The Christmas Santa died

“Daddy, tell me the truth, is Santa for real?” That was the question that our youngest posed Christmas Eve. She was the first of our 5 children that actually asked directly for the truth. Up to this point, I had done my best with the elf on the shelf routine, but was honestly running out of new places to put him every single day! Ernie as we had named him had become lazy and not moved at all a couple of times! We had taken them to see Santa every year for the adorable picture although we focused more on the birth of Jesus as the reason for the season. But kids at school start to talk in second and third grade saying that it’s really your parents.  What’s a kid to believe? We decided that we needed to come clean on Christmas morning. But how? When? While eating breakfast after opening gifts, Eric asked if she remembered asking him a question last night. She now had no recollection; maybe just receiving gifts from Santa had something to do with it. No matter, Eric plowed ahead giving the history of St. Nicholas combined with the spirit of giving and fun ending with the horrible truth that Santa is indeed not real. Regret was written all over her face for asking and our son I could tell was devastated. I knew that he was the hold out true believer when he was agonizing over and whittling down his list before his visit to Santa. Later that day, he finally broke down in tears saying that he was mad at his sister for ruining Christmas by asking that question. She compassionately told him to “get over it!” At least he wasn’t blaming us for lying to them all these years! Really though, I was happy to see the two of them looking to us for the real story instead of believing what they heard at school. I pray that they will remember that truth is good. Sometimes the truth hurts, but they can count on us to tell them the truth.

Happy Children before the knowledge of Santa was made known to them