Tricia, David, and the Little Ones: Santa Visit

Sophia saw Santa quite early this year, since Christmas was to happen on the 13th of December when the Gerhards were to visit, and then again on Christmas day with the Mantels. (Christmas with multiple families gets complicated...) So on the 27th of November, Sophia got dressed up in her fancy Christmas dress and we went to see Santa. We're not really making a huge deal about Santa, but we have participated in that mass delusion. We have told Sophia that he is coming, told her to be good, told her about presents and everything. We know of all of the arguments against it, all of the terrible things it promotes: materialism; trust broken; unjust punishment; parents lying to their children; etc. There are a couple quotes, however, that come from a Christmas book that we have, that make the argument from the other side:

"Was there ever a wider and more loving conspiracy than that which keeps the venerable figure of Santa Claus from slipping away, with all the other old-time myths, into the forsaken wonderland of the past?" - Hamilton Wright Mabie, My Study Fire

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no child-like faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies!
Francis P. Church, The New York Sun, September 21, 1897

And anyway, all cultures have some form of midwinter festival around light. Ours happens to be Christmas, and we as everyone knows, many of the "Christian" traditions have been stolen from other belief systems. It doesn't mean that we shouldn't have some sort of annual festival bringing light (in whatever form) into the darkest part of the year.

So we perpetuate. Maybe we are bad parents, but I want my children to be just as full of wonder as they are full of knowledge.

Anyway. I digress. Santa visit. As we drove to the mall, we talked to Sophia about visiting Santa Claus, and we asked her what she would ask him for Christmas. She didn't know, so we suggested a dollhouse (which we knew she was getting from her grandparents) and she said "Oh, yeah. A dollhouse"

So we arrive at the mall, and since it is early in the season, there are no line-ups there. We approach Santa and Sophia really isn't sure, but she walks up to him, very deliberately, and sits up on his knee. She stares straight ahead. He talks to her a bit, taking his time, and then he asks if there is anything she would like for Christmas. Still looking straight ahead, never having made eye contact, she whispers:

"A Dollhouse"

And so the cycle is complete. Santa gives her a candy-cane, a little gingerbread man toy, and a green reindeer stamp. We have the photo taken, and continue wandering the mall. For weeks afterward, it is:

"I talk to Santa Claws"

"Santa give me a Ginger-man"

I would say it was a success.