#santa

#santa

President Donald Trump took Christmas Eve calls from children inquiring as to the whereabouts of Santa Claus, according to NORAD's Santa Tracker. At one point, he fielded a call from a child in Pennsylvania, and it went as one might expect. Trump spoke to the children on speakerphone in front of cameras and was connected with a five-year-old boy and his mother in State College. Pennsylvania's great, Trump told the boy. We won Pennsylvania, actually, three times. We won Pennsylvania. We won it in a landslide, so I love Pennsylvania.

Children can take Christmas far more seriously than we imagine. For adults, the "naughty or nice" idea is a throwaway line we can repeat without thinking. For a seven-year-old, however, it can feel like a contractual clause with terrifying consequences. I hear many parents, including one parent of a seven-year-old this year say their child is suddenly frightened that Santa won't come because they "haven't been good enough".

She'd recently turned 11, and in my heart, I knew she no longer believed in Santa. "Mom! Don't forget, I want Monopoly," she casually called back. I scrunched my eyelids together, holding back hot tears. Santa, the only arbiter of Christmas gifts in our household, was also the magic link to my Italian Catholic childhood for me and for my Jewish children, whom I'm raising in my husband's faith.