The Joy of Christmas

Not that it made her less adorable, of course; but when Santa produced that magical gift-wrapped package and she opened it up to see her toys!

The Miracle of Little People

All of a sudden, Santa was one cool guy. She even smiled!

The Magic of Toys

The excitement lasted her all day. When I got home that evening, all I heard about for the first hour was SANTA and the TOYS and LOOK AT THAT! And DOG! And HORSE! And LITTLE GIRL! She held one in each hand all evening long. If we wanted to go downstairs, she would say, "I bring it downstairs," and tuck one under her chin. If we were going upstairs, she would say, "I bring it upstairs," and tuck one under her chin again. Then she would hold it out to inspect it, softly squeal "look at that!" and line them all up in a row on the edge of her toy bin.

I don't think it was the toys. I don't think it was "getting stuff." If we had popped these into the cart on a shopping expedition, she would have liked them, but not this much; the toys are not that impressive, as toys go. No. What got her so excited was magic.

She showed up at her regular daycare, expecting a regular day. Instead SANTA!* showed up, and gave her a hug, and a nice little wrapped gift that is just exactly what she wanted! How did he know? Who is he? Why did he give her this present? How wonderful!

Magic gets short shrift these days. We adults tend to think of it as something unexplainable--something for which there can be no explanation, something outside the bounds of science. Most of us realize, truthfully enough, that there is no such thing: Ultimately the most magical of phenomena will be explained by science. But to me, this doesn't invalidate magic; it invalidates our definition. Magic is simply what is unexplained. Maybe there is a good reason for a seeming miracle, but who cares? Isn't it more fun sometimes not to know?

The world's best magicians are masters at this. The audience knows there is a rational explanation, but it's more fun to gasp and admire the trick; to enjoy the illusion that science has been violated. We don't think they are lying to us, or deceiving us; we won't wake up to the realization five years from now that the magician never really sawed that woman into thirds after all!

Performing Santa is the execution of a meticulous magic trick: It is not to lie or deceive, but to entertain. It is to create the illusion of a miracle.

So I don't tie myself up in knots about whether or not I'm "lying" to Frances. I'm not, anymore than a stage magician "lies" to his audience, or nature "lies" to us when something that shouldn't be able to happen (according to our current understanding) does on a regular basis. I'm fanatically wedded to the idea of truth, and not for a moment do I believe I am violating it.

For many years to come, I will coax ideas out of my little girl, of what she wants above all else. I will encourage her to believe in the myth of this happy, child-loving man who wants nothing more than to make her happy one day each year by bringing to her what she wants most. I will buy separate wrapping paper, and use different handwriting on the tags; I will eat the cookies left out on Christmas Eve; I will take her to sit on his lap at the mall and get a photo taken; I will do everything in my power to make the illusion seamless and real. Much as shamans used to dress up as elk to invoke the spirit of that which they wanted to be real, and then were elk, in the sense that mattered to them, once a year I will pretend to be Santa in order to make him real. I will do this to see her eyes light up, as they did when she showed me the miracle of the present she got from Santa at the daycare that day.

~~~~~

* I hope that it goes without saying that I don't think of Santa as a Christian figure. As we all know, most of the saints were heavily borrowed from pagan mythology; I feel no sense of theological discomfort in celebrating Santa Claus while cheerfully asserting that Jesus is only one of many important reasons for the season. In fact, to me, Santa is very pagan--VERY pagan--big guy in a fancy outfit, riding a sleigh with magic flying reindeer, giving out happiness and pleasure to all? Bacchus himself couldn't be more hedonistic.