How Real is Santa Claus?

An Age-Old Question About Santa. Does playing Santa Claus equate to lying to your children? I believed in Santa Claus until I went to school. I turned six before Christmas in first grade, and other students set me straight. I asked Mom about it, and she said, "Santa Claus is the spirit of giving. And it's a lot of fun to pretend! But don't tell your brother, he's only three." And that was good enough for me.

When Princess asked if Santa Claus is real, I said, "He's as real as you want him to be. He's a very real legend from way back. See, when people get a gift, they feel obligated to give something in return. Parents want to give kids gifts without making them feel like they owe us or they have to be grateful, so we put Santa Claus on the tag." It worked, because it justified the "lie" in a socially decent way. I was also trying to reinforce the idea that gifts are not reciprocal, and if you can't give gladly, don't bother. Gothgrrl never asked, so I assumed that Princess explained it to her.

We kept up the pretense for several more years, because the kids loved the surprises. As they got older, I explained how parents love to play Santa Claus and I considered it an honor to give their childhood some magic. It wasn't always easy. I only recently told them the trouble I went through to get Princess a parakeet one year. I arranged with the pet shop ahead of time to keep my paid-for bird until Christmas Eve. Some time later I realized that Christmas Eve was on a Sunday and they would be closed anyway, so I called. By then they'd decided to close on Saturday, too. So I had to hide this loud, cat-attracting bird all weekend. I rigged up a heater in the attic for couple of days, but I couldn't get into the attic without waking up the girls, so that last evening meant a parakeet and cage in my closet, which didn't have a door at the time, with the cats lurking about suspiciously. I even constructed a huge wrapped box that I could throw over the top of the cage at the last minute, but of course the cat had to sit on it and make it collapse. Good times.