I wasn't more than 7 or 8 years old at the time and my family was still residing in our old house in Quezon City (the Philippines). It was the Christmas break for my brother (who was no more than 12 or 13 years old) and I, who were home one day while our parents were out at work. Playing alone in the guest bedroom, I climbed into the back closet which our parents used as storage space and filled with knick-knacks. I probably had a few Matchboxes and building blocks with me and was exploring the closet like a city engineer looking for new roadways to 'pave' for my toys.
Pushing deep past a few old hanging coats and clothes I stumbled upon a nest of new toys, attractively shimmering in their colorful plastic and carton packaging. These would be the toys, I discovered a few days later, which Santa Claus would carefully wrap up and gift to my brother and I for Christmas eve.
That was the moment I realized that Santa wasn't the white-haired, big-tummied Caucasian fellow in the red suit who flies all over the world delivering toys on Christmas eve. But instead of getting disappointed, I cherished that moment and saved my little 'secret' of knowing 'Santa's' real identity (I don't remember sharing that secret with my brother -- at least not immediately -- but he probably knew years before I did). It was exciting to have this secret ... particularly while my parents still did not know that I already knew.
A few years later, when I had a regular allowance to collect and save, I found myself hiding Christmas gifts from my parents (and my brother) too. And although my parents never revealed themselves as Santa to me they had a knowing smile that Christmas eve I gave my first presents to them. The gifts weren't much (in fact, I don't remember what they were anymore) but the smile on my parents' faces was priceless. They were my Santa. And at that moment, I was theirs. :-)
What about you? When did you know who Santa was?
Just found out you have a blog... :) will visit regularly.
ReplyDeleteIn my case, I never really had a Santa, I mean until I was 13 when I moved to the States for a while, we never had gifts under the tree or wrote to Santa for gifts. But the concept of Santa was always there and in fast still remains. It's not so much the physical Santa, I guess, it's the idea of it. Not the commercialized Santa, of course, but the idea of giving. Anyway, I just hope to be able to pass on the idea of giving is better than receiving to Ben.