Where Is Santa?

Almost immediately after Christmas a few years ago, as we were busily taking down the tree and putting things away, my two-year-old daughter asked, “Mommy, where’s Santa?”

“At the North Pole, I guess,” I hurriedly answered.

But the question came again. “Where’s Santa?”

Again and again she asked the same question, even months later. I finally realized that in her own way, my daughter knew that Santa was only a symbol. She was asking, in the only way she knew how, where the Christmas spirit had gone and why it was no longer in our home.

Perhaps if we had emphasized the Christ in Christmas more than we did, my daughter would have asked, “Where is Jesus?” Then I might have understood more easily that his attributes of love and kindness, displayed as we celebrated his birth, had been almost forgotten in the months that followed. Indeed, I found that as soon as I consciously began showing more patience and affection, my daughter’s question stopped.

Now, every year I ask myself, “Where is Santa? Where is Christ?” Hopefully, the answer is “He’s here.” Deltha J. Nelson, Provo, Utah

Illustrated by Bradley Clark