Summer Reruns -- An August Santa debate

From August 2, 2009

My wife and I have a big, fat Santa debate dancing in our heads.

Why now, when it's only beginning to look a lot like August?

Blame Judy Blume.

My wife has been reading Blume's "Superfudge" aloud to our daughter Tess, age 7. Tess, as far as we know, still buys into the notion that Santa Claus is the Christmas gift-bringer-in-chief.

Those two facts were unrelated, until Chapter 10, which explores the idea that "Santa is just an idea" that savvy kids figure out, not a living, gifting member of the reality-based community. Parents, it turns out, do the Christmas morning heavy lifting.

Oh brother.

My wife has argued for reading on and dealing with the issue. She figures it's better to hear this from us than from some chatty little gal pal on the playground. She sees it as a teachable moment and doesn't want Tess to think we're selling her a snow job. I get it.

But I'm less certain that it's high time for bubble bursting.

In my childhood, there was no eureka moment when it comes to Santa. I was not told. I did not catch anyone in the act. I simply grew up, realized the implausibility of the story as told, around age 8 or 9, and moved on.

And that's roughly the time kids start grasping the importance of the yuletide good will and generosity that Santa's story embodies, and why it's a tradition worth keeping alive.

I like the smooth transition of my experience. I fear we're about to deliver a holly jolly jolt. I also worry about our 4-year-old, Ella, who is still firmly in the Claus camp.

You'd think this would be a no-brainer for someone in the news biz. We report. You decide, and all that. Although one of the most famous newspaper editorials of all time proclaims "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus."

"He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy," said New York's Sun in 1897. Tough to argue with that.

Still, it's tempting to finally get some Christmas morning credit. Thanks Santa? Funny, I didn't see him on Black Friday, hunting for parking, fighting the crowds, searching in vain for "Sedate Me Elmo." And how much do you really appreciate gifts that magically appear just for the asking?

So basically, all I really want is a way to be honest, protect my daughter's sense of Christmas wonder, instill in her the values of faith, kindness and generosity, achieve peace on earth and stay married. Is that so much to ask?