Susan GrahamThe Big Christmas Lie
December 15th 2008 22:14
In my defense, I don't ever actually lie. When they ask me if Santa Claus is real, I usually just smile and say, "What do you think?" But my conscience truly got the best of me last night when Princess wrote the most adorable letter to Santa. She spent hours writing it in pencil, then writing over top of her letters in different colored markers, then erasing the original pencil marks. She put stickers on it and decorated it so beautifully! She didn't ask for much in the letter -- just some Littlest Pet Shop stuff and a microscope. She even wrote another letter to Santa for her little brother since his handwriting is not so great. She addressed the envelopes, folded the precious papers, and sealed them up.
I told her I would mail them to Santa today. Instead, I put the letters in their "special keepsake boxes" to show them when they get older. On the one hand, it's a loving gesture as a mom that I would save those letters. On the other hand, my kids truly think Santa is going to read those letters. It's just not my nature to perpetuate such a lie.
Is Princess going to one day tell her therapist how her horrid mother lied to her about Santa Claus? Is she going to hold it against me and bring it up one day when she's 16 years old and we have our big mother-daughter blowout?
"I hate you!" she'll shout as she stomps off to her room. "You ruined my life when you lied to me about Santa! How can I ever trust you again?" The guilt is almost too much for me to bear. Part of me wants to just sit her down and explain the whole thing, like the mother in Miracle on 34th Street.
Funny, I don't feel like I'm committing child abuse on Buddy for lying to him -- it's Princess that gets me. I think it's becaue she's older and wiser. I'm surprised that she even buys the story to begin with. I wouldn't be surprised if she figured it all out before next year. The girl is sharp!
Anyway, I suppose I will suffer through the lies for one more year and hope my dishonesty doesn't come back to haunt me. Parents do this all the time, right? It's kind of a parental rule that you have to lie about Santa, right? I mean, I am all about the magic of Christmas, and I would hate to ever take that away from them.
Somehow, I think they will forgive me. But it doesn't make the guilt any easier to handle.
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Comment by Kleonaptra
Kalikapsychosis
That the SPIRIT of Santa is whats important, that its the essence of giving that he represents, the complete illustration for good karma. That goodness brings joy, wickedness brings sorrow. That Santa is a symbol for this.
As for a dude dressed in furry red and owning 8 reindeer - who is going to tell me they can prove he DOESNT exist? So many things in this world cannot be explained, so many things happen and we call them magic, so who says he's not really there? He could be, just like the unicorn and the dragon. No one has ever found solid proof of their NON existance.
I think I will have to perpetuate the lie myself one day, simply because putting out reindeer treats and cookies for santa appealed to a deep ancient urge in me, of putting out a sacrifice for the spirits, something to share with the otherworld on a most spiritual day. I think its a ritual that brings magic into peoples lives when maybe they cant find it anywhere else.