Sunday, November 22, 2009

You'd better watch out...

Keeping the Man in the Red Suit faith.

Christmas carols can be heard,
candy canes are piled up in the shops,
the kids are counting down the sleeps...
OND 2009
My eldest is 6 and 1/2 years old and, at the moment, is happy to discuss ad nauseum how the toy making work load is distributed among the elves and what Santa's budget is (infinity dollars apparently!)
However, a 6 year old friend lost her first tooth this week and was very disparaging about her mother's attempts to fob off the dental retrieval and cash injection to the tooth fairy. Oh mum. Roll eyes. The tooth fairy isn't real. Snort. It was you.
How is it that I feel like our family is just starting out but our first child sometime very soon is going to lose that innocent and non-questioning faith in the magic of Santa, the charm of the Easter bunny and the cash flow of the tooth fairy? (all social commentary on the materialism and consumerism of said fantasy beings aside...)
At the moment daddy and I are thinking on our feet as to why Santa is in so many places and why he looks different in each place...But I will enjoy that youthful innocence while I can as I am sure that I will shed a tear when faced with my first loss of innocence.
(I will also enjoy that glass of Baileys that Santa loves to be left on Christmas Eve. Here's to you, Santa!)

2 comments:

Liesl said...

Good luck! I too will be sad the day that my boys realise the harsh truth.

I remember thinking Santa was real til I was about 9 or 10. What are the chances of that happening these days? (But then again a little bit of me still thinks there might just be a man in a red suit with a sleigh. Its always good to hope!)

Lou's Mum said...

my nearly-7yo has already asked a few times if Santa/Easter Bunny etc are real. I always just ask him back "Do you think they are real?" So far he's thought about it and come back with "yes" every time. I think if he wants to believe it he will, and he won't when he's ready to move on from that fantasy. Hopefully it won't be traumatic. We explain all the santas, just with that Santa can't be everywhere all at once so he has lots of helpers :) My boys have accepted that without question. Santa only ever brings one present for each child and the rest are from family, and the kids know that. I think L will believe it for a few more years :)