I never let my kids believe in Santa. I don't regret it. |
Christmas time with kids is filled with warm, cozy traditions: Listening to Christmas music while decorating the tree, going to look at Christmas lights with hot chocolate in hand, and taking the kids to visit Santa Claus.
Well, scratch that last one. At least for my family.
My kids are ages 12 through 18 now, but I didn't teach them to "believe" in Santa Claus when they were little. The reasons were actually a bit nuanced and maybe even profound, but I don't regret it.
Young kids, especially, are prone to lean into the wonder and magic of the holidays − and this can be a really beautiful, uplifting thing for tired, cynical adults to see. I loved it.
I'm divorced now, but when they were young, we decided we wouldn't teach the kids about Santa, and we stuck to it.
Parents think about how fun it will be at first to take their kids to see Santa, or tell them gifts are on their way from Santa, but this comes with an array of pesky questions from kids about Mr. Claus: Where does he live? How does he make it to all the houses in one night? How does he really know what I want? The cheeky answer is magic, of course. Kids actually believe Santa is real, especially if the person they trust most in the world − their parent − tells them........