My mom tells me that even as a young child I never believed in Santa. In my little girl logic there was no way he could be on the street corner and in every store you walked into.
We took Brady to get a picture with Santa last year, but he was too little too know what was going on. Up until just a few days ago he had no idea who Jolly Ole St. Nick was. Truthfully, he still just thinks he's a slightly creepy fat guy in a red suit that sings and dances in the corner of the dining room at Nanny's house.
We got a video of the dancing Santa from our trip to Texas. Brady has been watching it this week. He picked up the ho ho ho. Now he walks around saying, "Santa, ho ho ho!" He has no idea who Santa is, where he lives, how he gets around, or what he brings little girls and boys.
Since I do love a good Santa picture, we took the boys to Ace Hardware today to get a free picture with Santa. Much to my delight it was a very non creepy Santa. He really was a jolly old man with a real white beard. He held Sammy and Brady and was so kind to them.
He asked Brady what he wants for Christmas and got silence. Brady has not yet associated gifts with Christmas or Santa. So Santa asked Brady if he'd like a truck. Again there was no response.
I went to pick up Brady and Santa grabbed Sammy with both arms and said he would like to just sit there all day. He got kind of quiet and asked us if the boots and bar were for hip dysplasia. We explained he was born with clubfoot and had finished his casting and now was in b&b. He was so sweet it just melted my heart.
When we got home it was almost immediately naptime. I put Brady in his crib with his normal animals and he began to cry and scream for his truck. Yep, he thought he should have a truck from Santa. This continued for several minutes as I told him Santa did not give him a truck today. I had to leave his room while he was still crying out for his truck. It was rather hilarious.
All that to say, I have no idea how we will handle Santa in the future. Christmas is about Jesus and above all else that's what I want my boys to know. Even now I have nativity scenes for Brady to play with and we talk about baby Jesus as much as his nearly two year old self will allow, read books, sing Christmas songs, etc.
For today, what I do know is that "Santa" was Jesus with skin on to me. He showed he cared about my baby. He stopped to sincerely ask about him. He didn't stare, ask what happened to the baby as if we were negligent and hurt him somehow, or ignore the obvious and act like nothing was wrong.
I want to be more like "Santa" (sans the beard and belly and the red suit), see people for who they really are, and show them that I care about them because that's what Jesus did.
