Actress Shefali Shah is opening up about her thoughts on magic, delusion, and gratitude. Recently, she shared a series of pictures from her Christmas celebrations on Instagram, capturing the festive spirit.
Reflecting on her childhood, Shefali recalled a particularly impactful Christmas Eve when her belief in Santa Claus was challenged by an uncle.
“That Christmas Eve is sharply etched in my memory. I must’ve been 12 or 13. One spoilsport uncle said to me, ‘You don’t actually believe there is a Santa, right? There is no Santa. It’s just your parents leaving gifts for you.’ This statement was a colossal blow to my naive, innocent heart. My disbelief at what he said was mammoth. My arguments of how he was wrong, me trying to convince him—and more myself—that Santa was real. I cannot begin to tell you what I felt. It was something within me separated from my heart. I tried holding onto it, clutching, grasping, hanging on to this fragile hope, but some idiot had put a pin in my full-of-belief floating balloon.”
She emphasized the emotional turmoil that followed, expressing, “I should’ve appreciated what my parents did for me, pampering me with gifts they probably couldn’t afford. But I felt cheated by them. Once a belief is broken, it’s not possible to build it back, particularly when Santa didn’t ever come and tell me otherwise. That day, not only did I lose some of my naivete, my innocence, and the blind trust in possibilities and belief in magic, but I also lost my childhood.”
Shefali shared how the spirit of stories and magic returned when she became a mother. “With Santa gone, that child in me too left. But when I had my kids, the spirit of stories and tales and magic came back. Yes, we were the Santas, but the gift of innocence and possibilities was revived. I tried to keep that world alive for them as long as I could. But eventually, they outgrew it. But you know what’s beautiful? It’s beautiful to know otherwise and still believe in magic. Magic came wrapped in ribbons, stuffed in stockings, and born from a parent’s heart. Here, delulu is actually the solulu,” she added.