Do You Believe in Santa?

Last night when we sat down to dinner with the Lusters Evelyn asked me if I believe in Santa. I told her that was a hard one. She let me off the hook because she said that people who believe in Hanukkah don't believe in Santa. It was a big weight off my shoulders not having to answer that question.

You see, years ago I participated in the fleecing of a child. A young girl was desperate to know the truth about Santa, and I participated in the deception by writing her a letter from Santa. I will never forgive myself. Really. Growing up I never believed in Santa. My parents didn't lie to me and tell me my gifts were from some jolly fat man. Sometimes I wanted to believe, but I always knew it was just a story.

I don't feel like I missed out on any part of my childhood by not believing that Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy were real. When I lost a tooth, the fact that my parents could put a quarter under my pillow without waking me up was miracle enough for me.

I will never understand why parents lie to their kids about Santa. I guess it is easier than the truth. I don't want to hear bull about childhood wonderment. There are plenty of real things that kids can be amazed by. And don't even get me started about how Christmas is actually supposed to be a religious holiday...actually, don't get my mom started.

I'm really thankful my parents were always straight up with me (about everything). I was never blindsided by the truth coming from somewhere else. When kids ask me a direct question I want to tell them the truth. I guess I'm lucky Evelyn asked whether I believe in Santa, not if Santa is real. If she had asked if Santa is real, I would have had to say no. I just can't lie again.

Bah-Humbug

Today we went out. I don't go to the malls at all in December. Today was a clear reminder why. Traffic was terrible. The stores were crowded. There were long lines at all the check outs (and we weren't even at the mall). Oh, and worst of all: Christmas music. I walked into one store to look for one specific thing. Christmas music was blaring. I left and went into the next store just to look around. The line to check out was lengthening down the side of the store and the same exact song was blaring in there. I left. Was I safe outside? Of course not. That shopping area has music piped into the parking lots! It was crazy. We came home without buying anything. I guess that's good.

After dinner we ventured out again. To Target. Ross wanted to pick up a digital converter box for the TV. On the way there and back we drove through the neighborhood and saw lots of Christmas lights. I actually like Christmas lights--at least ones done tastefully. What we saw was mostly crap. We did find a couple of houses on August St. that were really cool. They had their trees completely wrapped in white lights. It was a lot classier than all the trees that we saw with the bottom 3 feet hastily wrapped in lights (we saw blue, yellow, green, red, white, and multicolor stumps).

Christmas in Italy was so different. No Santa. Three days of everything being dead because everyone was home with their families. There are some things I do like about the holidays. All food: panettone, stollen, eggnog. I suppose I'll spend the rest of the month at home--eating cake and washing it down with eggnog. Ha!