First visit with Santa

Well, this is something that I never did as a child: The meeting with Santa. The religious group in which I grew up was pretty zealous about not celebrating any holidays that may have had a religious meaning behind them. We had no Christmas tree when I was a child, though my immediate family and one set of grandparents did give gifts. (Ironicially, we celebrated the entirely secular holiday of Thanksgiving with gusto.) Visiting Santa was out of the question. Indeed, from the first I knew that "Santa Claus," he of the red suit and herd of reindeer and elven slavery, was a myth. Sinful child that I was, I maliciously ruined Christmas for some neighbor children, making sure to let them know that, "Fools, Santa isn't real!"

Now, as a mom, this is one battle that I'm choosing not to fight, or at least not to go out of my way to fight. I plan to avoid Halloween like the plague no matter how cute kids in costume look, but Santa is ubiquitous, and, as far as I'm concerned, harmless. As my parents did with me, I told Jonah that Santa is a pretend man who rides around in a sleigh with reindeer and is believed to bring children gifts. My kids won't actually receive gifts from Santa, nor will I ever stand in line at the mall so they can sit on his lap, but I won't go out of my way to avoid Santa. Our children will know about Nicholas, saint and Bishop of Myra, and, admittedly, things could get a little confusing when the kids learn that "Santa Claus" is a corruption of "Saint Nicholas." For now, though, Santa Claus of the reindeer and Saint Nicholas whom we honor on the 6th of December are two entirely different people.

This Santa fell into our laps. This fall, Jonah's been attending a Chicago Park District "play class" near our house. The class lasts for 1 hour and 45 minutes, which has been just enough time for me to go grocery shopping or play at the park with just Manny before arriving breathless and one or two minutes late for pick-up. For the last day of class, there was party (of sorts) at which the kids could play with toys and ride-on cars and tricycles in the big gym, eat way too much sugar and meet Santa. Jonah was totally enthusiastic about the first two, but unsure about the third choice. After he saw a couple other kids walk away from Santa with a toy, he decided to give it a try.

Mr. Tom, Jonah's teacher for play class, is on the left. Jonah really liked him. You may notice somebody fixing Santa's beard in the back. Because he knew Santa wasn't "real," Jonah wasn't bothered by the fiddling around.
Can you see the green beard Jonah's wearing? Store-bought cupcakes with (what I consider) nasty frosting.

Apparently, this defective-beard Santa only brings cellophane stockings filled with cheap plastic toys from China that Mama throws in the garbage within fifteen minutes of arriving home. I wish my kids realized how lame that is.

In case you're wondering, Manny did not like Santa at all. He was concerned when I went near Santa to take a picture of Jonah. When Santa left and shouted "Merry Christmas!" while waving at the kids, Manny almost burst into tears; he only didn't cry because someone distracted him with a cellophane stocking of his own. Apparently he's not crafty enough to avoid being suckered in my cheap toys, just like his brother.