What decides us to become what we are?
@owlwings (43897)
Cambridge, England
December 20, 2016 3:41am CST
Once upon a time a little girl of seven wrote a letter to Father Christmas asking him how he managed to do all the impossible things that he does in his journey round the world on Christmas Eve. She was so dissatisfied with the answer she received, in a shaky handwriting, that it was "all Magic" that she decided, she says, to become a scientist.
I have no doubt that, in fact, it was her enquiring mind and the search for the answers to many things which decided her course in life but there is often one memorable occasion which we identify as the turning point.
I don't believe that I ever made a conscious decision to become Father Christmas but the seeds were very likely sown as I began to understand that there were certain delightful fictions which were part of the happy celebrations.
My father always, unfortunately, said that he had to go to work after Christmas dinner. As children, we were encouraged to commiserate and to wave him goodbye as he went off to catch the bus (of course, it never occured to us that there were no buses on Christmas Day!). Very soon afterwards, there was the sound of a bell and Father Christmas was seen walking up the drive to our door. He was welcomed joyfully and excitedly, given a seat by the Christmas tree and proceeded to give out the presents assembled there. Whenever he came across one for Frank (my father) he would put it aside and say how sorry he was that, every Christmas, he always missed seeing him.
This was all done so convincingly (and in a Kentish accent) that we never guessed the reality behind the play-acting and it was, indeed, "magic" to us children. I don't remember exactly when or how I discovered the truth but it may have been once, when looking in a cupboard I had no business to be looking in, I found the red suit and beard. Even then, I think, there was no disappointment or dissillusionment - after all, a play is a play and, if it is well done, we are happy to suspend our attention to 'reality' at least for the duration of the drama.
Of course, Father Christmas is only one of the many things I am or have become which were inspired by early experiences and encounters in childhood. I'm not sure that I could identify the 'sparking moment' for many of them!
If you want to read more about Dr Katy Sheen's scientific explanation of how Father Christmas accomplishes his 'magic', you can read it here:
The mystery of how Father Christmas can deliver presents to 700 million children in one night, fit down the chimney and arrive without being seen or heard has been ‘solved’ by a physicist.
18 people like this
15 responses
@owlwings (43897)
• Cambridge, England
20 Dec 16
He did that too, of course. It's possible that one reason that he appeared to us in the afternoon was that children should be taught to be grateful and it's difficult to say 'thank you' to a person you never meet. I don't actually remember ever being encouraged to be grateful for the stocking gifts though FC quite likely did ask us what we got in our stockings. Nor do I recall that it even occured to me that the person who filled my stocking and our afternoon visitor were the same person.
3 people like this
@owlwings (43897)
• Cambridge, England
20 Dec 16
@Fleura Sometimes the most obvious and logical things just never occur to some children but I think that something happens at about the age of 7 and many children begin to reason logically at that age and observe that parts of the puzzle just don't fit.
I think that it was Aristotle who said "Give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man."
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I never saw Santa Claus, he was always coming when I was sleeping despite of my efforts to not sleep@topffer (42155)
• France
20 Dec 16
@owlwings You were lucky. My parents were very conventional, and my father probably never read a poem after high school and was not finding any interest in fiction and novels. Definitely not a story teller
. Later he made a point to not show any interest for my writings, at least when he was with me. The writer was my mother who had been a journalist in two women magazines in the 50's and was wanting to rewrite all my school writings. Indeed my teachers were not long to realize that I had a less elegant style when I was at school
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I should not complain : we had a Christmas tree and a nativity scene at home, I never met Santa Claus, but Santa was most of the time bringing me what I had ordered
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. Later he made a point to not show any interest for my writings, at least when he was with me. The writer was my mother who had been a journalist in two women magazines in the 50's and was wanting to rewrite all my school writings. Indeed my teachers were not long to realize that I had a less elegant style when I was at school.
I should not complain : we had a Christmas tree and a nativity scene at home, I never met Santa Claus, but Santa was most of the time bringing me what I had ordered.3 people like this
@JudyEv (382412)
• Rockingham, Australia
20 Dec 16
Children mostly accept the magic without too much fuss and wonder. I can imagine you've had some great experiences as a Father Christmas. Our gifts were left on the end of the bed as I remember. We had a pillowcase, not a stocking. I don't recall ever having a tree and certainly no personal visits by Santa.
2 people like this
@alexjessi (1033)
• Hanoi, Vietnam
20 Dec 16
That is a nice story. For my opinion: The hardworking, the personality and the resposible are decides what we are. Good or bad is depend on personality, how is your smart, how is you when you solve some problem, who are you are depend on hardworking, and what will you do when you do something wrong is depend on personality.
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@lovinangelsinstead21 (36847)
• Pamplona, Spain
20 Dec 16
Never mind. I never got to see Santa Claus either or was ever taken to see one anywhere. But what I did have was lots of imagination and although I knew that he did not exist as such I loved to play that he did and that was the magic for me. Since I was about five I knew he did not exist but again that did not stop the magic imagination game going on over the days of Christmas and New Year. In fact I kept it going till the 6th of January when we took the Tree down.
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@much2say (57760)
• Los Angeles, California
20 Dec 16
How wonderful Father Christmas was actually your father . . . he made such magical memories for the little ones! I can now see how the seed was planted and what it must mean to you to be Santa every year . . . you've got the Santa "gene" 
.
On that note, I think my family must have the genes to figure out the magic at a very young age 
. Our gifts were under the tree for days . . . I knew whose handwriting it was when the tag said "From Santa" . . . and why would he have come way earlier than the Eve just to drop off presents at our place 
. We tried to make more magic for our own kids, but they figured it out too . . . but we tell them to keep it a hush hush so as to not spoil it for their friends in their school who do "believe" .1 person likes this
@owlwings (43897)
• Cambridge, England
21 Dec 16
I do try to be equivocal about who actually gives the gifts (because one never knows how the parents want to play it), so I generally ask "What are you hoping for for Christmas?" I've had some bizarre answers occasionally and some which clearly will never happen! One child recently asked for a live shark.
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@LadyDuck (502729)
• Italy
20 Dec 16
You had a wonderful father. I have never seen Father Christmas, he came when my brother and I were sleeping, but we found "imprints" of his footsteps near the gifts under the Christmas tree. Sometimes they were glowing in gold, others in silver. All the magic finished when I went to school, a catholic school run my nuns and they took a great pleasure to break our dream. I kept the secret for me, I left my brother believe for several more years.
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@owlwings (43897)
• Cambridge, England
20 Dec 16
I have had several older children "playing the game" mostly for the sake of their younger siblings but also, I strongly suspect, because they came to understand gradually that it is play-acting and an integral part of Christmas. They are the ones, of course, who will keep up the delightful pretense with their own children ... and so it goes on (as it always has).
I feel really sorry for those nuns who disabused you of the magic. I dare say that they had souls but they were rather grey, drab things that our Master wouldn't be especially pleased with.
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@LadyDuck (502729)
• Italy
20 Dec 16
@owlwings I know, I can only imagine that they only wanted to teach us what Christmas is, but we knew and a bit of magic and mystery make this holiday special for children. I feel sorry for those nuns too, they had understood nothing about pity, love and life.
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@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
20 Dec 16
This was a joy to read - now we know your other side....
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@owlwings (43897)
• Cambridge, England
20 Dec 16
Hmmm ... I wonder which 'other side'. Some people say I'm an old square and squares have four sides. I might contend that I am 'well rounded' and, as you know, circles have an infinite number of sides. Even if I am in my dotage and have lost my head, I could be said to be 'poll-ly gone' and still have an indeterminate number of facets.
Whose side are you on?
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@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
20 Dec 16
@owlwings I hope I'm on your friends' side!
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@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
20 Dec 16
I like how one family took the kids at 12 I think on a special dinner with dad, where they were let 'in' on the secret of santa, which was, that they were now old enough to "be" santa too. which meant giving gifts and not getting caught doing so, and never telling anyone. etc
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@owlwings (43897)
• Cambridge, England
21 Dec 16
@Jessicalynnt I guess that, if you are suddenly told that "Santa is not 'real'" it does come as a body blow. However, if one first learns that 'fiction' and 'reality' have a very hazy boundary ("Is James Bond 'real'?") it doesn't come as a shock at all.
Father Christmas IS real. I am still not sure, however, what to tell those children who ask whether I am the 'real' Father Christmas. Would Roger Moore say he is the 'real' James Bond? Would you, having seen the movie, say that he is?
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@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
21 Dec 16
@owlwings I wish I had bookmarked it so I could share, the writer was the a son who's dad had done that, and now he was doing it with his kids. He said it took the sting out of learning that santa wasn't "real" because it became a better secret and a fun one
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@owlwings (43897)
• Cambridge, England
21 Dec 16
I think that most children learn, one way or another, about the (relative) reality of things by about that age.
@owlwings (43897)
• Cambridge, England
20 Dec 16
I do get children asking me if I am the REAL Father Christmas and it's quite a difficult question to answer because, of course, they will have seen other Father Christmases in other places. The true answer, but one which is quite hard to convey, is that Yes, I am the 'real' Father Christmas in exactly the sense that any of the actors who have played James Bond are the 'real' James Bond. There is a 'spirit of Christmas' of which Father Christmas is the embodiment and those of us who play the role well are genuinely the 'real' thing (whilst we have our robes and our beards).
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@Gita17112016 (3611)
• Trinidad And Tobago
20 Dec 16
To sit on the axis of time.That's another possibility of being all places at one time.
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@Gita17112016 (3611)
• Trinidad And Tobago
21 Dec 16
@owlwings Comes from futuristic comics...the concept of time travel and changing the past. The one way to gain immortality is to step outside of Time...and to do that you have to be in the axis of Time. This allows you to be at all places at one time. It builds on Einstein's theory.
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