The Magic of Christmas

K.,

What do you mean Santa is just a character in a story? We saw him at the Mall two weeks ago and he looked fantastic. Jamie, who believes in Santa so deeply and passionately, paced back and forth in front of Santa raising his hands to the heavens in baffled wonderment:“I can’t believe it. I mean, I just… I can’t believe it. This is AMAZING.” Jamie, believe it and tell Santa what you want for Christmas before he has to get back to work! He was so awestruck by meeting the actual Santa, he was almost paralyzed by the experience.

Santa was equally shocked by Jamie, Kai, and Leo

Perhaps when he’s older, we’ll have to give Jamie some contrived explanation that Mall Santas are the Real Santa’s helpers while Real Santa is busy finishing his toys before Christmas. But for this year, Jamie accepted that Santa took a day off from his work to fly down to New Hampshire to meet us at the Mall to discuss what Jamie would like for a present. (Pirate Ship with pirates.)

This deep and abiding love for Santa started with an off-hand comment in December by My Better Half when Jamie was two. “Santa is going to come and bring you some toys for Christmas!” That was pretty much all that was said, but two year old Jamie glommed onto that idea like a pit bull on a labradoodle. It quickly spiraled into a year-round infatuation. In the middle of the summer Jamie will ask us questions like: What is Santa doing with his time off? Has he started on the toys yet? Does he go on vacation? What kind of car does he drive? Does he have friends? Is Santa lonely? To be honest, life would be easier if Jamie didn’t believe in him as much or as often. We must maintain an elaborate ruse fraught with numerous pitfalls with very specific details to remember. If Jamie asks you, Santa drives a bright red Hyundai Sonata hatchback. (We saw him cruising around downtown in Strongsville, Ohio in October.)

Our ruse also involves a lot of lying. Jamie is obsessed with the idea of magic and receiving the gift of magic from Santa as a Christmas present. In a moment of parental desperation I told him that magic isn’t real and that it’s just pretend. Jamie quickly deduced that this was contradictory to the previous tales we told him of Santa, mass toy delivery, and the magic required to make all the world’s children happy Christmas morning. If magic is not real and I cannot receive it for Christmas, then how can Santa have magic? he asked us. Okay, so what I said was mostly true. Magic isn’t real except for Santa’s magic and he can’t share it with anyone else. Sorry, that’s how it works. Now stop asking me so many questions!!

It would be nice if Christmas were more like Thanksgiving– just a time to show love and appreciation without the gimme! gimme! gimme! and subterfuge. (I personally circumvent this reality by giving many handmade gifts– things that the recipients neither need nor want.)

You’re right, though, there is a lot of useful leveraging of Santa’s impending visit in the hope of better behavior. Christians who celebrate the birth of Christ don’t get to enjoy this emotional blackmail. We successfully correct Jamie, Kai, and Leo’s misbehavior for approximately two minutes when we ominously remind them: “Santa’s WATCHING! He sees you fighting right now!” Whereas, this threat falls flat: “Our Lord and Savior might not be born this year and save us from eternal damnation if you don’t stop shoving Legos up your nose!” It doesn’t exactly ring true. But, I do smell another Josh Groban Christmas hit.

A.