The Gift from Santa

When Bug was a baby, we did not encourage the existence of Santa. Christmas isn't about Santa, a stranger should not be buying you presents, etc, etc.  We still filled her stocking, but we never said it was from Santa. We just said, "look! You have stuff in here, too!"

As I mentioned before, Santa brings one present. The rest come from Mom and Dad. I have friends at work who say that all the gifts are from Santa. I don't agree with this. I am Mom. I am the one who loves you. I'm the one who worked hard to earn the money to get you nice things, not some fat man in a red suit who thinks he can fit down my chimney.

Then Bug started pre-school, and all the kids were talking about Santa. Bug came home and demanded to know who this man in the red suit was, and why was he giving presents to everyone but her?

Thus, Santa was born. We don't make a super big deal about him, but he is a presence in our holiday.

Santa does not come if a child is naughty. I thought this was common Christmas knowledge: either you're naughty or nice. Bug made the mistake of getting in serious trouble 3 days before Christmas a few years ago. Santa came for her brother, but not for Bug.
Oooh, I got in trouble in the blog world over that! I was told I was being cruel for taking away my child's Christmas! Ummm, no. I didn't take away her Christmas, I took away one present. She still got all the presents from Mom and Dad, because we love her no matter what. But Santa only comes to the good children.

(And because my heart's not made of stone, Santa did give her the present she wanted, but he also sent her a letter saying she couldn't play with it for a month. And three years later, we did the same thing with BK.)

Bug is 9 now, and she knows that Santa is not real. But BK is 6, and he is in Full-fledged belief mode. I have been able to use this against him several times. "You need to be good and listen to Mom.... remember that Santa doesn't bring gifts for naughty boys!"

And, always remember: people who don't believe in Santa get socks and underwear for Christmas. 

So, do you believe?