Asantists

I'm the youngest of five children. Christmas at my house growing up was pretty much the normal American Christmas except for one thing. Our parents told us there is no Santa Claus. That's right, I grew up in an Asantist home. But one Christmas Eve, I went to the grocery store with my sister-in-law. I was four years old. At the store I saw Santa. I couldn't believe my eyes. There he was in the flesh, walking around and handing out
candy canes to everyone. My little four-year-old brain wasn't ready for this paradox. My parents either (a) didn't realize he existed, or (b) were lying to me. Upon arriving home, I confronted my mother in an excited voice... "Mom, I saw Santa Claus at the grocery store!"

"It was someone dressed up in a costume." she said, smiling.

I hadn't thought of that possibility. Why would anyone do that? That would be deliberately misleading the public, four-year-olds in particular.

I came to grips with the feigned, wink-wink existence of Santa Claus and began to realize I was privy to a secret—a really BIG secret. In the first grade, I told the girls sitting at my table, "There's really no Santa Claus."

This made them very angry... livid, even. And they responded, "He's not going to bring you any presents."

"He's not going to bring you any presents either." I shot back without thinking. "It's your parents! It's my parents! What, are you idiots?"

I was ostracized.

When I became a mother, I had to ask myself the hard question, "Am I willing to let my children go through the ridicule I've endured being an Asantist? ...You bet I am!"

So Bob and I told the kids there is no Santa Claus. Ironically, Jeff played Santa Claus in the school play when he was a first grader. Come to think of it, he played Peter Rabbit in Kindergarten. That was the same Easter when he got put in time out for telling the class there's no Easter bunny. (See my previous blog entry.)

When our kids got older I asked them if they thought it was the right decision to tell them there's no Santa. They all said yes. Darcy went on to say, "If someone wants to marry me, I'll tell him we have to tell our kids there's no Santa Claus. If he can't go along with that, then the deal is off."