” played continuously in the background. If that’s not proof that there’s reason to believe, I don’t know what it.
Bright blessings to you and yours this holiday season!
Feel free to shout out!