Nicolaus woke up this morning and ran out into the living room where I was already awake and working, because I work all the time and if I don’t start early I might die. He ran out into the living room — and then stopped. Crestfallen isn’t a word I use very often, but that’s exactly what he was at the sight of just boring me in my pajamas and socks.
His eyes filled with tears and he stammered a bunch of stuff and it took me a full two minutes to process that he was crying because Santa didn’t come.
Now, that’s crazy obviously because my god it is the end of July and even if you aren’t big on calendars it is 90 degrees outside and plus there’s usually some lead-in to Christmas, right? Like decorations and everything? Or you know, people mentioning that Christmas exists?
It seems that last night he attended a small festival where grownups were telling the kids that this is actually Christmas and to go to bed really good because tonight Santa is coming. And that I didn’t decorate or get a tree because I didn’t know about it. And that he even heard Daddy talking about it during the night, something about “Stay in bed or Santa won’t come tonight…”
I provided lots of good evidence that it is in no way remotely Christmastime and suggested that maybe — MAYBE — this was a dream? But of course those are all of the things I would say if I didn’t know it was Christmas because I am that much of a spacey flake and/or if I just didn’t want him to be upset because Santa blew him off.
Want to see what heartbreak looks like? Tell your kids that tomorrow is Christmas and then don’t mention it the next day. He really thought that Christmas had been canceled. And six is about the age where the awesome magicalness of Christmas is at its max, so for it to be canceled suddenly and without reason is right up there with losing a beloved stuffed animal or having Mr.Rogers look at the camera and say “You aren’t all that special. Even if you’re one in a million, that means there are thousands of kids out there who are exactly like you.”
So that was the start of our day. The good news is that if we ever decide to cancel Christmas for any reason, it turns out that the children will cry for under five minutes and will bounce back immediately if we let them play the digging game on my phone.

