No More Santa and Other Stories

I can't actually recall believing in Santa, though I may have at one point.  I was a pretty skeptical kid from about 3rd grade on.  Our son was basically willing to go along with the story after he found out (around age 8) for the sake of his sister.  My daughter started questioning seriously a few weeks ago.  It started with the tooth fairy -- why is her handwriting just like yours?  Then she found a tooth in a drawer.  I guess there was still some lingering faith, but she decided the tooth fairy wasn't real after a week.  Then she started questioning Santa.  Right around her 8th birthday, she put us on the spot.  And while we said we were just helpers and such, eventually when your children ask you point blank about something, you really shouldn't lie.

As in all things, there is now a cottage industry in psychologists who will either support the Santa story as an innocent white lie that allows children to learn things on their own and distinguish truth from fiction, as well as those who see the world more black and white and feel one should never mislead children.  My daughter is a bit angry that we tricked her and says she won't tell her children there is a Santa Claus.  I said that is her right, but she might feel differently when she is older.  I doubt there has been any permanent damage, but we'll see.  My wife wishes there had been one more Christmas with Santa.  I think it's good she figured it out, though I wish she wasn't upset about it.

Anyway, I have pretty much all the gifts for my son, but only one thing for my daughter (though I have stocking stuffers for each).  I am not really looking forward to dealing with holiday shopping, so I had better figure out what to get her and do it in the next two weeks.

Generally, I feel out of sorts.  I have more or less caught up with work, and it was kind of strange not feeling quite so obligated to be up all hours of the day.  Of course, there is work that I could have or should have done, and I am extremely tempted to just take one day this week or next and sleep in.  But I don't think that will be today.  I spent quite a bit of time getting caught up on reading.  I should be 75% through my list of Russian authors by the end of the week, though then I will take a one-book detour into Canadian lit.  There's a pretty good chance that I will wrap up this Russian trek by mid-January.  While it has been quite rewarding, I am a bit exhausted.  It really did feel like graduate level work, though no final exam.  I suspect I am ready for my next project, which will be a couple of academic papers (on car sharing services though not Uber, which is basically just an unregulated taxi service, which is different) and the creative writing.  I think I do need to carve out an hour each evening to write or nothing will get done.  I've already used Leechblock on a couple of other websites, and possibly I need to apply it to my own blog...

Edit: So there have already been some spin-off consequences.  We were at a holiday breakfast at a local community centre (extremely empty compared to the ones in Vancouver, almost depressingly so), and my daughter didn't want to bother sitting on Santa's lap. 

The loneliest Santa?

I suppose there is not much point in trying to track down the Santa train on the TTC.  Now if we were in Chicago, I think we'd still go look for the CTA Santa train as riding it is such a cool experience -- it is clean and smells nice and elves ride inside and hand out candy canes and they even play holiday jingles inside the cars.  I don't think the TTC goes to such lengths, but I could be wrong.  Anyway, maybe in another year or two, she will "forgive us," and we can return to the simple joys of seeking out Santa during the holidays.