Eh? Santa Claus doesn't exist? Comment ça?

These were the questions our daughter posed us one night when we were watching t.v. with her. There was some kind of an ad on t.v. in which every presenter of that certain channel talked about Christmas -- on how they define it etc.. And there was this famous lady announcer stating, "though Santa Claus doesn't really exist, he exists in my heart...etc. etc.". Merde! I thought. I didn't say anything as if I didn't hear it, I just looked at the Green Giant, who, at that time was already looking at me and had this kind of look as though he had just received an unexpected bill, mumbling, Purée!"! Did she hear it?!" Oh oui, our daughter heard it and she questioned us right away about what this stupid lady had just said. It really was a stupid thing to say. Didn't she know that there are a lot of kids who still believe in Santa Claus? And for the people behind this channel, didn't they know that there must be kids watching, for it wasn't bedtime yet? That includes our daughter. We answered her, "Yes he exists, it's not what the lady meant, we don't know why she said that". And I guess, we convinced her.

You might think, so what? no big deal! The issue seems to be eating away at us and that we're exaggerating. No, for us, it's such a big deal. It's something of great importance and we're not exaggerating. For a kid like her, it's like 'magic'. I know how it feels, difficult to describe but I felt it when I was a child. I still remember, my father would ask me and my sisters to put socks under the x-mas tree (though our x-mas tree didn't really looked like one). Although we never received real Christmas presents, there was this 'special' feeling finding the socks full of coins and candies in the Christmas morning. The fact that Santa didn't forget to pass by, that we were in his list, believing him though for a short period of time gave us this 'magical feeling". That was such a highly pleasurable experience and that stays in my heart. *sniff*

Like any other kids her age, she still believes in Santa Claus. We don't make her but LET her believe in him and I know that, in a way, we're being dishonest to her but I guess that that's the way it is.