Gift from Santa
On Christmas day, we woke up very late just like any other holiday at our home. But this time, soon she woke up, Aditi rushed to the hall to look under the Christmas tree. There were no tears in her eyes, but I could see she was sad, there was no gift under the tree! One more instance of failure, her migrant parents are still adapting with changing lifestyle and we forgot to get a gift for her this Christmas. It’s a big deal here, Christmas is all about sharing gifts and love, similar to our own Onam festival in Kerala. Now, it’s time to fix the situation. I told her that Santa is not in yet because we forgot to keep cookies under the tree. She agreed, we immediately got a plate and filled it up with some cookies from our kitchen. She demanded to keep some carrots too, that’s for the reindeers!
Everything went according to the plan, Amritha took her out to the park and I went and bought a gift and wrapped it up quickly and placed it under the tree with a letter from Santa! I also took a bite of the cookie and carrot to match the situation and hid myself in bedroom. Both girls returned back and Aditi couldn’t believe her eyes! Santa had placed a gift and letter for her. But she did notice the gift wrap is same as the one we have at home. But I distracted her easily from that. Days passed and Aditi still believed it was Santa who fetched her the gift for Christmas. But we were not sure if we need to reveal the truth or let her believe in the wonderful cute Santa story. There is no right or wrong way here, but we need to choose one.
Finally, we decided to reveal the reality. We called her one evening and asked her on what does she think about the gift from Santa? She was unsure about it as she didn’t get to meet Santa. I held her close to me and asked who gave her a gift last Christmas? She thought for a while and said its Manu uncle! In reply, I told her last year it was Manu uncle who became “Santa” for you and this year it’s daddy Santa! “If you have been a kind and loving girl to everyone, someone will turn out to be a Santa who will bring gifts for you and that will happen every single year for Christmas!”
I wish I could read what’s going through this little girl’s mind, but she looked like she is convinced with that story, and we felt relieved as parents!
