The Santa Myth

Up on the rooftop reindeer pause, oh yeah, Santa is almost here with gifts and credit-card bills nicely waiting for you to pay. Did you think Santa works for free?

As a child, I wrote very long Christmas list that usually required taking lots of breaks for hand cramps and second and third looks at the Christmas catalogs for the proper numbers to put on my list. These long lists were the result of Saturday morning cartoons. Gi-Joe, He-Man and Voltron toys were always on the list. I never got any Voltron toys because I don't know why. I never asked my parents, after I found out they were Santa, why they never bought me a Voltron toy for Christmas.

I remember one year I used my grandmother's typewriter to write my Christmas list. I thought Santa would be impressed with the professionalism of my list. How old was I when I did this? I was ten. I know, probably too old to still believe in Santa. I don't disagree.

It is strange how the excitement of Santa coming would keep me awake. I would get so excited that I would only sleep for a couple of hours. I did listen for Santa on my rooftop and even with my sleep deprived brain I never heard anything more than the wind howling. This fact never shook my faith that Santa was real.

Yes, as the years went by and I got older, I started to question the Santa story. Wrapping paper on gifts from Santa that was also on gifts that my parents gave each other. My parents staying up and making a couple trips to and from the garage. I even remember one Christmas hearing my grandfather in the house, so I got up and soon got ushered back to bed. He had large orange sacks from Fleet Farm. I didn't see what was in the bags. I just figured I was getting ushered back to bed because I was supposed to be sleeping and not because my grandfather was bringing my Christmas gifts.

So, how did I find out that Santa wasn't real? It was a teacher that let it slip or just had enough of us acting like fools buying the Santa story.

Christmas just wouldn't be the same after finding out Santa wasn't real. Once you know your parents are Santa, well, you already know that it is foolish to ask for certain toys because of how your parents already told you "no" to the request for toys during the 364 days in the year that weren't Christmas.

Yes, the Santa myth makes childhood a little sweeter, but in the end, you only feel robbed because part of being a child means believing in things you can't see and it is just one more step in the path to adulthood and being viewed as foolish for believing in the things you can't see.