When Hugh was turning three, he answered what he wanted for his birthday in a single word. "Pancakes." Such a beautifully innocent child! Hugh is four now and suddenly this year he became quite interested in the gifts he might receive at Christmas. Sometimes a little too interested, where we had to balance out the anticipation of presents with the constant questions of, "Can you buy that for me?" while in the store. Thankfully, just like the streaming cartoons on Amazon Prime, the answer of "that costs money" buys us a few extra minutes : )
In our house, we are decidedly not big into Santa Claus. The birth of Jesus is why we celebrate Christmas at all, so mainly Santa just needs to take a back seat. And to be blunt, we are also not huge fans of lying to our kids, sometimes chuckling at the great lengths our co-patriots go to keep their little ones in the dark (until it all unravels in a few years). All in good fun, I'm sure, just not for us.
Recently we were at the dinner table and Jess was explaining the story of St. Nicolas who, because of his Christian charity, gave gifts to the poor and orphaned children. A model for our modern Santa Claus. Hilarity ensured at Bath and Body Works today when Jess was finishing up the Christmas list. She and the two kids walked into the store where the attendant asked,
"Are you ready for Santa?"
To which Hugh replied, "No, he is not coming to our house."
"I'm sure he is!"
"He only goes to the poor houses and people without mommies and daddies."
A little miffed, she relented, "I'll just let that one go..."
After purchasing, she cheerily tried one last time, "Keep your eyes open for Santa, I bet you he'll come!"
To which Hugh corrected her, "I bet you he won't!"
Ahhhh . . . our beautifully innocent child! Stay tuned for next year when Hugh brings some Christmas-honesty to his classroom, and we have to break the bad news to some other pre-K parents : )
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