Dear Santa, please take over....for real :)

So everyone who is reading this knows Santa's reality. Some of us did believe in him when we were kids. Some were always smart enough to doubt him. Me and my brother belong to the category where even when we knew he wasn't the one giving us gifts, we rushed to our parent's room with absolutely false but totally jubilant cries of : "See Papa, Santa Claus gave us this and that"! I am not saying that our parents were playing along without knowing that we know- but it was all so much fun :)

Today when I am the Santa for V and N, the fun is different. With so much exposure to Santa, Mickey Mouse and Superman all around, poor kids know from now itself that I am their Santa. So when I tell them that if they do not behave properly Santa will not gift them anything, they smile back at me and say -"Don't be so angry Mom". This is so not good. Is there anything left now which is fantasy for my kids?

I am unable to control this exposure. I cannot lie to them blatantly when they ask me if there is an Uncle inside the Donald Duck suit. Because while it was easy or seamless for me to not come up with this question when I was a kid (as such occurrences were rare), its fairly commonplace for my kids to know whats inside the suit. They are smarter and definitely more aware than me.

You know what is my solution to still let the innocence and naivety of these rituals remain? I never cease to practice them anyway. I never tell my kids- "There is no Santa Claus! So you will not get anything from us". Even if they know its us, I always keep a gift under their pillow and when they thank me, I look up in the sky(in front of them) and thank the Santa Claus I grew up with and say : "Thank you for making me gift Viraj and Nevaan the things they love" and trust me they join in too :)

No, I do not want V and N to not know the "truth" behind everything. Its not that I don't want them to be practical and mature about life. Its just that today I have realized how my parents have shaped my life by insulating me from certain realities. I know what it meant to believe and trust them blindly. If I cannot STOP them from knowing even the 'bad' side of things, at least I can up the quotient of 'goodness' in their basic life learnings.