As a child, I remember reading and singing cheerful Christmas songs about Santa Claus and his magic reindeer. For a while, my mother would decorate our home from top to bottom with Christmas decor. We had a HUGE fireplace where we displayed our stockings. Christmas was a big to-do in our house.
When the night before Christmas rolled around, we’d always break out the book, “Twas The Night Before Christmas” and read it as a family. We’d put on our Christmas pajamas and go straight to bed. At night I would fall asleep imagining Santa filling our stockings after squeezing down our chimney.
Because that’s what Santa does. He goes down the chimney.
That’s what all the books and Christmas carols said, anyway. But because I always had a chimney, I never once gave it any thought as to how he would enter if we didn’t have a chimney.
Now that I’m an adult and have a child of my own, I’m excited to share the magic of Santa with her as she gets older. I’m so excited for those few magical years where children believe in Santa, and you know it by the twinkle in their eye once December rolls around.
I’m looking forward to teaching my daughter all of the fun holiday songs, reading her my favorite Christmas-y books, and sharing with her that Santa and his reindeer fly around the world bringing people presents. He lands on the roof, slides down the chimney, nibbles on the cookies you leave him, and fills your stocking with fun surprises.
We just have one tiny little problem, though.
Our house has no chimney.
I looked everywhere, y’all. Sadly, it’s just not there. And then it occurred to me that this is actually a normal problem. And frankly, it’s really not a problem at all! People live in apartments, trailers, condos, and all sorts of different dwellings that have no chimney. Santa still visits them somehow, right?! Of course he does! And this is the type of thing that I know my daughter will inquire about one day. How DOES Santa come down the chimney when you don’t have a chimney?
Why, he uses his magic of course!
If that fat man can squeeze down a chimney and make his reindeer fly, then he can sprinkle some of that jolly ol’ magic on our special Santa Key and walk right through our front door!
The Santa key can only be used by Santa himself. We leave it hanging on our Christmas tree until Christmas Eve. Before we slip off to bed, we hang the magic key outside our front door so he knows how to enter.
My daughter is will be 7 months old this Christmas, so she will know nothing of the jolly ol’ elf this year, but it won’t be long before she starts picking up on who Santa is. We’ll gladly explain to her how he’ll come into our home quietly while she sleeps and work his magic filling stockings and leaving presents. When we put out his milk and cookies, I’ll let her hang the key on our door just for him.
If you find yourself in the same chimney-less situation as us, here’s a free printable that you can download and pair with your own magic Santa key!
I hope this brings a little more joy to you and your family this holiday season! If you don’t have a chimney, how has Santa been entering your home? I’d love to hear about all the ways he works his magic!
