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When I was growing up, our family didn’t exactly celebrate Christmas in the traditional sense. Though we participated in some festivities customary for the season, there was no Christmas tree in our home and no exchange of presents – which meant we didn’t receive gifts from Santa Claus. For my parents, I suppose it was easier to get away with this practice since we lived in cultures and countries that didn’t necessarily embrace the season either.

Raised in a faith and culture that didn’t celebrate Christmas, I was adamant on raising my son in a similar manner even if we did live in the United States – and was quite successful in following our own traditions for his first six years.

In his seventh year, as Christmas 2008 approached, he asked: “But what if there is a Santa Claus, and all the grown-ups just don’t believe in him?” His persistence in “believing” (and, in turn, trying to convince me) was touching – and quite relentless.

I politely but unsuccessfully tried to explain that this was simply not our tradition to celebrate and that there was no Santa Claus. Our mother-son debate continued for the first 22 days of December. Each day’s ritual started with discussions about Santa Claus and the North Pole and ended with his advice to me: “Look, I know if you’re good and kind too, Santa Claus will bring you something also.” He even talked me into doing a Google search on Santa Claus.

Being a mother and realizing that this youngster really needed a reason to believe, I finally gave in and, close to Christmas Eve, decided that Santa Claus would be coming to our home this year after all.

This Christmas, I learned an important lesson from my youngster: Believing in something can be quite powerful.

As we embrace 2009, wishing the times were better, the economy were stronger, jobs were more abundant, and that there were more peace in the world, all of us can use a lesson in the importance of believing – believing in a brighter tomorrow.

Though a brighter tomorrow may not come neatly wrapped in red and green and through the chimney, it’s more important than ever to believe that it will come. A teacher of mine always preached, “If you can imagine it, you can achieve it.” With that philosophy in mind, rediscovering hope and optimism might be more than just an exhilarating and energizing experience. Believing may be that first step in a 12-step plan to a better tomorrow.

In the words of Martin Luther King Jr., “we must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.” Hope ends when you stop believing.

On a personal note, I now eagerly await the youngster’s next new obsession and our next Christmas together and hope to instill in him one important trait above all: to never stop believing.

Mashal Husain is the director of development at the World Food Prize Foundation.