Holiday Scramble

Have you every tried explaining the American holiday season to a 4-year-old kid who has never experienced anything remotely related except perhaps an Epiphany ceremony in a small Ethiopian village?  I have.  Here are the results.

A few weeks ago I was shopping in the Savers used book section and came across The Night Before Christmas when it dawned on me...I need to get my kid up to speed (at least somewhat) with this crazy American Christmas thing.  We brought the book home and I began to tell Kefelen about Santa Claus, a nice old man with a white beard who makes toys and has flying reindeer.  He sneaks into your house on Christmas Eve while you are asleep and deposits gifts under the tree that you have brought inside and decorated for the season.  He also likes it if you leave milk and cookies for him to eat before he hops back onto the roof and takes off for the next house.  Hmmm.  Kefelen took it all in, eyeing me with a sideways glance.  But even though the story is improbable, he was willing to eat the goods in order to believe that this spongy cookie-eating hairy man will bring him toys.  He was actually pretty excited about it.  We then read the book and I realized that the prose is not exactly accessible to a kid working on his third language in as many years, and the only Latin based one at that.  We ended up having a tickle match and Santa, the Reindeer and The Night Before Christmas wound up wedged between the bed and the wall. It was rescued later.

Next day.  Mitch comes home from whatever remote state he was in that week and I prompt Kefelen to tell him what he has learned.  "Kef, tell dad about Santa".  He looks at me.  "What does he make?"  Kefelen answers "Birthday Presents!".  "How does he get where he's going?" He looks at me, smiles, and says "flying goats!"  I guess that's not any stranger than reindeer so we go with it.  It's been several weeks and things are starting to make a bit more sense.  We still hope to see flying goats sometimes, but reindeer pop up too.  All this American pomp and circumstance has to be confusing.  The poor kid still bursts into Happy Birthday every time we light a candle in the house.  And he doesn't understand why everyone stopped wearing their Halloween costumes.  

Anyway, we had our first visit with Santa today.  I finally understand why parents wait in long lines to plop their kids on the lap of a dolled up stranger.  It's the look in their eyes.  The shimmer.  The sense of wonder, excitement.  We had none of the typical shy, crying kid visiting Santa thing.  Kefelen was ready to go. He hopped up and said "hi".  But when Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas he had a "Christmas Story" movie moment and clammed up.  I whispered "you like cars" and he passed the message to Santa.  It was all very sweet.  We stood and watched Santa visit with other kids for a while and Kefelen was thrilled when the big guy saw him and gave him a special wave and a "goodbye buddy".   He bounced off the walls the rest of the day.  

Jennifer

By the way...Do you think, perhaps, that our society would be at a greater level of advancement if we didn't spend so much mental energy focused on decorating and gifts and flying "goats"?  I know it's fun.  But seeing it from the eyes of a clean slate makes me wonder.