We’re Jews That Believe in Santa

I have very fond memories from my childhood of Christmas. I remember going out at night as a family and driving around the city to check out all of the “hot” spots and neighborhoods decked out with lights. I remember going over to my neighbour’s house and helping her decorate their Christmas tree and helping her wrap her gifts with beautiful paper, ribbons and candy canes. Another favourite memory includes going to see a movie on Christmas Day.

You see, I’m Jewish. So we didn’t ACTUALLY celebrate Christmas but living in Canada, you can’t ignore it either. I learned to love and respect the holiday for those celebrating it, but we never celebrated it on our own. We heard the music at the malls and on the radio, saw the decorations and enjoyed the festive spirit and holiday spell that everyone seemed to be in, but it wasn’t our holiday to celebrate. No, we have Hanukkah! Eight crazy days (so they say), but really, it’s pretty low key. Not that I don’t love the holiday or celebrating it, but as a minority, it just never had the same zest as Christmas did.

When I married my not Jewish, non-denominational husband, John, I made it clear from the start that we wouldn’t have a Christmas tree in our house. Not that I don’t love it, but Christmas, and the ways that it’s celebrated (whether religiously or not) didn’t fit in with the way we planned on raising our kids. While we did celebrate Christmas with John’s family, it was always at their house, not ours.

Often the question of Santa would come up. I tried to avoid Santa or any mention of him whenever I could. In my mind, it was a non-issue. I always thought I would just tell my kids that everyone has different beliefs and as Jews, we just don’t believe in him. Of course, my hypothetical scenarios with my hypothetical kids didn’t pan out that way in ‘real’ life.

When Kyle was in Junior Kindergarten, just a little over 4 years of age, he brought up the S word – SANTA! We were walking home from school and he said to me “Did you know that Santa is going to come to our house and bring me presents?” He stopped me in my steps. I had to take a deep breath and quickly process what he said and what was going on. I was caught completely off guard and I was not prepared. All I could master to say was “Yes! Yes he will!” And that was that! My son made the decision for both of us. If he believed and learned about Santa on his own (from his classmates I assume), who am I to take that from him. Besides, the look and smile on his face said it all. After all, he does celebrate Christmas with one side of his family and part of that is Santa.

I was sure of my decision to keep this going when last year, I witnessed Kyle running and literally LEAPING onto a strangers lap (aka, Santa). And if you know Kyle, you would know that it’s completely out of character. Clearly, he admired Santa so much and regardless of what he thought of him or for that matter, what I thought of him, I knew I made the right decision to keep up the act. So yes, even though we’re Jewish, we still believe in Santa.

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On a personal note, I did want to say that I actually wasn’t sure about whether or not I was going to publish this post. I know that it will be frowned upon by some people in my family, some of my friends and acquaintances and some people in my community. The last thing I would want to do is make anyone upset or disappoint anyone. However, I love my culture, my traditions and my religion. I hope that by sharing this little part of me that may not be very “Jewish” doesn’t make me any less Jewish! I also know that if this is our reality, I’m sure there are others who can relate. So even if I helped make one family or even one person feel ‘normal’, than I’m glad I hit ‘publish’ on this post!