When Punk and Peanut actually started school, I was a bit worried about how to go about handling holidays. Peanut was TERRIFIED of the idea of Santa from a young age. Terrified as in, hyperventilating over the idea of a stranger climbing down our chimney, circumnavigating the locked door, peeking in on her when she was sleeping and then sneaking out again. Yep... gave her nightmares for years thinking that someone was going to sneak in her room and take her back out the chimney and far far away. Exit the myth of Santa for our family.
Fast forward to the present.... Hubby doesn't see the harm in believing in Santa. He wants our children to be able to look forward to the magical elf and his eight (nine) sleigh pulling reindeer. I don't see the need for Santa. Call me a Scrooge but I want them to know about the joy of the holiday without the mass commercialism of it. So we decided to allow SweetPea to take the reigns. If she wants to believe in Santa, we will not discourage. If she is happy without him in her life, we will not encourage. Either way, she will be taught to be respectful about others' beliefs.
Today, I decided to allow her a small glimpse of what Punk and Peanut enjoyed doing at school... making reindeer food.
See, it really is just a bag of oats with some glitter thrown in. But with a bit of imagination (something SweetPea is definitely not lacking in), it becomes reindeer food. For what reindeer? Santa's, of course. Unless you ask my daughter and then its for the deer that we see at our local state park. In her words today, as she saw the UPS man drop off yet another online purchase package at our doorstep "Look mama! Santa's here!" Yeah... Santa isn't just the jolly guy in a red suit, he is suddenly anyone who delivers Christmas cheer. Including herself.
So much for our "reindeer games". My daughter is now convinced that she is our neighborhood Santa.
That is so sweet.
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