Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Hope for the Holidays

My middle child has always been reluctant to believe in Santa. She's been looking for ways to disprove his existence since she was old enough to say, "I think Santa is a fake." I've spent the last few years trying to re instill her belief in the bearded man and his reindeer. First I went to great lengths wrapping presents in different paper and writing left handed on the name tags to disguise my penmanship. My husband ate the cookies and drank the milk. He even made noise on the roof. She never even woke up. One year we even got her an ipod shuffle monogramed "To a great little girl, From Santa." Every Christmas morning she would open her presents so happy and excited. Then she would come over to me sometime later in the day and say, "I know it was you". Finally I gave up. A couple of years went by and I took the road of honesty. Letting her know that Santa wasn't real and she was good enough to keep up the charade for her younger sister. Then this Christmas happened. She came home one day telling me stories of friend who has an elf that comes every year to play jokes and make sure that she behaves so that Santa can bring her everything on her wish list. You're supposed to leave crackers and water (the opposite of cookies and milk) so that an elf can come and visit you for the holidays. My daughter said she didn't believe it for a second, "How silly", she said. That night, I came down to turn off the lights and saw on the mantle a plate with the crackers and water. She still wanted to believe. At 11:30PM my husband went out into the night searching for an elf. He found one. The next morning I woke up to her standing by my bed holding the elf beaming, "Now what do I do. I bet Katie five dollars that it wouldn't be there ." She was happy, and I was happy. Letting our kids believe in magic is what teaches them to have hope. To believe that the impossible can happen. A tool that we will need many times as we get older to get through the darkest of our days. I wish for all of you have a hopeful and happy holiday.