Santa is not the magic of Christmas!
Your child won't remember Santa, they'll remember the time spent with you.
Many people tell us that because we don't celebrate Christmas nor believe in Santa, we deprive our children of the magic of Christmas.
So let's talk about that: if we don't believe in Santa, do we deprive ourselves and our children of the magic of Christmas?
Absolutely not! You don't need Santa to make Christmas magical!
I get it, this time of the year it's easy to forget about the essence. But do you know what your child will remember?
The lights. The songs. Quality family time. The drawings you made for the grandparents with love. Decorating the house. The scented candle you bought together. The bag full of toys to give to charity. The gingerbread people you baked together. Homemade pasta. Walking in the snow or on the beach. Quality family time. Did I say quality family time?
They will remember the things that really matter. Those are the things that children will carry with them long term.
Santa is a fictional character who nowadays only feeds consumerism, he's not the magic of Christmas. It's ok if you chose not to believe in Santa, because it doesn't reflect your values. You're not depriving your kids of anything.
And allow me to be blunt.
I find it sad to use Santa (or fictional stories and fictional characters) to talk about magic. As if we hadn't looked around. As if the world weren't already magical in itself. The magic of metamorphosis. The magic of a waterfall. The magic of a sunset. The magic of the snow, the rain, the sun that warms us. That's magic and it's in our everyday! We have lost the habit of appreciating that magic. Let's find it back!
Whether you believe in Santa or not, if we got used to defining "magic" what Earth offers, especially when talking to our children, maybe we would begin to truly appreciate what surrounds us. And maybe, just maybe, our children's generation won't take it for granted.
