Talking About Santa With a Thinker

Ahhh - the questions about Santa have begun this year. After Quinn's birthday party at the end of November we decided Quinn would choose half of his presents to donate to the various toy drives so that some children who don't have as much as we do could have a happier Christmas. He was good with this. But then he thought about it... "Well, we shouldn't worry too much about them, because Santa will bring them presents." Turns out other people only have one or two gifts come from Santa, the rest from Mom and Dad. We never did that. I may try to make that switch this year - I wonder if he'll remember.

We went and saw Santa at one mall - the same mall we go to every year. Then, I had some shopping to do at a different mall - and Santa was there! Quinn's first question was, "How many Santas are there?" And I just asked what he meant by that. And then he switched his thinking to, "Santa must have some really special magic to be able to go to our mall in the morning, this mall at night, AND be in that parade that was on TV the other day!"

And then there's the talk of "naughty or nice". Quinn truly believes that there are two boys in his class that are getting nothing for Christmas because they are so "naughty". And so I try to explain that somehow, Santa knows just how good each boy or girl can be and expects them to be their own best and that it's very hard for those two boys to control themselves and Santa might be a bit understanding with them. Quinn didn't like that answer.

And then tonight I had to do it. After weeks of fighting with his brother, arguing with his parents, and even lying - I've had enough - so I put the fear of Santa into Quinn. "You do know, that Santa's watching to make sure you're nice, right?" We had a nice long discussion that involved just a few tears, until I assured Quinn that he still has many days until Christmas, and that for the most part, he is a very very very good boy - just that I was a little worried that Santa wouldn't like all the fighting that's been going on. (I mean really, people, the boys have been fighting over moving ornaments, setting up the nativity scene, pushing the buttons on those things from hallmark that sing Christmas Songs, everything and anything they've been fighting over it and it's driving me BATTY.) So we discussed how many more days he has to add more to the nice side of his list and then he said, "Well, actually, since I'm at school more than I'm at home, I think I'm okay. I'm always nice at school."