Christmas traditions - #10

I believe in Santa Claus. I really do.
I've always believed that he has the magical ability to make dreams come true. Growing up our parents did an extremely good job in building expectations and setting the stage for Christmas morning when we would get up to see what gifts Santa Claus had brought us. We had a ritual that we followed the night before and I remember lying awake for hours and hours in anticipation of the next morning. I would listen intently for any sounds that he might be in the house and I would wait and wait for the highly anticipated call from our father in the early morning "Good gal, he's been here!!!" Then we children would run wildly into the room to see what Santa had brought us. None of this eating breakfast first stuff. None of that waiting in line and filing into the room in an orderly fashion. As I recall, it was just run in the room and go for it! We would have - what seemed like- heaps of gifts (unwrapped) sitting in the place on the couch or a chair where we left our stockings the night before. The stockings would be filled and the gifts would be left and year after glorious year, the same thing would happen. Our parents worked magic and I became a true believer (which I still am.) With seven children, they did a marvelous job of creating a wonderful Christmas environment in our home and meeting our expectations.
In our family, our children wrote letters to Santa early in the month and mailed the letters. They would make up lists of the gifts they would like Santa to bring them and check them twice. They would try and be kind and not do anything too naughty. Rick and I would try our best to make their dreams come true and create a magical Christmas morning. I believe that children should believe in magic, and Santa Claus is magic to me still. I don't understand parents who don't allow their children to believe in Santa Claus or who ruin the magic of it all. Children find out soon enough about the ways of the world and they have such a small period of time when they can believe in things that don't intellectually make sense. They grow out of a belief in magic soon enough and I'm a believer in prolonging the inevitable as long as possible!
Traditionally, we put all of our Santa decorations in the family room and this is the place where we have enjoyed Christmas morning, the hanging of stockings on Christmas eve and the opening of gifts on Christmas morning . In our home early in the morning Mrs. Santa liked to turn up the heat by starting a fire, turn on some Christmas music and plug in the lights to the Christmas tree. There was a nice ambiance in the room for Christmas morning. Rick now call out "Good gal, he's been here" and the kids come running down from the upstairs. They liked to look through their Christmas stockings, check out any unwrapped gifts and then move on to opening the gifts under the tree one by one. There were usually lots of "oohs and aahs" and excited expressions and hopefully everyone was happy with the gifts Santa brought. Santa would bring toys and other items and the we parents would also provide gifts wrapped under the tree.
The tradition of Santa Claus is a fun part of Christmas. It's not the most important part, obviously, but it has a part in the celebration of Christmas that I have always enjoyed.
What's not to love about this legend?
"One legend associated with Santa says that he lives in the far north, in a land of perpetual snow. The American version of Santa Claus lives at the North Pole, while Father Christmas is said to reside in Lapland. Other details include: that he is married and lives with Mrs. Claus; that he makes a list of children throughout the world, categorizing them according to their behavior; that he delivers presents, including toys, candy, and other presents to all of the good boys and girls in the world, and sometimes coal or sticks to the naughty children, in one night; and that he accomplishes this feat with the aid of magical elves who make the toys, and eight or nine flying reindeer who pull his sleigh."