I believe in Santa!

She probably has this picture in her room somewhere

I read an article today about a second grade teacher that took it upon her mean ass self to tell  her class of 7 and 8 year olds there is no such thing as Santa... WHAT IN THE NAME OF KRIS KRINGLE IS THAT SHIT ALL ABOUT??  I was so angry after reading this- I mean whatever religion you may or may not be or your socio-economic background, kids everywhere have at least heard of Santa Claus. It is up to families to decide what to tell their kids.  Is he real? Is he fake? Just the “spirit” of Christmas? Whatever- it is NOT the right of an ADULT, ( NOT a parent) much less a teacher to tell them. What an asshole.


The Boy still believes in Santa, and Teenzilla plays along.  I am TERRIFIED about other kids making fun of him, telling him there is no such thing, etc.  He goes to school with a variety of kids, from special ed, to general ed. some,older kids for whom the magic has ended, and kids his age and younger who may still believe in the magic. 

Oops....busted!

We also do The Elf on The Shelf tradition.  This actually works for The Boy- which kind of surprises me- but it works it's magic and he gets up each morning very excited to see where Clyde, our elf is at. He has talked to him, he gets worried if we get on him for something that Santa is going to hear about it and he will get nothing for Christmas... as a behavior modifier it truly is awesome. Is this also going to be  source of ridicule by meanie kids?  I mean- our Elf has to be real- he has his own Facebook page!  Come check it out! Clyde Finnegan Elf has a lot of friends and can post pictures of his shenanigans there as well!




 It is a VERY fine line we are walking - and I am so afraid of what will happen when we fall. Not just for him either- for me. I mean doesn't the end of believing in Santa just mark a downhill slide out of innocence? Or is that too jaded?  Is it just simply a sign of growing up- a natural order that kids go through?  With the fall of Santa, the Tooth Fairy also takes a hit, as does the Easter Bunny. Damn..it IS sad. 

I know that someday we are going to tell him the "truth" about Father Christmas. Just like with the other 2 kids. That he was a very kind and generous soul called Saint Nick who lived many many years ago and that people decided that they wanted to keep the spirit of his kind ways alive and so that is where Santa Claus came from.  But, just as I have instilled in my other kids,  I feel the Christmas Spirit each December  and you can’t explain that to me outside of a universe with a Santa Claus in it. 



And THEN I'm going to hope that like me and his brother and sister he will carry on believing anyway. Because we all need a little magic in our lives.