Santa And The Republican Conspiracy

Honestly, I struggle a little with the Santa thing; probably because I don't have kids. (As often as I am sorry for that, I figure I also escaped having to explain global warming.)

Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love talking to children about Santa, and I love watching them talk about Santa. I love seeing their faces absolutely glowing with pure adoration. It is so uncomplicated. They love Santa because Santa brings them toys. Except for putting together that pesky little list, that's all Santa does: bring toys. Simple as that.

I was wondering the other day though, whether this gets a little problematic at some point?

I was wondering how a parent helps their child, sooner or later, make sense of putting aside such an intricate, detailed belief and grasping a reality that is so different from what they were taught. It doesn't occur to anyone that they've been sold a bill of goods? (It is a classic example of the way I can overthink an issue.)

The Y Chromosome who lives in my house is a child psychologist. When I asked him, the question he put to me in immediate response was, "What's the difference between that and the politics of the last eight years?"

Isn't that great? I guess he's right -- we all love to love and believe the unbelievable, and when we start to realize over a period of time that something is exactly the opposite of what we thought, we become habituated to it until it is as though it always was (or something like that).

Maybe if as children, we had been completely outraged when we found out that Santa was a hoax, we would never have put up with George Bush. "I REMEMBER THE LAST TIME I WAS DEFRAUDED IN THIS FASHION! IT WAS SANTA!! I VOWED TO MYSELF THAT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN!"

Habituation is for the lucky ones, however. My niece came downstairs on Christmas Eve and suggested that she needed to sleep in her mother's bed because the fact that Santa could get into the house in the middle of the night gave her the creeps. (In my book, she has a point.) My sister looked at her and flatly said, "There's no such thing as Santa, go back to bed." Mom: 1, Santa: 0, Kid: Back In Her Own Bed. You can probably guess, my sister wouldn't give a nanosecond's thought to keeping her "Santa's wrapping paper" separate from her own wrapping paper when she thought her kids were getting suspicious.

But then, there is also the unlucky parent: my sister told me a friend of hers has a very bright son who said to his mother one day, "I'm starting to believe that Santa Claus is a fake."

When she asked him what he meant, he said, "You know, sort of like a myth -- like the Easter Bunny and the Baby Jesus."

Considering her family is Catholic, how do you think she got THAT one sorted out?

For Christmas CDs I highly recommend Brian Wilson, What I Really Want For Christmas. My favorite song is in the beginning: The Man With All The Toys. My favorite greatest Christmas movies are Love Actually and A Christmas Story. Please tell me you've seen them.