The Science of Believing

We really don't push the kids to believe in Santa. Still, we encourage a letter to the guy and we mail it. We'll go along with it. But we don't insist on it. Because I ran into a lady at the school the other day who told me she tells her kids, "If you don't believe, you don't receive." Interesting parallels of what should be unconditional. But okay. So, the lady said, "And thank God she doesn't believe in Santa because she wants to ask him for a kitten. And so, we're not doing that!"

One day the kid is going to figure out that Santa is much less powerful than grandparents. And she'll get a kitten, I'm sure of it.

Anyways, we don't really push it. But Lucy's BFF at school is in full on doubt mode. It's funny because everytime she explains one of Hannah's "Santa isn't real" theories to me, she finishes it with an explanation that indeed, 1. I BELIEVE in Santa, and 2. Hannah and I can get along and disagree on this point. Sounds good to me.

Still, she reflects heavily on Hannah's points. We're on week two of no school, which means she hasn't seen Hannah for many days, and yesterday in the car, she told me one of Hannah's theories.

"Mom, Hannah says that if Santa WAS real, he's dead now. Because he's a Saint."

The kid is seven. And that might be the most well thought out theory of Santaness I've ever heard.

I almost said, "Wow, Hannah is BRILLIANT!"

But instead, I said, "Well, that's an interesting theory."

And then we called Hannah to see if she wanted to come over and play.

That's how I roll.