“No Santa for Suri” announced last week’s New Idea as I walked past on the way to catch my train. I was part-way through thinking “That’s because they’re a couple of Scientology weird…” when I realised our kids weren’t having Santa either.
This is because we prefer not to lie to our children. We’d prefer them not to confuse the truth about Jesus being born with a silly myth. I was surprised how much flak I copped for this at work—anyone would think that lying to kids was a good thing.
Besides, we gave them the option. Santa is pretend, and if they wanted to pretend, that was fine. And in any case, our oldest wasn’t sure who to believe, her parents, or her best friend who assured her that Santa was very real.
In the end I don’t think they noticed that Santa didn’t deliver. They got just as many presents and had just as much fun.
And what was the first thing they did on Christmas morning?
They prayed and wished Jesus “Happy Birthday”.
Comments