We had St. Nicholas Day a little late.

[conuly]

Because we suck, mostly.

But we did have it, and it was good, and everybody was happy.

Not long after St. Nicholas Day Evangeline came home and told me a story. She said "Today my teacher told us something that I know isn't true. She was just pretending. Mrs. Dulligan said she was home with her husband, I forgot his name, maybe Mr. Dulligan? Yeah, that's his name, they were home and she said she heard a noise outside, and she looked outside and she saw a reindeer! With a red nose! And I know she really didn't. I think she just said that so that the other kids who think Santa is real would think it was fun. That's silly! Reindeers ("Reindeer, sweetie, not reindeers") reindeer don't live here, and definitely not Rudolph."

Of course, if you don't remember previous years you might wonder about why we bother with St. Nicholas Day if the nieces Know About Santa, and that's because it's fun. The night they put out their shoes-with-celery we went to the store. And as we were there Ana said "Can we get some of that pomegranate juice? Mommy really likes it, and she'll be really surprised to find some in her shoe tomorrow."

That's magic, right there. You can keep your Santa is Real, and you can do whatever you like to maintain the lie illusion for yourself. If you want to make "snowy" footprints on your carpet or if you want to tromp around on the roof at night ringing bells, be my guest. (And please use all appropriate safety precautions, thanks.) I will take the simple magic of "Let's surprise Mommy by getting her something she likes" over that any day of the week.

Comments

[leora.livejournal.com]

Being raised Jewish, this was never an issue. But I have participated in a small number of Christmases when I was a guest at someone else's house. My favorite was at my now ex-boyfriend's house one Christmas. The youngest member of the family was either late high school or early college age by then, so there wasn't any issue of anyone truly believing, but the pretense was there. Everyone knew his mom filled the stockings. But I suggested to him we buy some candy she particularly liked and put it into the stockings as well. We snuck down in the middle of the night, got the candies into the stockings, and it was wonderful seeing her surprise when she noticed something extra in them. Lots of fun making somebody happy and it didn't take much at all. It was such a very small thing. But definitely fun.

I can definitely see the point of wanting to do something like that.

In fact, every now and then when I have heard someone mention particularly wanting something and it's small, within my means, and I can obtain it, I will acquire it and make it appear in a space of theirs (I usually do this with housemates, it's not like I'm breaking into people's houses to leave them gifts, which while interesting is likely not actually a good idea). It's nice to do at random times too when you can. And I think teaching kids that surprising people with something nice is fun and pleasant is a great lesson, so long as the bar isn't so high that it becomes a burden where they become afraid they can't get something good enough. That's part of why I like the idea of small items in shoes or stockings. Something small and simple, but nice, so you can probably succeed in getting something nice, but it isn't a huge project that is more stressful than pleasant. (Big gifts can be nice to do sometimes too, but that's a bit trickier.)