My Funny Children

So on the way home from gymnastics this Thursday Blake and Trinity got into a little discussion about Santa Claus. I have been meaning to share some research with Trin on the different legends behind Santa and had mentioned the names St. Nicholas and Kris Kringle (probably Christopher) but had not gotten into any details. Trinity has asked before about Santa being real and I (being the kill-joy I am) told her he wasn't real. Just like the Easter Bunny isn't real and the Tooth Fairy isn't real, etc. Trinity doesn't seem to mind understanding the truth about these matters and we have talked about how they can be fun to "celebrate" even though we don't believe in them. However she does have one exception in her catalog of "not-real" holidays. She believes in Leprechauns. In first grade her teacher made a huge mess in her classroom during recess and swore up and down that she wasn't even in the room and it was the leprechauns that did it. Well, Trinity refuses to believe that her teacher would fib to her and so has "proof" that they exist. Oh my. So we are on the way home and Blake makes some comment about Santa so she launches into how she doesn't believe in any of that stuff except little green men. I said to her something like "Trinity, if you believe in leprechauns why don't you believe in the tooth fairy? after all, you put your tooth under the pillow and there was money under it in the morning". "You and daddy did it" she said. I stayed quiet. "Besides", she said "I would have seen the fairy's light when she came". I thought that was funny because she was acknowledging room for belief even though we had already talked about those things being make-believe. "So I said, well if we already explained how it is mommy and daddy doing it, then why don't you think teacher made the mess and just told you it was leprechauns?" "Oh no! Teachers don't fib." Blake pipes up again about Santa, and Trinity (gotta love how a 7 year old thinks limited information is all you need to know) says "No, no Blake, there was a real guy who gave presents, Christopher Robin; but Santa isn't real". "Um, honey?" I say, "Christopher Robin is from Winnie the Pooh. . .do you mean Kris Kringle?" at this they both bust up laughing and move on to some other topic. Kids.