I recall a cool December day many years ago. I’m driving toward home with my oldest son in the passenger seat beside me, just the two of us in the car. He’s probably 5 or 6 years old. He asks the question all parents of young children expect at this time of year:
“Hey dad, is there really a Santa Clause?â€
I take a minute to gather my thoughts, and answer very thoughtfully. I carefully and artfully walk us through a discussion of how much fun it is to believe in Santa Clause. We talk about how the idea of Santa Clause is a really nice reflection of many of the things that are good to celebrate this time of year, things like the gift of light returning to us, and the gift of G-d’s presence in our life.
Regardless of whether or not there’s an actual and factual Santa Clause, we agree, it’s still a great deal of fun to pretend he exists. We agree that the little traditions associated with Christmas Eve are made more fun by pretending there’s a thing called Santa Clause. We smile at how nice it is to see the cookies on the fireplace half-eaten in the morning, even if it was dad who took the bites out of the cookies to make it look like Santa was there. Continue reading “The Santa Revelation v1”