These festive shenanigans were a whole lot easier when the children were younger I can tell you.
Now the teen was a godsend. We never had that conversations out the big man in red. When he got to the questioning age, he had two little brothers and was smart enough to see the advantages of keeping schtoum and continuing to get a stocking full if goodies each year. To this day (and he is now 18), we have never discussed it and that is great with me. I know that he knows and any conversations that he has on the subject with his siblings, he plays along.
Little miss A is fully engrossed in the magic of Christmas and this is the first Christmas where we have seen her really embrace everything festive. She loves it all, from the decorations to the carols and she has quite possibly made the longest Christmas list that I have ever witnessed. She is slightly troubled about the idea of Father Christmas wandering around our house, but apart from that, she is fizzing with festive sparkles.
The boys are at an interesting point. R is nearly 10 and L is 8. Like most children of their age, they question everything to within an inch of its life. That is a good thing and I like the questions (especially if I know the answer), curiosity is a good thing in children, it shows a thirst for knowledge and it is how they learn. However, this year, Christmas is proving to be a really contentious issue and it feels like they are lying in bed at night trying to think up more questions to try and catch me out with.
Some questions I would expect;
“We don’t have a chimney, how does Father Christmas get in the house?”
“How does Father Christmas get around the whole world in one day?”
“Is the Father Christmas we saw at the garden centre, the real one?”
But there are some that I have to admit I didn’t expect and I wasn’t really quite sure how to answer some of them;
“Is Father Christmas related to God?”
“Does Father Christmas fill his sleigh up with petrol?”
“Who was Father Christms when Father Christmas was young?”
“Could Father Christmas borrow the Tardis?”
“Has there only ever been one set of reindeer?”
“Does Father Christmas ever get lost?”
“Does Father Christms have a family?”
“Do all of the airplanes stop on Christmas Eve so that they don’t get in the way of the sleigh?”
“Does Father Christmas get drunk from all of the alcohol he drinks?”
“Where does Father Christmas get all the money from to buy the presents?”
And my favourite one to date;
“If I stay awake on Christmas Eve and I catch Father Christmas, what do I say to him?”
Well, I have a few ideas …. maybe you could ask him a question or three?
Oh that’s funny! I wish my two were a bit like your eldest – how easy is that?!
Mine are nearly 8 and are starting to ask serious Santa questions now – and I hate the fact that A. in particular looks me right in the eye and says, “Is Santa real, or is it you?” I hate it because she doesn’t really want to know, and I hate lying. So I say “Well what do YOU think?” and she gets a bit nervous and changes the subject.
The funniest question on Santa I had was last year from M, who asked “Who’s stronger, Santa or God?”
When the girls were 3, they were very freaked out on Christmas Eve at the thought of Santa coming into our house!
Oh boy! I’m lucky that BP has never really asked many questions like that. However, LP is proving to be a lot more inquisitive already. He asked me the other day about getting his list to Santa and if he doesn’t do it in time will Santa know what he wants. He’s 5. I have a funny feeling that the ‘dreaded’ question about Santa will come a lot sooner than our discussion with BP.
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