Ohhh I can feel it!

The excitement, the anticipation…

Tomorrow night is the big night for children everywhere.  

Tomorrow night , they will do whatever their families do on Christmas Eve, get together with friends, go to church, could be a whole number of activities.

Then, when it’s time for them to go to bed, they will put on their jammies and brush their teeth (we can hope) and pick out a plate full of cookies and glass of eggnog to put out for the jolliest of elves himself to come visit and then crawl into bed and hope when they wake up in the morning, their good behavior will have paid off.

Or that the fact they didn;t give him cookies, they gave him cheeeesse, might make it an even sweeter payoff.

I bet it wasn’t just my kids that tried that one year.   And poor Santa was stopped up for a month afterwards.

Time will go sooooo  slllooooooowww.  They will wait up hoping to hear the light sound – because lets face it if they pounded on the roof they would wake up the whole neighborhood – the gig would have been up long ago – of the reindeer lighting on the roof and Santa coming down the chimney.

We didn;t have a chimney when I was small, and it caused a lot of anxiety for me every year.  Every year he got in with no problem.

Today’s Holiday Mental Moment…

is about believing.   I do.  Don’t you?

That ever-present sense of optimism that should carry over all year-long.  Right now you don’t believe I will even get to the last of the 12 Holiday Mental Moments on time do you?  I believe I can pull it off.  If I thought I couldn’t I would quit.  well, no I am not a quitter, or a pessimist, probably not what anyone would call a realist either but believing is what keeps me going.

And so we go on…

Santa, Saint Nick, St. Nicholas, Father Christmas, Kriss Kringle, so many different names for the same being, one whose existence and stories of kindness and giving have reached mythical proportions.  All over the world, they may have different names or traditions to welcome him into their homes, but he is Santa and he has become one of the most recognized and beloved figures of the holiday season.                                       

There was a few years that Rudolph held the spotlight but Rudolph has long since retired to the farm and Santa still goes on.  What? You didn’t think a reindeer Rudolph’s age could still pull a sled all over creation at breakneck speeds, much less see to do it did you?  Yeah, that’s a myth.  But he is happy and healthy living out his days in retirement.  Like a legend.

If you go looking to find his roots, Santa can be traced back all the way to the 3rd century.  That, folks is 200- 300 a.d.  How can you not believe in someone who has been in business for that long?  St. Nicklaus was a monk infamous for giving his wealth away and traveling the country side doing good deeds and giving to people he met on the way.  Children in particular were his focus and he became known as the protector of children. His feast day is on the 6th of December, a day that is held as good luck to get married or buy large items like land.   He first made an appearance in America in the late 1700’s and in the mid 1800’s retailer’s realized the power of Santa when he made the first appearance in a mall and children flocked to see him.  It’s not him who made it all about money.

Santa embodies the giving spirit of Christmas time and brings joy to children worldwide.  For a small amount of time during the year there is magic in the air and in anticipation, children start listening to their parents, people start being kinder, and you can watch the blanket of goodwill and peace fall over humanity as we wait.

The naysayers of course exist, and for some reason some find it necessary to try to spoil the magic and wonder of childhood, by telling children he is not real.

Why?  I ask why would anyone think it is ok to take Santa away from a child.  Maybe someone told them some baloney about Santa not being real and they are bitter.  Sad but true that some can be so petty and want to ruin someone else’s holiday.

Santa can only be seen by those who believe.  Because if you don’t have Santa in your heart, if you don’t have the spirit of giving, then he won’t be real to you.  All you who don’t think he exists, all you need to do, is close your eyes, picture the most giving heart you have ever met, and know Santa is real.  Try it.  It may take several tines a day for a few days for reinforcement but it works.  Because it is true.  You know Santa.

Life is hard enough that there shouldn’t be any problem with once a year embracing all that is magic and good and giving.  It helps with the lesson of giving and kindness all year round.  Children should have the wonder for as long as possible for they will be grown one day and have grown up problems and grown up lives, let them have Christmas and Santa and even Rudolph as long as they can, and they will go into those grown up lives with grown up problems carrying with them the magic and passing it on to their kids.  How do I know?

I believe.

May we be blessed with plenty of love this holiday season, from Santa or whatever we believe in.

To your Mental State, whatever it may be.

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