Talking about Santa Claus

[I’m taking a little break this week from my series on Independent Play. If you’re jumping in for the first time on this topic, you can read parts one and two here and here. In the meantime I wanted to share this very special moment I recently had with my little boy…]

Three-year old Nathan has always been captivated by the legend of Santa Claus and his yearly pilgrimage bringing toys to children at Christmas. It really surprised me because we have never done the Santa Claus thing in our family.

One of Nathan’s all time favourite stories is ‘The Night Before Christmas’. He had picked out the book himself one day when we were at the library. He asked to read it repeatedly over the entire period while we had the book on loan. Since then, one his favourite topics we talk about at bedtime is Santa Claus.

Recently one night as I was tucking Nathan in bed and settling down for our bedtime chat, this was the very original conversation we had about the jolly old man…

One-year-old Nathan meeting Santa for the first time

Nathan: I want Santa Claus to come to my house!

Me: Oh, why do you want him to come to our house?

Nathan: Coz’ I want Santa Claus to bring me a soldier, like the king’s men in Humpty Dumpty.

Me: The one with the tall black hats?

Nathan: Yes. And he needs to have a sword.

Me: Right…

Nathan: And I want Santa Claus to bring me a long, looooong fire truck!

Me: Don’t you already have a fire truck from po-po and gung-gung? (grandma and grandpa)

Nathan: That one is small. It needs to be bigger, like this (stretches hands out end to end)

Me: That’s a very long fire truck.

Nathan: Aaaaaaand I want Santa Claus to bring me some money.

Me: Money? What do you want to do with the money?

Nathan: So I can give it to the aunty at the shops and for some sweets! (very clever)

Me: I see…

Nathan: Do you have some money now? In your purse?

Me: Eeerrrmmm... I will have to check.

Nathan: Maybe I will ask Santa Claus to bring some money for you, mummy.

Me: That would be good.

Nathan: And can Santa Claus bring some tickets to daddy so we can go on the airplane?

Me: The airplane? To go where?

Nathan: To po-po and gung-gung’s house. (my eyes started to get misty at this point)

Me: Maybe… we’ll see.

Nathan: Okaaaay… Goodnight mummy! Kiss! Hug! See you in the morning.

It’s almost impossible resist such pure hope, conviction and belief. I’ve always been on the fence about the whole Santa Claus business. But I can now understand why some parents choose to bring this legendary character to life. It’s the closest thing we adults might ever get to getting a glimpse into fairyland… even if it’s just only the very fringes of it.

 

"Know you what it is to be a child?
It is to believe in love, to believe in loveliness, to believe in belief;
It is to be so little that the elves can reach to whisper in your ear,
It is to turn pumpkins into coaches, and mice into horses,
lowness into loftiness, and nothing into everything,
for each child has its fairy godmother in its soul"
(Francis Thomson)

 

P.S. Made me think about this old post on fairies and babies.

 

Linking up to Jess for IBOT