So it’s a few days till Christmas and I’m not completely organised it has to be said. So far I’ve managed to get nearly all my presents in blizzard conditions on Princes Street without falling over or thumping someone. I’ve braved one work’s Christmas Party with my other half – an experience I hope not to have to repeat till at least next year….Tina Turner impersonator from Bellshill, say no more eh! Now I just have to survive one more work Christmas lunch at which I’ve, wisely I think, plumped for the fish. Not a traditional festive dish I accept but if memory serves I will be eating turkey till New Year as my mother will have bought a turkey big enough to feed a family twice the size of ours, we’ll probably have to help her wedge it in the oven with a couple of greased shoe horns!
I’ll fess up now, I’m not a fan. I’m not a complete humbug either but I’m definitely not a fan. This year, however, I will strive to become a fan or at the very least pretend to be a fan for the duration. This year is special as I am actually going to spend it with my family, something I’ve not done for a very long time. I also get the thrill of spending it with little people who think an old fat man in a red suit broke into their house in the night, drank a glass of milk and pilfered a carrot for his reindeer, then left them a bunch of presents! I’m quite excited. I’ve not believed in Santa since the wendy house episode when I was about 5, amazing how much Santa sounded like my dad as he struggled to put the plastic house up, then he swore..and sounded like my dad, and suddenly the bubble burst.
Anyway my thinking is that sometimes it’s good to go with the flow and suspend your disbelief, you can have more fun. My sister is a teacher and she really reinforced this point when I was speaking to her yesterday. She teaches little kids in primary 3/4 and they share their Christmas party with the primary 1/2’s so the youngest child might be 4 with the oldest maybe 9, quite an age gap.
Anyway she overheard that the boys in P4 had figured out which local man from the town comes to the party dressed as Santa and gives out the little presents to the kids, they were all discussing it and how Santa was just a story and they were too big for that. So she switched Santa’s and got someone else to dress up, he went the whole hog with the little half-moon specs etc.
She said their faces were a picture when he walked in as he wasn’t what they expected at all. They had persuaded themselves that Santa wasn’t real, just someone they knew dressed up but when they didn’t see what they expected to see they were gobsmacked, suddenly all bets were off – Santa was there, right in front of them and it wasn’t Steve from the local shop dressed up. They had the best party ever, Santa gave them different presents than he gave the wee kids, because he “knows everything” and he knows they’re “grown up now”. She watched them leave the school each telling the other that he told them Santa was real!
They’ve suspended their disbelief just that little bit longer and will enjoy their Christmas all the more for it. I do wonder if we shouldn’t aim for this state just a little bit more often, I think a little bit of belief can go a long way, imagine what we could achieve.
My aim for the next year is to suspend my disbelief a little more often and go with the flow, believe in myself and see where it takes me. What about you?
Photo credit: kevindooley
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