Shopping and Santa

Its been a long long day. I thought I knew the exact Christmas presents I needed to buy and estimated a 90 minute shopping trip. Instead, we were in the mall for close to 6 hours. I may have run over time but at least I came in a lot under budget. Supposedly, all the shops have been doing so poorly this shopping season that they've started the Boxing Day sales early. Good for us :)

So apart from being happy with the shopping, I actually had a very positive visit with Santa. Well, Aaron had a visit that I thought was very positively. As you might have guessed from previous posts, I haven't made a big deal of Santa Clause. We happened to walk past him and there wasn't a line so Aaron asked if he could go chat for awhile.

This must have been a very experienced Santa. Right off the bat, he guessed that Aaron was four and from there, he seemed to know exactly what to say. It really gave Aaron the impression that Santa did indeed know everything (about him, the world and life!).

For me, the most important thing that Santa said came after Aaron told him that he wanted electric trains and dinosaurs for Christmas. Santa's answer was "Well, those are very expensive toys. I can't afford too many presents like that because I have to give presents to all the children in the world. But don't worry, I know exactly what you really need and I have already wrapped it up."

Yes, Santa knows everything! Even if he doesn't know it all and was merely trying to make sure no family was left with a disappointed child on Christmas morning, I'm glad he reinforced some of what I have been talking to Aaron about. We've been discussing what expensive means, the difference between wants and needs and also the value of money.

On the way to the car, we walked passed another Santa Clause. Aaron very matter-of-factly said "This is a fake one. We've already talked to the real and he knows me." Kids! Even though I haven't perpetuated the Santa story, it has somehow gotten firmly embedded in his mind as fact. Its sweet to have such innocent thoughts.