My son had doubts about Santa for a couple of years, but as long as the presents kept coming, he simply played along. This past Christmas, the secret was finally out.
He has tried various ways to debunk this myth. While we were discussing what he wanted to get before Christmas, he mentioned that if this year’s presents were wrapped in the same paper as last year, then Santa is not real. Mommy then bought a different wrapping paper.
As I mentioned before, I stopped doing the live Santa thing to him a few years ago. On the night of the 23rd, I donned my suit, with a couch pillow tucked under it, stood in front of our tree so Mommy could take a picture:
The next day, we started opening presents. We told him Santa came and miraculously took a picture of himself in our camera. He was very excited with the presents so he looked at the pictures very briefly.
Later, he started pointing out problems with that picture. First, Santa looked brown, unlike most Santa he has seen. I said Santa comes with all different colors: white, black, and brown. Then he said Santa was not fat enough, to which I had no ready answer. I have always been skinny. He then zoomed onto my left eye, which was not covered by the white wig, and confirmed Santa’s true identity. We all had a good laugh.
To my readers that do not have Christmas tradition, Santa always looms large during the Christmas holiday season. They appear in malls and shopping centers after Thanksgiving and before Christmas. In fact, a cottage industry grows around it. When I was in Boston last November, there were at least 2 men who stayed at the same hotel I was at. They were hired by some kind of Santa company, on a rotating schedule to cover Burlington Mall nearby, from 9:00am to 9:pm. I don’t know how much they were paid.
This is a picture of New Year’s Eve.
Now the Santa myth is debunked, tooth fairy is next. He has already expressed doubts about it.
A belated Happy New Year to all my readers.