Santa

Hannah told me that there's more than one Santa.

I asked her what made her think that. "Well they've got different voices." she said.

She's seen a few already this year. There's the one at the party we had with friends (Kirsty's dad), there's the one at the school party (I'd really like to think this was Father Bob because he's got a white beard and the last thing I imagine he'd be comfortable doing is pretending to be Santa), and there's the one at the Nursery party (someone's uncle).

I tried to suggest that they might be Santa's helpers but the fact that they all had beards was her logical argument against this. I tried to suggest that having a beard might be a pre-requisite for the job of helper but she remains unconvinced. Her explanation is that there's more than one Santa, and that's that.

I'm not quite sure what to do. The myth must be easier to prolong if the belief is that there's only one. Maybe remaining vague about it is the best policy.

Strange that I'm more enthusiastic about retaining faith in Santa than in God, or maybe not that strange.