I had to share this article with you that I received in my email yesterday from two amazing women, founders of Feminine Power.

Make sure to check out their website to see their amazing inspirational work. I loved this story of how author Katherine Thomas is helping her daughter to keep the Spirit of Santa alive!

The Spirit of Santa
by Katherine Woodward Thomas

My 10 year old daughter is in mourning this holiday season, grieving her belief in Santa Claus. While we began our gentle hints that St. Nick was not an actual man at the tender age of 7, she’s been a reticent recipient. Reluctant to release her last remnants of childhood, and dragging her newly savvy self into her so-much-more-sophisticated tween years, she’s saddened by the loss of her fantasy.  It is a disappointment laced also by confusion and a pang of betrayal, as she anxiously tries to understand why her parents would willingly trick her into believing such a lie.

Yet, she’s still holding on, and faithfully wrote her annual letter to Santa this morning. “Dear Santa,” she begins. “I love you, the elfs and the reindeers. Especially Rudolph and Comet. No matter how old you get, you’ll always be a hero. Love, Alexandria.”

As she read it to me, I smiled and acknowledged that she’d not asked Santa for anything for herself this year, but rather decided to give the gift of her love and encouragement instead.  Then I sat her on my lap (she’s still only 10 after all), and held her close, letting her know that I knew how disappointed she was and how much it confused her to discover that Santa was not a real person. I then went on to explain, however, that although Santa didn’t live as a man of flesh and blood, that it did not mean he wasn’t real. In much the same way that God was still real even though he’s not actually a big white guy with a soft and flowing beard living up in the clouds. That the image of Santa actually represents something precious and beautiful that lives within each of us, and this is what we celebrate each year. That Santa is actually an archetype of generosity and love, and that he can really only live within our hearts, and be revealed through our actions.

Then I leaned in, whispering in her ear that she, too, held a piece of Santa within her own heart, acknowledging I’d seen it in the kind and loving letter she’d written that morning.  We spoke of how blessed we are, how much we had to give, and how little some people in our world have. And together, we came to the conclusion that it is important for all of us to believe in the spirit of Santa, and to allow that spirit to come alive in the love and generosity we extend to others, particularly those less fortunate than us, each year at this time.

Several hours later, my daughter came running excitedly through the house. “Mommy, mommy, I just saw something on TV and I need to show you right away!” We rushed over to the computer and looked up the website she spoke of. It was an organization that served the needs of hungry and homeless children worldwide. She enthusiastically told me how we could give money to help a poor child go to school.  Together, we read all about the programs they offer, and she decided she wanted to make a donation of $25, and we set up a chore schedule for her to earn that amount by the end of the year.

The torch now passed, the sweet generosity of heart embodied in images of plush red velvet, shiny black books and bellies that burst forth abundantly, lives on.

Katherine Woodward Thomas, MA, MFT is the national bestselling author of Calling in “The One,” a licensed psychotherapist and the co-creator and co-leader of the Feminine Power transformative courses for women. Katherine is a creative and inspired transformative educator with nearly 20 years experience designing and facilitating leading edge seminars that support the emergence of life-altering shifts in consciousness in both individuals and in groups. She is the co-creator and co-host of the highly acclaimed Women on the Edge of Evolution teleseries, which gathers thousands of women weekly to engage the world’s most preeminent female luminaries, thinkers, scientists, artists and agents of change. Katherine is an honored member of the Evolutionary Leaders Group, which both supports and promotes a call to conscious evolution, and she is currently is co-authoring the forthcoming book, Feminine Power: Awakening to the Creative Force of Life.