Is Santa Claus Real?

by: Jojette Asumbrado Ramos

The question propped up yesterday, it was asked by my 8-year old son. I have to admit, it took me awhile to answer the simple inquisition. A very innocent, yet, it needs some decisions on my part as his mother. Should I tell him the truth, or make him believed of the magical and wonder in the persona of Santa Claus?

For a split second, a thought dawned to me. 'My son has a lifetime in the near future to know the truth about Santa Claus, but he will only be a child for a short while'. So, I answered him. "Yes, Santa Claus is real. He will ride on a sleigh, with all his magical reindeers, flying thru the sky with tons of toys for good kids just like you...especially YOU because you are a good boy". His eyes twinkled with joy and wonder, and a smile on his lips. I could see from his expressions on his face, that there were many thoughts in his mind too. This was the part, I braced myself, I know what will happened next. Oh yeah, the list of toys just tumbled down, ranging from Iphone, tablet, laptop, helicopter, a room with coded gadgets, a car that resembles batman mobile, and doors that will open only for body scanning of the authorized family only. 'Holy shit!'- that's right, imagine my shocked hearing those things from my 8-year old son. How am I supposed to respond to that?

I had to clear my throat first before I explained. I told him, "Santa is a very busy man, he will be granting wishes to many kids too. Whatever he will give you be happy with it. It is the thought that counts". I added, with regards to his other wishes, it will be a reality but maybe not that soon, let us not burden Santa so much. Might as well, we all make those for real, by & by, with our own ways. "Okay", he said, he was still so full of ideas. 

I indulged to his creative mind, and we ended in the discussion what kind of commands to use with the coded doors. He pointed out that, encoding thru the use of the fingers were common already. I suggested, maybe the 'breathing' could be it. Or as he added, a scanner to scan the authorized persons only, or maybe using the eyes in the encoding of numbers thru looking at it. Then I go wild, by suggesting, how about a code that will encode just by thinking the number. And with that, he said, "Cool". Then we proceeded designing the helipad. 

So, if your kids will ask you this question, "Is Santa Claus real?". Please answer YES, because to them Santa means magic, wonder, adventure and the act of being good to others, to give happiness to everybody especially the children. Talking about Santa Claus with my son, makes me a believer too. He already believed that Santa is real. I think, that question he uttered was the thing that is in my subconscious, buried with cynicism of adulthood. My son unwittingly, had given me a precious gift indeed, the gift of wonder and to reminisce my childhood happiness.