Messages to and from Santa

Earlier this week I found this website that will let you schedule three text messages to your kid from Santa. So I paid my $5.49 and set it up for G-rex. The first one was delivered Monday evening. The next will come on Friday, and the final one on Christmas Eve.

Monday's message said:

Hi Grayson! Santa here. I know you've been good this year, but I have not received your letter yet! Please send ASAP. Merry Christmas! Luv. S.

Well, it came just after Grayson left for Scouts with his dad on Monday, and I didn't remember to point it out to him until last night. He checked his messages and said "Oh my God! Santa has a cell phone!"

He was just about beside himself with joy. I asked him to read me the message and he did and then he said "I knew Santa was real! In your face, Nathan!"

He told me then that a couple of boys in his class no longer believe in Santa. This doesn't surprise me. I expect this is G's last year, as well. But I was touched by the enthusiasm with which he latched onto this "proof" of Santa's existence. It's clear he really wants to believe.

I remember when I was about ten, and some of my friends didn't believe in Santa. I remember talking to my mother about it. She was standing at the sink, washing something... her face very serious, as I told her that my friends told me there was no Santa Claus. I don't remember if I expected her to confirm or deny. But it was A Moment... if you know what I mean. There was something riding on her response. And she thought for a minute and then she asked me, "Well, what do you think?"

I thought a minute myself and answered her: "I think Santa is real."

"Well then," she said. "There you are. "

She never confirmed or denied, just asked me to look into myself and have the strength of character to believe what I believed. It was good advice: for Santa, and for a myriad of other things in life, too.

Last night Grayson sat down and finally wrote his letter to Santa. The last thing he said when he went to bed was "Don't forget to mail my letter to Santa." And he reminded me again this morning on the way to school. This from a kid who can't remember to put his number on his papers, or bring his homework home with him. In fact, he forgot to take his homework to school this morning, he was so busy worrying I wouldn't get his Santa letter in the mail.

Losing a belief in Santa is like losing one of the primary piers of childhood. I'm glad Grayson has held onto his belief for this long, though I worry just a little bit what response he'll get when he marches into his classroom this morning and announces that Santa is real and he has proof because the Jolly Old Elf is text messaging him. I may have made him slightly vulnerable in that. I hope not. I'm glad he believes.

'Cause I do, too.