I am a mom who is learning to adapt everyday to the challenges of raising two daughters.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Stories about Santa lies

Little monkey and Santa today


Stories about "santa lies"


I have been having problems with the "Santa lies" which has to be created in order for your children to believe in him. For example, I was at Wal-mart last night and a little girl saw that I had a Littlest Petshop Playground in my cart. Her mom reminded the little girl that she received Littlest Petshop last year. I almost said, "Well my daughter knows santa is working on it, so I had to get it for her". When I started to say this, I realized I could potentially wreck the "idea of santa" for this little girl. If it was my own daughter at her age, I would have told her the truth as we have been already leading into the fact he is not real; however, she was not my daughter, so I had to make some quick cover detailing that my daughter has been wanting the Littlest Petshop Playground for a while now. The mom could obviously tell I was about to blow the "santa lie" and when she walked away she mouthed the words, "thank you". I think I did the right thing.

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Pooky bear is way too smart for her own good! Today, even after we have gone over many times that the santa she sees is not the "real santa", Pooky bear while sitting on santa's lap, was asked what she wanted for Christmas. She cheekily replied, "don't you know santa?, you've been working on it?" Santa's reply was "I want to hear again to make sure I don't get it right" Pooky bear, very snarky at this point, replied, "I want Littlest Petshop" (she said it in a tone resembling a "Duh!" sound. I laughed so hard it hurt!

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While sitting in the Dr's office tonight with my oldest daughter, I noticed she saw a picture of Santa on the wall. I looked at the picture and saw Santa sitting in a row boat with a bunch of animal friends and toys.
I asked my daughter, "What does santa ride in?"
"He rides in a sleigh, he can't ride in a boat, cause he couldn't get to my house!"
She had the whole waiting room laughing including the staff!
I would have never thought that's why santa does not ride in a boat.
That girl is definitely too smart for her own good!

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Chad and I are trying to create more of an idea of Santa with the intention of teaching the girls, when they are old enough, where santa came from and why people celebrate santa. When that happens we will not have presents under the tree from santa, but a chance to draw names and have more of a "secret santa" with emphasis on doing something nice for someone. Our plan is, a week before Christmas, we will draw names and everyone will have to do something nice for that person each day leading up to Christmas. On Christmas eve, everyone will fill the stockings of the person they drew. We want to encourage the kids to make something rather than buying the gift. I think this is a good compromise to the "santa idea" and reminds children that the real St. Nicholas did something nice for some girls, not to get praise, but to do, esscencially, what Jesus would do-help those in need. This is the santa idea we want to teach, but it is not easy for a three year old to understand.

We both have told her the santa she sees is not real, but she talks to him like he is. Maybe it's because we still are telling her to sit on his lap and he is the one asking what she wants, or maybe it is the other children and all the propaganda in support of santa around her, I am not sure, but it is cute all the comments she makes as she is learning. I think we sill start focusing on our beliefs when Little monkey if 4 or 5. I don't want to wreck the "santa experience" too soon. We'll see what happens.

2 comments:

Queen of West Procrastination said...

Okay, when did she start smiling like you? I was noticing between the Santa picture and the school concert -- she's started doing the toothless smile!

crazy mom said...

I never taught her to, she's been doing it for a while now. I never thought of the toothless smile as mine, because Chad does the toothless smile too. She probably gets it from both of us.