Santa Claus is Still Alive in Our House...Barely
I think this year will be the last year my children will believe in Santa Claus. Lord knows I’ve tried hard to keep this magic alive. With all the YouTube videos out there of aliens and Sasquatch, I know my children are secretly Googling “Santa” behind their teachers’ backs during computer free time. I just know they're going to figure out who Santa really is. They demand proof. Even my youngest, E, ponders this because this was on her letter to Santa this year:
I figured out Santa wasn’t real in the second grade. How? Well here’s why. I got up at 3:00 AM because I was so excited and couldn’t wait. I found the following problems:
1. The stockings were full despite the obvious hot embers still in the fireplace.
2. No footprints on the front porch.
3. No present on the front porch yet the stockings were full.
Now I was disheartened. In our house, he left footprints in the snow on our screened front porch and a present on the step. How can the stockings be full and yet no present? I’d figured I would go back to bed and see what the morning brought.
I awoke to the usual sleigh bells and stomping on the porch (My father had antique horse harness sleigh bells in the garage). The Ho! Ho! Ho! sounded familiar, but I was too groggy from being up four hours earlier. I ran downstairs with my sister to snatch up the present and bring it inside. Later, as all of my other siblings arrived we began to open presents. I found the following discrepancies:
1. I opened the gift from Santa and it was clothing.
2. I looked at the tag and compared it to the other tags and realized it was my mother’s handwriting. I double checked this by looking at my sister’s Santa present tag and drew the same conclusion.
3. I never in my life ever got anything from my letter I sent Santa.
4. The wrapping paper matched that of the paper I found in the closet.
5. My parents told me the stuff in my stocking was from Santa. Yet, there was never anything in their stockings.
Okay, so I’m a party pooper going to disprove Santa. On the contrary, it has made me bust ass to convince my children. When my oldest daughter was two, my husband and I crafted a cool plan to prove Santa was real, even if it went against my other belief that lying to your children is wrong. So, I’m a hypocrite…sue me.
I’ll tell you what we do every year, and so far my very intelligent children have yet to figure it out. This year will be tricky, because my oldest is 9 years old and already two years past the time I figured out Santa was my mom.
1. I made sure there was a fire in the fireplace two days before Christmas. I don’t clean the ashes up. I leave them in there.
2. Bought wrapping paper that not only wasn’t the same as the other presents, but was in a style that I would hate and would most likely never use.
3. Use a different brand of scotch tape than what you normally use.
4. I create tags that are not computer printed. I realized early on that my children knew practically all 300 fonts I have in my printer folder. I purposely made sure I printed them, and used a pen I would never use (taking one from the bank is handy). I would skew the writing and make it so they would never figure out the handwriting.
5. This is key: Throw all present supplies and left over paper in the trash on the day the trash is to be picked up in a dark trash bag, so wrap your presents right before then. I always locked them in a cabinet that only I have the key to. I don’t even put the key on my keychain. I hide it.
6. We made a plastic template of a man’s size work boots. I made sure it was two sizes larger than my husband’s boots.
7. Using this template, the night before, we make it look like Santa tracked in ash onto the hearth. How? Lay down the template, one boot at a time (left or right) and use baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, and coarse black pepper for the dirt look. Scatter a tiny bit of the ash into the first print. Press a work boot tread into this. Make sure you leave the fireplace screen open. This is what it looks like if you do it right:
8. Leave presents for everyone in the family, including the stockings.
9. Leave cookie crumbs and a little milk left over. It’s even better if you crush some of the cookies onto the floor.
10. Put out all presents and stuff stockings before you go to bed. I stay up until 2:00 AM to make sure they aren't getting up too early to check for Santa.
11. Make sure at least one present is from their list.
12. Act just as goofy when you realize you got what you wanted from Santa. You’re never too old to be a kid again!
I know that having pets changes this scenario. Why do we use baking soda? Easy to vacuum up and doesn’t wreck the brick or carpet. Also the nutmeg and cinnamon leaves a nice smell behind. The black pepper is pretty good at simulating dirt, but don't use too much. It also keeps our cat away from the prints.
I don’t know if I can pull that off this year. My girls are pretty smart. I just hope they don’t find this blog in their sneaky school Google search for Santa. I also hope they haven’t figured out there is a bend and flue in the fireplace pipe. Nor for them to figure out Mommy & Daddy are Santa Claus. I want the magic to last one year more. I don’t want them to grow up just yet. I’d love to see the sparkle in their eyes and hear the high pitch squeal that wakes the neighbor’s dogs for just one more year. Is that too much to ask?
Merry Christmas to all you Santa Clauses!
Posted by kitterztoo at 12/11/2009 12:57 PM 
Categories: Family
Tags: discovery fireplace pretending kids blog Santa Christmas google holidays stockings
Categories: Family
Tags: discovery fireplace pretending kids blog Santa Christmas google holidays stockings
You know what? You're awesome. I wish I had children that age, I would do the same thing! (Ok, you probably got me way beat on thoroughness, but still.) I have two stepchildren that were just becoming teens when I came along so I never got to play Santa. I hope you don't mind if I do it vicariously through you.
And is it really a lie? Santa may not be a big jolly elf, but we make him real. There's a little Santa in all of us after all. If it were so foreign a concept, if the feelings behind him were not there to begin with, Santa would be a trivia question.
Merry Christmas
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I gotta say, that's some pretty awesome Santa-ing. My two oldest siblings (brother and sister) believed in Santa (at least a little bit) until maybe 5 years ago because of some good Santa-ing (lying) from my mother. So I say keep up the lying in this instance. It may make believers out of your kids.
Also, I think Santa-ing traditions are so interesting to learn about. In my house Santa never ever wrapped any of his presents. They were just laid out in separated piles for us to discover when we walked into the room.
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We considered not wrapping the gifts to begin with. With gifts being wired into boxes and needing an army of packaging engineers to open, and us not being able to catch "the moment" on video if they got up before us, we decided to wrap them. I still haven't quite figured out if they know Santa isn't real by comparing what he does in our house compared to other people's houses. Time will tell, I guess.
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When my daughter is over for Christmas eve she still likes to leave the reindeer food!! She is 9 now.. guess matbe its time to let her know.. I love the footprint idea though!!
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