Does Santa Claus Exist?
Mike’s Blog 150
As a father, it is a new set of questions and decisions. Miles has been coming back from school talking about Christmas and Santa Claus (Lao Ren in Chinese – which literally means old man!)
I’ve had some discussions about this with other fathers over the years and wanted to chat about it a bit today. How far do I go along with the Santa Claus is real thing? I understand it is a good creative experience for me kids to go through the process of sleeping at night thinking about an old man in a red suit with a sled and reindeers flying around dropping off gifts around the world – but we are in a world of technology now.
My other father-friends and I joke that we didn’t have Google when we were kids. Thinking back, we were pretty locked off from information! Books, friends, parents – that was how we got our information. I remember some of my friends telling me Santa Claus existed and some saying he didn’t. My parents telling me that he doesn’t always go down a chimney (we didn’t have one) but uses magic. The cookie crumbs on the plate the next morning on Christmas day – santa claus was here!
Then I start to wonder, what happens if I Google Search does Santa Claus exist? At what age will Miles be when he thinks – hey, I don’t need to only wait for information from my teachers in school or my parents, I can go to the internet and find out answers on my own.
And that is the huge difference I have with now and when I was a kid. So I don’t think I should get too carried away trying to make this Santa Claus is real story. I’ll let my kids enjoy the thoughts and the dreams at night, I won’t actively pursue the real true to them – but when there comes a point that I’m asked if it is real and there is some research / digging being done by my kids – I may just tell them to ask Google and research on their own.
It will be pretty hard to break their hearts and say the truth, so maybe the easiest way out is to do online research as a group. I can hop onto the internet and we can do some research, reading about the history of Santa Claus, and the evolution of the Christmas holiday.
Wonder at what age this will happen – but this is my plan for now. What is your plan when your kids ask you if Santa Claus is real or not.