The Santa Clause

⚠️Parents you may want to hide this blog from your children’s eyes! There’s some real talk in here they may not be ready for yet or able to handle and I won’t be held responsible for mashing up your Christmas!

So we’re in December now and it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! I’ve mentioned previously I choose not to follow any one religion and basically crack on and live my life in peace and harmony, with a little fire when necessary and a big dose of reality – so before you mutter hypocrite under your breath I’ll save you the trouble and fully admit it! I do Christmas!

I know it’s having my cake and eating it too but what’s the point in having cake if you can’t eat it? Before you write me off completely hear me out first. It’s not about the religious aspect or the spending of vast amounts of cash. It is not the big, elaborate, gross over indulgence that is the norm for most.

I have my tree and a couple decorations, a nice little munch, gifts I can afford to give and some true, loving, quality family time. No, I don’t count how many days before Christmas the tree goes up and no it’s not up yet, but I can tell you it will be down and out of sight before the 1st January – as standard!! That’s not so bad is it? I know it’s missing the whole “true meaning” but considering that it’s not even Jesus’s actual supposed birthday I don’t think he’ll be too annoyed.

I believe that kids should be kids but I’ve always said that I wanted to be as honest and open with mine as possible. I think I’ve accomplished that thus far; possibly a little too accomplished if you ask their opinion. I can’t tell you the number of eye rolls and do you have to’s I’ve encountered at me refreshing their memories on the fact that the pill doesn’t stop you from catching a dose and other such worldly gems, but I know that should the time come they know they can tell me anything. No matter how bad they think it is they know I’ve got them! #RealTalk.

It’s a fine balance when they’re little though. This is where the ‘Santa Clause’ comes into play! This allows you a small white lie before you eventually hit them with the cold hard truth!

As much as I like to keep it real I’m not completely heartless. At 17 and 14 my girls have known the truth about Santa for some time now but when they were young enough to believe in it all I played along….until the day they asked me if he was real or not…then I had to break it down, gently! I can’t remember exactly how old they were, still very young, but old enough to question it and I wasn’t prepared to lie to them.

My fiancé was particularly happy at this as he had always made it perfectly clear that no fictional, fat White man with flying reindeer was going to take the credit for him working hard to provide for his own. His opinion is that of a lot of Black people’s and to be perfectly honest I can’t say that I don’t understand why.

I got him to hold it down in front of the girls and bought “Santa’s” gifts myself to keep the peace but when that bubble burst it caused a chain reaction and wiped out all those glory stealing charlatans in one hit! #RIPToothFairyAndEasterBunny.

I was lucky my girls took it well. I explained that not everyone knows the truth and to not tell their friends and spoil it for them but they didn’t have to lie if someone asked them what they thought. A friend of mine was telling me about what happened when she told her girls. They had asked and she told them the truth. It then later blew up at their after school club because they told some of their friends who got upset.

When she came to collect her children the staff members were not happy and were looking at her to “fix” it but why should it be her problem to fix? If we choose to lie to our kids that’s on us, but you can’t expect a parent who decides to tell their children the truth to then lie to make things easier for you. It’s down to you to keep the magic alive or kill it dead.

Some parents simply can’t afford to keep up pretences. Little precious may have been an absolute treasure all year round and avoided the naughty list but the reality is things cost money and bills need to be paid and some folk have their priorities right and aren’t prepared to break the bank to keep up the lie – and rightly so!

To me the spirit of Christmas has been lost in a sea of materialism. When I was younger it was a great time of year and I believe it’s down to the fact that we had less but loved more. There weren’t as many distractions, no mobiles, Sky or Netflix – we had a house phone, 4 channels and Blockbuster video. No online shopping – if you wanted it you went out and got it or had been paying it off throughout the year from the Freemans catalogue.

The shops were closed and the only travelling you did was to link up with other family and appreciate quality time. Naturally time moves on and things change but despite the differences between then and now the sentiment can still remain the same.

You will inevitably celebrate it (or not) how you like, but alongside the gifts that you’ve lovingly provided for your children can I suggest you also lovingly let them know how blessed they are and how appreciative they should be to be receiving nice food and bath bombs and not real bombs like the poor children in Aleppo and other war torn countries.

R.I.P to the 71 victims of the Brazil plane crash and to all those who have lost their lives this week.

Don’t Go Crackers, Stay Blessed & #CelebrateLife