Blake Schwendiman's Blog and Blook

My daughter has been probing me on the subject of Santa Claus recently. She's nine. In the past few days, she's been pressing me for a more direct answer to her question. I'm still in the "what do you think?" phase.

The question of Santa Claus is simple. The answer is complicated. There were obviously times in my life that I had a simple answer. When I was a child I had one perspective. When I was married without children, I had the opposite simple perspective.

As a dad, I definitely believe in Santa Claus. He sees you when you're sleeping. He knows when you're awake. He knows if you've been bad or good, etc. When you see the absolute delight on Christmas morning, when you watch them having fun with gingerbread houses in preparation for Santa's arrival ... you can't help but believe.

Santa Claus is about kids and as far as I'm concerned, so is Christmas. So, for as long as I have kids in my life (which I hope will be the rest of my life), I'll definitely believe in Santa Claus and I'm happy to admit it.

Finally, for clarification, I don't care if you're offended that I only mentioned Christmas, because if you are, you missed the point. It doesn't matter how you celebrate the holidays if you focus outwardly. I celebrate Christmas and I'm happy about it because I focus on my kids and my wife.

Merry Christmas!