by Anca Vitalis

Created on: May 27, 2009

The question Why should a child keep on believing in Santa ? comes to my ears before every Christmas Holiday. I hear it put during TV programs and talk-shows, explained and dissected by so called authorities in children education, ready on a spot to denigrate every reason why a parent should encourage a child to perpetuate a belief that is walking the Earth for hundreds of years.

I believe nowadays children are too abruptly taken into the harsh reality of their parents.

They hear the word bills and payments, and money to early in their life and most of the time they grow up with the premature responsibility of not having a dream.

Santa Claus is a very common way to allow the child to dream.

Maybe the idea of letting the young one believe in a not very probable version of the ultimate good doer capable to satisfy a wish, sounds too much for the cynical world we are living in.

I have heard parents saying they wouldn't let their children be air headed and totally unreasonable while believing that an old man riding a reindeer sleigh can make their wish become reality.

Why is the grown up society so ready to dismiss a wonderful character that lighted our own childhood allowing us to believe in our hopes and resolutions?

How come a wonderful tradition meant to light the Christmas morning turned into just another occasion to spend money on your dear ones?

One should say it makes no difference whether you give your child a present or he believes that Santa did.

Well it isn't really the same

I remember the moment when my young one, being 4 asked me why her kindergarten classmates are teasing her for believing in Santa Claus.

I also remember the sad look on her face and the inpatient eyes that were looking at me for an answer and I was angry.

I was angry not with the children or their parents who destroyed a childhood dream just because not believing is more comfortable.

My anger was directed against this world.

We as parents are hitting the wall everyday battling mistrust and malicious news, facing everyday a world with so little sunshine and so little hope.

We get carried away by our duty as parents trying our best to prepare our children for the world we are living in.

Somehow on our benevolent way we crush their dreams as the world crushed our own.

My opinion may be blank and my words harsh but the truth behind them should be more than just a slap on the wrist.

Let the children believe! Encourage them to dream!

Santa Claus may be a myth but it is one of the few links to real childhood a young one has and should be allowed to dwell on until the child's own reason will find an explanation and turn it into a sweet story not a lie.

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