Yes, We “Santa”, And I’m Not Sorry

Sometimes it feels like I am a dying breed of parent. 

I don’t “gentle parent”. I feed my kids processed, non-organic, allergen and dairy-laden food and sometimes we even have ice cream for dinner. 

While I don’t make the same parenting choices as everyone else (and I’m not saying my choices are right and we should all do things my way), I think we can all agree that we just want our kids to stay little for as long as possible and that they grow up WAY too fast. 

Knowing that, it surprised me how often I see parents choosing to stop teaching their kids about Santa.

Casey Williamson Photography

I grew up with parents who went above and beyond for me and my sister to make Santa as real as possible. On Christmas Eve, my dad would have the Santa tracker on so we could watch him. In the morning, my dad would joke that Santa somehow disabled our alarm system and escaped the video recorder he had set up in front of the fireplace, although one year we did get a glimpse of a foot. The cookies we’d left out were gone, the milk was drunk, and the carrots were half chewed up by Rudolph and his friends. We’d get an email from Santa on Christmas morning wishing us a Merry Christmas and there would be presents underneath the tree. My parents would sit and watch as we excitedly tore through carefully selected and beautifully wrapped gifts and they’d smile to themselves when they knew “Santa” nailed it. 

Now that I’m a parent, I recreate the magic I experienced as a child because my children will only be this little (and gullible) for so long. In just a few short years, they’ll no longer believe and a piece of their childhood will be gone forever. 

Even though my kids believe in Santa, we are also instilling in them how incredibly lucky they are to have parents who can afford to pay for all of their wants and needs. Throughout the year, but especially at Christmastime, we make a point to teach them about giving back and what it means to both give help and need help, and how one day, we could be the ones who need help. Whether it’s providing a family in need with groceries for a week, donating diapers to a local crisis nursery, or making Santa gifts happen for other children, my kids will understand that our abundance gives us a responsibility to help those around us. While we’ll never be able to single-handedly provide for everyone to have the perfect Christmas, we are certainly trying to do our part. 

In the blink of an eye, our children will be grown up and we’ll be sending them out into the world to find their way and we, as parents, know firsthand how harsh and cold the world can be.

Let’s let them be little.

Let’s sit back and see the joy in their eyes on Christmas morning and not worry about who gets the credit because that’s not what giving is about.

Let’s let our kids be kids.

Too much of childhood is already snatched away from them but this is one piece we can preserve while still instilling in them the importance of humility, gratitude, and philanthropy. 

When the day finally comes that my kids stop believing in the big man (and I know it’s coming soon because my 5 year old already has doubts), I’ll explain to them that Santa is in all of us. It’s our job to keep the magic alive and to continue the tradition of making Christmas miracles happen for someone who needs a little magic in their life.

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Jess Graefe
I'm a wife, foster mama, dog lover, amateur chef, instagram fanatic, starbucks addict, nurse turned photographer. I grew up in the Northern Virginia area and moved to Oklahoma to attend Oklahoma Christian University in 2008. I married my ruggedly-handsome high school sweetheart in 2014, started my own photography business in 2015, and opened our home for foster kiddos in 2016. I enjoy baking, loving on my fur babies, Thunder games, traveling, and date nights with my husband! I am so excited to share the ups and downs, highs and lows, heartbreaks and victories of foster parenting with you all. While we don’t yet have any permanent kiddos of our own, we are so blessed to be able to provide a home for children that need one and to talk about that process here.

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