Yesterday Santa Claus died. My youngest is ten years old and I had decided that now would be the time that she could know the truth. We were very good at hiding presents so my kids never happened upon anything. My older two believed until they were entering middle school (sixth grade) at which time I decided that the risk of extreme embarassment outweighed the sadness of losing the fantasy. I got them each alone at the appropriate time and said, "I have something to tell you".
Sarah was a completely different story. Lets just say, she has always been more suspicious. When she was five, all three of the kids were talking about whether Santa was real. She said "He must be real because where would all those presents come from?" Then her head snapped around, her eyes drilled holes into me and she dragged out the words as she said "Unless....the GROWN-UPS do it!!!" I am proud to say I didn't blink an eye, I just replied that of course Santa is real. Over the years she would periodically ask if it was really me who left the presents and I always denied it. In this past year the comments and questions have gotten more frequent and it has gotten more difficult to keep a straight face. That's when I decided that this was the last Christmas I would lie to her. I figured in another year she would be entering middle school (she's almost done fourth grade) and I would have to tell her then anyways. If I continued to lie to her, she may have never forgiven me:)
Yesterday morning before school she asked "Mom, do you believe in Santa, the Easter Bunny and all that stuff?" I smiled and said something my neighbor always says to kids asking her that question. "Well, if you don't believe, you don't get any presents." She had no idea what I was trying to say and neither did I, what my neighbor said never made sense to me but I was grasping at straws. The sweat started to bead on my brow. No one wants to kill Santa Claus! I asked her if she believed and she said "yes". I then said, "If there wasn't a Santa, would you want to know?" She told me "yes" so I just blurted it out "well, there isn't a Santa!!!" Her jaw literally dropped! I was panicked and asked her what she was thinking. She said "Two things, first, your bought all those presents and thank you so much" (awwwh). "And second, I am sort of proud of myself because I was right, I always thought maybe he wasn't real." I asked her if she was sad (Erin and Thomas had been shocked and sad) and she told me that she wasn't at all sad. She actually seemed somewhat happy and excited. She kept going over every present that she had ever gotten and thought about all the money that we had spent. I told her some funny things like how sometimes the Tooth Fairy "forgot" to leave money and how hard it was to tiptoe around at night. Who ate the cookies (mom) and carrots (Beau)? Mom is very good at disguising her handwriting to look like Santa's. I told her how once we had complained about how the computer didn't have a certain feature and Thomas scolded us saying "How can you complain, it was FREE!" (from Santa)
Last night just before bed, Sarah came to me and asked for proof. She wants to see all the teeth and letters to Santa that I saved. So for all you parents wondering whether to save those baby teeth, they may come in handy as evidence in court some day! As I type this, Sarah is behind me, hounding me to GET THOSE TEETH!!
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2 comments:
That was very funny. My daughter found out by accident. i was drugged to the gills with anti depressants at the time and went into her room to put the money under her pillow and forgot to take the tooth. that was how she figured it out.
Oh my gosh, you are giving me hope that we might hold on to Santa for another year or so. The Bee seems to have figured out the Easter Bunny, but Santa's in a whole 'nother category, I think.
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