Let's talk about something dreamy: Does Santa exist? Or not?

I am the advisor for the track and field club.

The other day,
we held a joint practice with a nearby junior high school.
For the junior high students,
the high schoolers are figures of admiration,
and just by running together,
they try to copy their running form,
how they spend their break times,
and even their trivial manners.
To imitate is to learn,
isn't it?

The high schoolers also
suddenly act more mature
when they teach the younger kids.

By holding joint practices regularly,
I was impressed by the high synergistic effect on each other's growth.

Well,
the practice ended in a flash,
and we had a meeting.
I had the high school representative and the junior high representative
each talk about their reflections on the practice.

Watching the adorable (pardon me?) way
the junior high students spoke
while nervous in front of the high schoolers,
I suddenly remembered something, and

Hey everyone,
is Santa coming to your house this year??

When I asked that,

including the high schoolers,

He's coming!
He's not coming!!

a great chorus of voices,
and it was the most exciting it's been in a while.

I got to hear about various families' Santa situations, but
statistically, it seems they stop coming around the second year of junior high.
There were even high schoolers who still had Santa come.
That's just according to Hase statistics (lol).

Santa was, to a child's heart,
a presence that embodied dreams, wasn't he?

I myself,
when I was a child,
did Santa really exist?
Why could he place presents by my pillow without anyone knowing?
Had my parents actually met Santa?
How did he know what presents we wanted?
No, was Santa actually my mom and dad?
And so on,
while harboring many doubts,

but when I woke up in the morning,
the persuasive power of this certain 'reality'
that a present was there
always made Christmas Eve
thrilling and exciting.

One year,
I declared to my parents, 'I'm going to stay up all night! I'm definitely going to see Santa!' (lol),
and I spent the whole night in my futon with my eyes half-open.
My parents came into the futon
and fell asleep before I did.
'Huh, maybe Santa isn't my parents after all?'
While I was thinking that half-asleep,
I fell asleep before dawn, and before I knew it, it was morning.

Oh no!
I fell asleep!!
I thought, and looked by my pillow,
the present was...
not there!!

Did I cause this situation
because I doubted him?
I went to the living room feeling dejected,
and my parents, who had woken up earlier, asked,
'Did Santa come?'

'...No, there was no present.'
'Oh, is that so? Maybe Santa was busy?'

I was so shocked
that I couldn't even eat my breakfast,
and as I was hanging my head,
my father asked me, 'Could you go get the newspaper?'

When I trudged to the mailbox,
it was there at the entrance,
the present!!

The excitement and emotion of that moment
can still be vividly remembered even now, over 30 years later.
I was so happy.

Santa came! There were presents!!

I had completely forgotten about the newspaper I was asked to get, and
I was holding the presents up high
like a championship trophy back then.

My daughters also
asked me first thing this morning,

Hey, where are you hiding the presents?
You've already bought them, right?
Santa is actually you, Dad, right??

They grilled me like that.

As expected of girls,
their network with friends is so tight,
so they are quite suspicious (bitter laugh).

As you say,
the presents I ordered on Amazon
are hidden in the back of the closet by the entrance.
Santas of the past
had to go out to the Aeon mall to shop,
but Amazon is convenient and helpful these days.

I won't say,

Actually, Santa is Amazon.

Even without saying anything unnecessary,
my daughters are still in 2nd and 4th grade,
so they will surely bow down without question
to the persuasive power of the presents by their pillows.

Does Santa exist?
Does Santa not exist?

Regarding this debate,
I always think
it's more fun to believe he exists.

Thinking about whether he exists or not
based on facts
is the most boring thing ever.
Let's respect fantasy as fantasy.

For things like this,
the perspective of 'if you think it exists, it does!'
is the most exciting way to look at it.

Things like Santa, wishes,
dreams, hopes,
goals, and purposes,

Things about the future,
things about what's to come,
the invisible world,
the world that hasn't been realized yet,

It is definitely more beneficial
to think, 'It exists!'
or 'It will come true!!'
In fact, there is no downside to thinking that way.

Tonight, too,
I will enjoy a psychological battle
with my daughters over where to place the presents.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas Eve.
Merry Christmas!!

Thank you for reading until the end.
I hope this was of some help to you who read it.