“Santa is magic.” If I had a dollar for every time I’ve uttered those exact words or otherwise expressed this sentiment, I could pay for all of Little Boy’s Christmas presents (which will be quite the haul this year).
Little Boy’s Christmas list originated right after Halloween, with frequent additions. I encouraged the list because, despite the materialistic “gimme gimme” underpinnings, it’s an excellent at-home reading/writing activity — he’d name a toy and I’d either verbally dictate the letters for him or help him sound it out. But now he wants to add everything he could ever want to the list — from toys to animals to food.
Like, earlier this week we saw an Erector set toy sitting on a Toys for Tots donation table. “Mama, what do the letters say? I need to add it to my list!”
“Space Chaos,” I told him. And the whole way home, he made me repeat it so he wouldn’t forget the name. I finally scribbled it down on a piece of paper, to relieve him of the fear that we would forget it, because it was driving me crazy: “Space Chaos, Space Chaos…” These words are etched on my very soul.
Anyway, he got the notion that all he has to do is write something on the list and Santa will bring it. The list is quite long, and has everything from Dreamlites to baby cats. “Hon, Santa can’t bring everything,” I have told him. This makes him worry, as certain things on the list are much more important than others. Like Space Chaos — so important.
Lots of really good and tricky questions about Santa, like this one: If Santa’s elves make the toys he brings on Christmas morning, do they also make the toys we see in stores, because the toys are the same? This lead to a discussion about factories and factory workers (who are “sort of like elves”), the living conditions of factory workers (who may or may not live communally “sort of like elves”) but definitely do not dress like elves or have pointy ears. The eventual end of the discussion could really not be anything except the whole “Santa is magic” declaration. Done!
However, though a lot of things about Santa are still plausible to a 5 year-old boy who is smart enough to understand that there are lots of things he doesn’t understand, he finally has realized that every Santa he sees is not the “real” Santa. Which, I think, has made going to visit Santa a little less special (but still an exciting event).
Santa 2013
Pretty good picture (Little Boy’s smile! Awww!) though the Santa 2011 photo is still one of my all-time favorite. The “You People are Completely Nuts” look in his eyes combined with his “I’ll Do Whatever They Tell Me To” smile just kills me.
