Santa

As the holiday season gets closer, the word Santa comes up more and more. Bella has already made most of her Christmas list and I have already figured out what I am getting for gifts for most of the family. This past weekend Bella learned how to ride a bike (I'll give you the story on this tomorrow) and so last night on the way home from girl scouts she told me she wants Santa to bring her a bike for Christmas. I said we will put it on the list. She then starts talking about how a lot of kids at school don't believe in Santa. I asked her if she believes and she said "yeah, I think so, but mommy why don't you just tell me for sure, don't lie." We have preached to her how lying is bad and that if she lies she will be in more trouble then if she just tells us the truth, because of this she never lies. So as we pulled into the driveway I sent Johnny a text and told him we need to tell her now. I didn't want to tell her lying was bad and then have her find out I lied to her face when she asked me not to.

We got in the house and we told her that Santa is not real. That the idea of Santa came about from the story of St. Nicholas, a man who used to put candy and pennies inside kids shoes at night, and that parents kept the tradition going and growing because it teaches children about giving. We explained how not all kids get gifts from "Santa" or even from their parents. Sometimes parents put their kids name and Christmas list on a tree, in hopes that a stranger will give their child a Christmas that they can't afford. We explained that even though this child probably knows "Santa" isn't real that the morning he or she receives a gift they weren't expecting from a complete stranger makes their whole holiday great. After all that is idea of Santa, to give. She completely understood, and though she was upset at first it made sense to her.

P.S. We explained to her that now she has to play along and not ruin it for other kids. She now wants to play Santa for her sister and cousins... with Mommy and Daddy's money of course :)