Santa. Real vs. Imaginary

When I was about five years old (maybe my dad can help me out with this one), my dad woke my brother and I very early on Christmas morning. He told us "Shh, listen, do you hear that?" "Santa's jingle bells! Santa is here, he's really here!!!" Was our reply.

...Now the house that we grew up in was a single level house with an apartment in the back. They were technically connected, but you had to go out the back door, through the yard and up a flight of stairs to actually get into the apartment. My grandma Frances lived there. (Yes I know, we couldn't be luckier little kids to have grandma so close) Anyway, this year we put our Christmas tree at Grandma's.

So back to my story. After we heard heard the bells and knew that Santa was on our property, and better yet in OUR house we hurried out the back door and up the stairs. We opened the front door and there HE was! Can you imagine the excitement? Santa in the flesh, in my house, holding a ...... PUPPY!!!!!

It's true, I got the cutest little chow chow puppy that I had ever seen. Naturally I named him chow chow. (I once named a cat kitty kitty too) One of these days I'm going to learn how to use my scanner and I'll post pictures of that adorable dog.

Recently we celebrated my son's 1st Christmas. And while we didn't put a single gift under the tree from Santa, I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about the traditions that I want him to grow up with. I'm grateful that my parents played into the whole idea of make believe while I was little, because I think that having an imagination and believing in something that is good is a wonderful thing. Personally for me, actually 'seeing' Santa made him real to me, and so I no longer needed to believe. I was in my early teens before I finally decided that he was probably one of my dad's friends in a costume, and that was later confirmed by my cousin. But what makes him so real anyway? Is it the fact that when we wake up Christmas morning there are gifts under our tree that are "From: Santa:?" Is it the holiday spirit of giving that he represents? Or is it really just a child's ability to dream so vividly? I suppose it's different for every person.

I read an email recently about a child who went to the mall to ask Santa to visit his sister in the hospital who was dying of a terminal disease. It was her dying wish. This ordinary man, dressed up in character decided that this little girl was worth it, and so off he went to see her. While he was there he granted her a Christmas wish by blessing her that she would recover and told her that he would see her next year. The next year while handing out candy canes and smiling for the camera time after time, a little girl came to sit on his lap. It was the little girl who was supposed to die the year before. She believed in him so much, and he believed in God so much that together their faith healed her. I'm pretty sure this is one of those made up stories to make people like me sob my eyes out, but the warmth the story brings is so uplifting.

I just hope that one day I'll be able to instill that sense of excitement into my son that my parents instilled into us when we were small. I hope that he will BELIEVE just as I did.