Myth Buster: The Ice Cream Truck

Yesterday my kids heard the ice cream truck. They were so excited! We've told them stories about the ice cream truck back when we were kids, but until yesterday only one of them had ever even seen one and none of them had ever had anything from the ice cream truck. A friend of theirs ran home to get money, just like in our stories. The music played and kids gathered around the truck looking at the pictures of various frozen treats and agonizing over their choice. It was like going back in time. Do you know what my oldest said later? He said, "I thought the ice cream truck was a myth like Santa Claus."

Now we've never told our kids Santa was real, played Santa or took pictures with Santa. They never even watched all the cute little Christmas cartoons until this last year, and I have two old enough for youth group. The first time they heard the story "The Night Before Christmas" was one of the Southern versions that I bought for Christmas this year. At first I didn't know why he would say he thought it was one of the things adults make up as a conspiracy just like Santa Claus. (He likes the word conspiracy) Then I remembered snipe hunting. I don't know if anyone hunts snipes outside of the South, but down here its a big thing. It's also a big joke. We've played our kids on this until they reach the ripe old age of twelve before we let them in on the secret. They want to continue it with the younger ones so they never let on and so the snipe hunts continue.

He made the leap from snipe hunt to ice cream truck within minutes. That again verified to my husband and I that we made the right choice about not doing Santa Claus with the kids. The comparision of Jesus Christ to Santa Claus in our minds was too easy to make. We feared that if we did Santa that one day our kids would question if Jesus was real or not. None of our friends and family agreed except a very extreme family member. So we've taken a lot of hits over the years on our Santa stance.

Maybe we should reconsider snipe hunts?......nah, they are just too much fun!