To Santa or Not to Santa...
Consider this fair warning for anyone with little kids who come into contact with Dylan in the future... We are not planning on leading Dylan to believe that Santa is real. I realize this is not the norm, but this was something that we agreed on long before we had a kid. We decided that we want to be completely honest with Dylan when it comes to Santa, I also don't want to get caught up in the trap of "you need to be good or Santa won't come." I've felt pretty strongly for a while that being good and doing good are things that should happen simply because they are good... not in order to get something out of it for yourself (though the episode of Friends where Joey tells Phoebe that no good deed goes without self satisfaction comes to mind every time think that.)
So how are we handling Christmas now that Dylan is old enough to kind of know what's going on? Well, at this point it's not so much about us sitting down with him and explaining the myth of Santa or anything like that, I think what I've found this year is that a lot more about how we will treat the Santa topic is by what we are NOT saying. We're not telling him that Santa is going to bring him presents, we're not telling him that Santa is going to come down our non existent fire place, or that he is watching to see if Dylan is being a good boy. So he has no expectations for any of that. Instead we're enjoying the Christmas decorations, the snow, and Christmas stories, music, and movies. I'm pretty sure that at this point Dylan has no idea that gifts are even a part of this season. I'm not interested in depriving him of the Christmas experience, he's still loving this season. And we still read books about Santa, I pointed him out at the mall (though we didn't sit on his lap, mostly because those pictures are super expensive), etc. At this point Santa is another character in his toddler world, much like Mickey Mouse or Rocket from Little Einsteins. And that's perfectly fine. I think in the future when he starts learning more about what's real and what's imaginary we'll just be sure to lump Santa in with those characters. Doesn't mean he won't enjoy them anymore, or that he'll stop loving Elmo, just that he'll know whats what.
So I think we've got this year figured out, and I think we've even figured out how to proceed in the future, the only thing I'm concerned about is how to keep him from spoiling other kids fun. I think we still have a little time to figure that out though.
So how are we handling Christmas now that Dylan is old enough to kind of know what's going on? Well, at this point it's not so much about us sitting down with him and explaining the myth of Santa or anything like that, I think what I've found this year is that a lot more about how we will treat the Santa topic is by what we are NOT saying. We're not telling him that Santa is going to bring him presents, we're not telling him that Santa is going to come down our non existent fire place, or that he is watching to see if Dylan is being a good boy. So he has no expectations for any of that. Instead we're enjoying the Christmas decorations, the snow, and Christmas stories, music, and movies. I'm pretty sure that at this point Dylan has no idea that gifts are even a part of this season. I'm not interested in depriving him of the Christmas experience, he's still loving this season. And we still read books about Santa, I pointed him out at the mall (though we didn't sit on his lap, mostly because those pictures are super expensive), etc. At this point Santa is another character in his toddler world, much like Mickey Mouse or Rocket from Little Einsteins. And that's perfectly fine. I think in the future when he starts learning more about what's real and what's imaginary we'll just be sure to lump Santa in with those characters. Doesn't mean he won't enjoy them anymore, or that he'll stop loving Elmo, just that he'll know whats what.
So I think we've got this year figured out, and I think we've even figured out how to proceed in the future, the only thing I'm concerned about is how to keep him from spoiling other kids fun. I think we still have a little time to figure that out though.
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