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The Santa Claus Problem

Last weekend, ‘Santa Claus’ made an appearance in downtown Cambridge.  Rada gleefully met him and related all her wish lists for Christmas. A few days ago ‘Santa’ made another appearance at the local mall. We noticed that this Santa looked really different from the other one.

What am I supposed to say about that? How do I interpret this seemingly illogical chain of events to an 8 year old who still believes?

And then there is the problem of the chimney, or lack thereof. Fortunately, I may have solved that one last year with a long talk about how he can get in through the windows, or keyhole (which is a little creepy, actually).

But now this year, there is the additional problem of when Christmas happens. Because several relatives are leaving at 6 am on Christmas morning, it has been decided that Christmas will be moved ahead a day. So ‘Christmas’ will be on Dec 24th. And ‘Christmas Eve’ will be on Dec 23rd. I’m not sure whether to try and explain this all somehow, or more conveniently, just ‘lose’ a day between now and then.

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