A fabulous guest post by Hula in the Sunset!!
If you are under the age of 10 or are excited for Santa to sweep down your chimney this year then I think you should skip reading this post. Again, do not read on if you plan on having a visit from Santa. I am lucky enough to know a very funny and very smart lady, Andrea. I have mentioned her blog here and there and if you visit the ACoLab you have probably seen her submissions but if you haven't gotten a chance to check her out you really should. I usually end up leaving her blog with a smile on my face and find myself thinking about her stories hours and days later. I am so happy she decided to write a guest post and participate in the 12 Days of Santa. Thanks Andrea!
When did you stop believing in Santa Claus?
I think I stopped believing in him kind of early and I’m going to blame it on my sisters. I don’t mean it in a bad way. My sisters are older than me. They stopped believing long before I did. As older sisters wasn’t it partly their job to plant the seeds of doubt so when the crushing blow of realizing there was no Santa occurred it wouldn’t be such a major event?
When I was in the 3rd or 4th grade we went to Nebraska for Christmas to spend the holiday with my grandparents. In the weeks leading up to our trip the house looked as though we weren’t going anywhere. We still decorated; we still got a Christmas tree; we still put the Advent wreath up and fought over who got to light the candles. My mom still made fruitcake (another story for another time, perhaps.) My mom said that it was because she didn’t want to have to make Santa lug our presents half way across the country so she told him to just drop presents off early, say, a few days before our trip to Nebraska and we’d have a little Christmas before our “real” Christmas.
I was excited that we got to have two Christmasses, but also thought that was kind of bogus because Santa was most likely going to Nebraska anyways, why make him make a trip to California early, especially during the busiest time of the year? I mentioned it to my sister who is three years older than me. She, being the wise old pre-teen told me that it was Mom who didn’t want to lug our presents halfway across the country, not Santa. There was no Santa, stupid and here, I’ll prove it to you. She grabbed one of the dining room chairs and pulled it through the house and into my parents’ closet. She stood on the chair and rooted through my mom’s things on the top shelf. “See,” she said, “here’s that watch you’ve been asking for and see, here’s that Merlin game I wanted.” If I had had any doubt before, I had none now. There was no Santa Claus.
Later that evening when my mom was home from work I heard my mom yell “ANDI” in that tone that parents use so kids know they are in trouble. My sister and I had forgotten to put the chair back. It was still in her closet. When questioned, we lied through our teeth and told her that we were looking for school supplies. I was so horrified that we wouldn’t get our presents, I would check back every single day to make sure the presents were still there and I would still get the watch that I so badly wanted. In the end we got our presents, some of them we opened at home and some of them we opened in Nebraska.
Even after I stopped believing I still wanted to. The heater in our house growing up used to make clanking sounds. When I was really little and I still really believed I knew that clanking sound was Santa on the roof with his reindeer. As I got older I pretended the clanking noises were Santa.
My 11 year old daughter told me a few days ago she no longer believed in Santa. Last year at this time she told me she didn’t believe in The Easter Bunny or The Tooth Fairy but she was still at least 70% sure Santa existed. I asked her what changed over the course of the year. She said it stemmed from the then recent development of her getting to stay home alone for short periods of time; she went snooping in the garage before Christmas and found her brother’s Christmas presents in a bag. On Christmas morning those same items were under the tree with a bow marked “from Santa.” I told her it’s OK not to believe in Santa, but she still had to play along because her 2 year old brother has a more than a few years left of believing and we wouldn’t want to spoil the fun until he’s old enough to not be mad at us for lying to him.
Thanks so much Andrea for the post! Again, if you want to check out Andrea's blog "Hula in the Sunset" you can click here. If you want to catch up on any other posts/guest posts from the countdown please click here.
1 comment:
My grandmother broke the news to me about Santa not being real. I think I was still in that phase of "half believing" and she obviously decided that I was old enough to now know the realities of life. I was so disappointed!
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