Caillou - Merry Christmas!

The whole family has gathered at Caillou’s house for Christmas. It’s Christmas Eve and Caillou can’t sleep. Suddenly, Caillou hears a strange noise in the living room – could it be Santa?

In this story, Caillou celebrates Christmas with his sister Rosie, his parents, and grandparents. Even Caillou’s Aunt Poppy and her cat Balthazar come from far away to stay at Caillou’s house for the holiday.

Bruno Bettelheim, the pre-eminent American child psychologist wrote that:

“Children are so keenly attuned to the deeper meaning of Christmas that the more we adults involve ourselves in its reality, the more a child’s fantasy is aroused and satisfied. Most meaningful is the tree; any parent who has brought home the Christmas tree with his children can observe this truly magical (because it is based on the child’s magic beliefs) transformation of a real pine tree into the realization of a wish-fulfilling dream, when the child first beholds the decorated tree in all its splendor of glimmer and light...

“The true wonder of Christmas, aside from its religious meaning, is the miracle of the child’s mind, which permits him to turn the thin disguise which hides his parent behind the image of Santa Claus into a promise of a benign, gratifying world. To the child, in addition to all other symbolic meanings, Santa symbolizes not only his parent’s generosity, but the goodwill of the whole world. This goodwill cannot be guaranteed by a certain number of presents or by their elaborate nature, but is indicated by the parents’ readiness to create for their child, once a year, a world that is in accord with his wishful and magical thinking. The presence of Santa Claus, this symbol of goodwill and devotion to the happiness of children, gives greater security to a child than any number of presents his parents could give in their own identity . . .

“So if we wish to help children have a healthy understanding of reality and ability to cope with it, we must not only make it possible for them to hold on to their fantasies for some time, but make their fantasies become reality for them at significant moments. This is the important function holidays serve for children’s psychic economy: to strengthen them for the tasks of living.” *

*(Bruno Bettelheim, A Good Enough Parent, pages 365-367, Pocket, Vintage Books, 1987)