OT One for the parents this holiday
Oso3D
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in The Commons
“You have learnt something. That always feels at first as if you have lost something.”
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*Sniff.* I know just what she meant. My oldest three are in their twenties now, and the youngest has just turned fourteen. I loved the days when they all took Santa seriously. I still smile at the memory of taking my youngest to see 'Santa' at the school Christmas Fayre when she was in her first year there. Santa (AKA the school caretaker, heavily disguised) was in a tiny room, all tinselled up as a grotto. He saw a bunch of children at a time, gave them each a gift and read them a sweet little Christmas story, finishing solemnly '...and next time I see you, it will be Christmas Eve'.
To which one little boy piped up 'No it won't. I'm seeing you again at Cadbury Garden Centre on Saturday!' I sometimes wish they could stay that innocent forever :)
Oh, I still watch those shows and enjoy remember those sorts of toys. They are much more full of innocence and hope for those families that bought and hoped for them to be bought then I realized when I was a boy myself. It's an unspoken and spoken hope, love and carefulness that can't be ever bought but must be lived; happening so fast you'd can't fathom it, you can't plan it, you must live it.
Now with some teenage children and adult children away from home for the mother and father, their children are no longer anticipatingly eager at the windows and doors, so full of love, hope and excitement to see the return of their mother or father when they get home from the store on a shopping trip; but now those children use most of their time and thoughts worried about peer acceptance and those activities. For sure the beauty of the children innocently waiting for the return of their parents home will always be something to treasure for every family.
Yep, I know exactly how she feels. My oldest is now 16 and my youngest is just 12. While he says he still believes in Santa, I'm not quite so sure. No more toys, no more staying up until 4 am wrapping Santa gifts because I procrastinated until the last minute, no big surprises as they open gifts and yell excitedly because they got a hot wheel in their stockings.
Now it's all Steam cards and Nintendo shop cards and computer games. No toys. Sometimes, I'm cranky and I still get them new underwear for presents. What goes in their stockings have changed too. They get less in there, but their presents have gotten oh so much more expensive!
I really miss when they were younger sometimes. I want to raise productive, responsible young men, but I miss my babies! This is especially true this time of year. Christmas just isn't quite as exciting with teenagers as it is with little kids.
My son just had his realization about Santa a few days ago. Yeah.
I'm trying hard to get him to embrace the WE ARE SANTA story. I told him I used to believe in Santa, then I realized he didn't exist. Then I realized he does exist.
He's a bit young to watch Conan and learn of the Riddle of Steel, but I've often considered that to be part of my personal canon of the world.
Or Hogswatch.
I told him words and stories can make people do terrible, horrible things... or wonderful, amazing things. That makes those words and stories real.
Santa Claus is real. Like God, Jesus, Buddha or the Sun he is a belief. We celebrate by giving presents. We use the image of Santa Claus as a focus which makes it easy for children to understand. My daughter is 32 and starts getting excited around August and now that she has children of her own she is getting worse :) Whether Christian or not, even Pagan, Christmas is a celebration of the rebirth of the Son/Sun; a return of the light; St. Nicholas was real, so is Santa Claus. Why else would adults still wrap up presents for under the tree if he wasn't :)
The Winter Solstice, Yule, Alban Arthan, Saturnalia even The last of the Annual Solar Festivals The Winter Solstice, Alban Arthan, represents a time when we can open to the forces of Inspiration. All about us is darkness. Our only guide is Arthur, the Great Bear, the Pole Star (or the Southern Cross in the Southern hemisphere). In the stillness of night is Intuition born. Both the festival and the function is located in the North - realm of the night and mid-winter. The Winter Solstice is the time when the atom-seed of Light, represented both by the one light raised on high and by the white mistletoe berries distributed during the ceremony, comes down from the Inspired realms and is conceived or incarnated in the womb of the night and of the Earth Mother. It is thus a potent time to open ourselves to the fertilsing power of the Muse or of the Great Source, so that we may give birth to our creativity.
At 8am (ish) this morning the Sun rose, from now on, every day the light grows longer each day. What better reason to celebrate, whatever you call the season, and what nicer way to celebrate can there be than the giving of presents to others.