The Tooth Fairy and Other Myths
It all started with a Dec 9 trip to the dentists office after weeks of a loose tooth:
"Mama, can the dentist just pull it out? It hurts."
And pull it out the dentist did, which is how on opening night of the Highrock Christmas Concert AND The Christmas Revels, with Mama and Daddy on different stages and our good friend Bill hanging out with the boys, we suddenly had to figure out Our Version of the Tooth Fairy.
When Nathan first discovered he had a loose tooth he promptly announced that he knew the tooth fairy wasn't real, so we figured we'd get to skip this one. But as the tooth got more and more loose, the idea of a tooth fairy took hold. So when Nathan came home from the dentist, tooth in hand, just two hours before I had to leave for the theater, asking "Do you think the tooth fairy will leave me a treasure chest? I hope it has gold doubloons..." I sent a panicked note out to a strategically selected group of friends:
"Hey Friends,
We are wholly unprepared for Nathan to lose his first tooth today. He's had a loose tooth for a while, but has also been unconvinced of the tooth fairy, so we thought we were getting off easy. Nope! And of course Tim and I both have performances this evening.
SO - We are now in search of international currency. (Nathan loves collecting foreign coins, seems to think the tooth fairy is a pirate, and we really have no idea how much a tooth is "worth" these days anyway.)
If you are going to see me or Tim tonight, or live close enough to swing by our house, and you have an interesting looking coin or bill that you can afford to part with, would you mind bringing it to us? Tell us the exchange rate - we'll happily buy it from you.
Nathan plans to leave the tooth fairy a snack, so who knows, there might be something interesting in it for you too.
Thank you!"
And thus began our globe trotting pirate tooth fairy. I gravitated to international currency rather than spending money because 1) I didn't want to get into the arms race of tooth prices and 2) Nathan is so torn by the concept of money (is it better to have a $20 bill or to spend part of it on those marbles I really want??) I just didn't want to add to his wallet. And he does love collecting coins.
For his first tooth Nathan received two coins from New Zealand and we got to see how the queen had aged from one coin to the next (who knew?). Tuesday night for his second tooth Nathan received a coin from the USSR (I guess our tooth fairy is a time traveler too). And thanks to our fast acting friends we're in good shape for the next few teeth.
The fact that Nathan has lost his first two teeth on either side of Christmas seems appropriate to me, since we treat the tooth fairy and Santa in about the same way - we're fine with these stories being out in the ether, we think they add a bit of fun and magic, but we mostly let society talk about them and aren't going to go to great lengths to keep up the story.
We manage our vague Santa by talking about how Santa is not the point of Christmas, but a reminder of God's love and generosity that we want to share with others and with the world. It helps that the message of love and generosity can work even for a family that doesn't believe in God, so it's an idea of Santa that works out in the world. AND it means that whether or not Santa is real doesn't really matter. We also talk a lot about the things that are magical about Christmas and highlight how they don't have to reply on Santa to be magical. Tim and I are already preparing how to celebrate when the boys stop believing in Santa, so that they feel the new knowledge is a new gift, rather than a letdown. I think we have a few years though.
So those are the myths that hang out at our house these days.