No Ho, Ho, Ho?
Today, I found out that my son no longer believes in Santa Claus, and I felt a small pang of hurt. I asked him a simple question, “Are all the kids at school talking about their Christmas lists for Santa?” My son laughed and said, “We (middle schoolers) don’t believe in Santa Claus” and he walked out of the room, leaving me crushed and speechless. Later, I asked him when he stopped believing, and he said it was sometime this year.
Honestly, part of me was screaming, “Woo hoo!” There’ll be no more waking up at 2:00 am to pull out and put together toys, no more baking, biting, and crumbling cookies that aren’t always tasty, and no more making sure there is just the right amount of milk residue left in the glass.
On the other hand, I was somewhat sad that he didn’t come to me when he figured it out. I was waiting for him to ask me, again, if Santa was real. There was a time when I would tell him bits and pieces of the history behind the man named Saint Nicholas. Every year I would tell him that I believed there was a man named Saint Nick and it was okay if he wanted to believe too, but for me Christmas is about the birth of Christ. This year I was ready to tell him that after the real St. Nick passed away, people decided to continue with the tradition of giving during the Christmas holiday in the name of Santa Clause (St. Nick).
My memory of when I found out about Santa’s demise is painful (I actually cried), but my boy transitioned without a, visible, hitch, and when I tried to talk to him about it, he brushed me off. For me, this was a big moment (the loss of Santa), but my son just hugged me and thanked me for all of his Christmas’ past; then he said, “You can still do everything you’ve been doing, I don’t want that to change.” Ha! From this Christmas on, I’m putting out gifts on Christmas Eve, and I’m sleeping through the night.
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