This is a re-post of my article as it is that time of the year again.
This year my kids have come up with a smarter plan to see Santa-instead of staying awake the entire night, they want to install cameras. Will Santa be able to secretly deliver the presents this year too? I will share with you in my next update.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all!
This Christmas, I wanted a picture of my kids with Santa, but the long lines were demotivating until I found my favorite store hosting one such event. That morning I promptly got the kids ready and shoved them in the car to be ahead of the crowd. While we waited in the queue to get clicked, I indulged the kids into Santa conversation. My older son pointed to the seated Santy and whispered-
“Mom, he is not a real Santa. The real Santa understands and speaks all languages of the world, while this one speaks only English.”
His hypothesis was convincing. Nevertheless, the kids were happy to get a picture with the human Santa.
While waiting for the photo print, we reminisced last Christmas when my little munchkin managed to get a glimpse of Santa’s sleigh in the sky — “the blinking red light in the sky is Rudolph’s nose!” he gleamed. <Absolutely made sense, after all Rudolph has a very shiny nose.>
But this Christmas, my older son had a Grand Plan, which was to take a picture with the real Santa (who lives in the North Pole), and then go for a ride in Santa’s sleigh.
I told my son that Santa wants little kids to sleep on time so that he could work his magic while they are in bed, but this kid was too adamant, so I decided to play along, secretly hoping that his plan fails.
The preparation for the big meeting began after dinner time-First of all; we sprinkled the reindeer food (oats with twinkling colored sugar) around the house so that Santa could see our house from the sky. Then we baked some soft, chewy chocolate chip cookies and kept it on the dinner table with a tall glass of milk. <Its no wonder that the jolly old fellow has a big belly from eating all those sugary cookies! > We decided to put a side of carrots also, just in case Santa was calorie conscious this season.
The highlight of the big game plan was to stay up late in the night to witness Santa. One established way to avoid sleep are the movies, so we watched an old classic ‘Jason and the Argonauts’. We were in awe to see the special effects, especially the army of skeletons. My son strived to stay awake and was restless to know about the time of Santa’s arrival. So we tracked Santa’s location using one of the smartphone applications. The Santa tracker application showed that Santa’s sleigh was in Canada and that there were still two and a half hours for his arrival to our house.
I have to admit that I was nervous about my son’s unyielding desire to meet Santa, as it meant that I would have to reveal the truth about St. Nick. Deep in my heart, I was not ready to spill the beans yet, as I enjoyed planning the whole clandestine affair and the element of joy it entailed.
To kill time we discussed how Santa could distribute presents all over the world so fast , and his likely use of magic or teleporting technique. As my kid’s eyes got heavy, our talks began to plummet. My son agreed to take a short nap after setting a two-hour alarm so that he is up on time to meet Santa.
To my relief my son fell asleep and I once again could enjoy being a secret Santa. My hubby switched off the alarm, and we all slept until my son woke us all up at five in the morning. He dashed towards the hung stockings and the wrapped presents under the Christmas tree. He called out for his little brother who was still in bed, and then both the kids ripped open the wrappings.
I videotaped my children’s excitement and was overflowed with gratitude for yet another opportunity to keep the magic alive.
Photo credit: Lars Tinner via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND