The Santa Question

We had the "Santa discussion" with our 7-year-old son last night. It actually went pretty well.

I should back up a little and say that I was listening to the audiobook version of "Parenting Beyond Belief" which is a parenting book for atheists. There were a few different takes on the Santa issue in the book.  Some said you should never tell your child that Santa is real to begin with, but since I read the book 7 years into my parenting adventure, that really wasn't an option.  Someone else said that you should reveal the secret at the point when they ask you point blank if Santa is real or not, because otherwise you're just lying to them, and when they eventually figure that out they may not trust you on other issues.

This plan of attack made sense to me.  Last year, when we were driving home one day, he piped up from the backseat and asked "Mom, is Santa really real?"  At that point, I just kind of danced around the issue by saying that some people believe Santa is real, and others don't, and it's really up to you to decide if you believe.  I realized later that this was the exact response I gave him when he asked me if God was real.

So a few days ago, I asked him what he was currently thinking about Santa Claus, and he said that he had a plan this year, whereby he would ask Santa for a certain present and not ask anyone else for it, and then when Santa brought it for him, he would know he was real.  Smart kid. 

You see why I didn't want to have his dreams crushed come Christmas morning.

When we spoke with him last night and told him that we were the ones buying him those "Santa" presents, he smiled.  We asked him how long he had suspected it was us, and he said, "since I was 4."  Again, smart kid.  When we asked him if he was disappointed that Santa wasn't real, he said "no" and then moved on with reading his book. 

Christmas at our house is a purely secular/cultural holiday.  It's all about food, family, and fun (oh, and presents).  I suspect that our son doesn't really care if Santa brings him any presents, as long as someone does and Christmas keeps coming. 

And hopefully, this will be a lesson to him in questioning the things that other people say are true, "just because."  If I can do anything good as a parent, it would be to instill in my sons the need to question and think for themselves.