In this season of giving, it's interesting how I plan on leaving the nicest gifts for my kids "from Santa"? Why don't I leave them labeled as from Daddy and me? I wondered if this is a tradition in other households, too. Do you label the nicest gifts to your children "From Santa"? Just wondering. It just seems to be the thing to do. That's the way I grew up, and that's the way my husband seems to have grown up as well. I've heard of countless other parents doing this, because their parents did this as well.
So why is it that we label the nicest gifts to our kids as "From Santa"? I have a theory on this. Maybe it's because we want our children to become familiar with a figure that won't dissapoint them. If we give the greatest gifts "from Santa," and leave the lesser gifts from us, then they will know that SOMEONE out there will always give them what they want. Okay, maybe my theory is a LITTLE off. If you watch the movie "A Christmas Story," poor little Ralph received some of the most "interesting" gifts. The bunny suit, for example. (Actually, that was from his crazy aunt, NOT SANTA). Do you remember, though, the scene where he gets pushed down that HUGE slide, away from Santa, in the mall, because Santa doesn't want to see him anymore, and wants to move on to the next child? Okay, that was a tangent, but I wanted to remove any responses from people who might say "Actually, Santa hasn't always given me everything I wanted." Others might even say "I never got what I wanted from Santa". Okay, Okay, folks. Maybe some of you never got what you wanted from Santa. You might have grown up in a house that couldn't afford what you wanted, because your parents never really made a lot of money. Or maybe you were the type of child who had the greatest of "impossible" expectations, wanting ponies, and castles, and a trip to an imaginary land. Others, of course, always remember the ONE (or two things) you didn't get from Santa throughout the years. I'm not really talking to the recipients here. I'm talking to the people behind Santa's gifts - - the parents. I'm talking about why we give them what we give them. I'm also talking, primarily, to those who wonder why they keep giving the greater gifts to their kids under the disguise of "from Santa". Why do we keep doing that?
Well, I think it's because we want them to grow up with the idea that someone actually exists that will NOT dissapoint them. Okay, I know that we can't always give them what they want. (Back to the kid with the "impossible" dreams - - fairytale land vacations (NOT Disneyworld), ponies, castles...). We can't always give them what they want, but we try to give them what we are capable of giving them, and we strive to give them what they need. We WILL, inevitably, dissapoint our children. It's bound to happen. They start out in this world, usually looking toward us as the only ones who can provide for them, and they don't know anything else. As they get older, they still think we are their heroes. Then comes the day when their eyes are wide open (probably sometime in the middle of elementary school) when they still think you're pretty cool, but you've let them down once in a while. The title of hero is no longer valid. They still love you, and still want to believe that you'll be there when you need them. When they're teenagers, most of them don't even want you around (because you might embarrass them), but they still truly DO want you available to talk to - - when someone dissapoints them (and it's not you). Think broken heart. Think bullying and peer pressure. They still want you to be there to give them the ultimate answer, one that will solve all of their problems at hand.
Back to the idea of giving the greatest gifts "from Santa". Santa is supposed to be greater than us. By the time they're teenagers, though, they quit believing in Santa. They need something greater to believe in. Hello! Do you realize what the REAL meaning of Christmas is? If you're at all into English, and other languages, where the word Christmas has derived, you'll notice that Christmas means "Christ Mas". It is literally the celebration of Christ's birth. And why was his birth such a deal? Why do so many people believe in him, or at least WANT to believe in him? Because he never dissapoints. Just like we hope Santa will not dissapoint our children, we can celebrate in the joy that there is a REAL being who will NEVER dissapoint us. Okay, he might dissapoint us, because we don't get what we "want," but he always give us what we truly need (and if we're silent enough to hear his still, small voice we'll realize that he gives us the most ABUNDANT gifts, and we'll learn to be satisfied with what we should truly want and need).
So this must be why we give our children the greater gifts "from Santa," to help them believe in something greater than ourselves, because we're bound to dissapoint them some day. We may dissapoint them, because we are SO human. We make mistakes. Santa isn't supposed to make mistakes. We outgrow Santa. Hopefully we NEVER "outgrow" Christ.