Spoiler Alert: Santa Claus

A red-haired boy sits down for his drum lesson and I can tell he’s upset. His faced tear streaked and his breathing is shallow and sniffly.

“What’s wrong, Jerry?” I ask him.

“I just found out there’s no Santa Claus.”

Tear production increases and his body slumps deeper into his chair.

“Awww man. I’m sorry,” I say. “It really sucks to find that out.”

He wipes his nose on a tissue from his shirt pocket and looks at me.

“Does that mean there’s no Easter Bunny either? And no tooth fairy?”

“Well, what do you think?” I ask him.

“Nooooooooo!!!” He sobs.

Jerry does pull it together and we carry on with his drum lesson after a brief discussion of Star Wars Legos, but I won’t soon forget that day.

Why do we lie to children about there being a Santa Claus? Parents lie to them. Grandparents lie to them. Teachers lie to them.

People like me, who don’t even have kids, help keep up the Santa Claus ruse.

But why?

What’s the point?

I mean, learning there was no Santa is a sh*t experience. That’s the moment where the magic of Christmas dies. Because honestly, barring a religious celebration, Christmas for kids in The United States is almost entirely about Santa Claus and toys.

Does every generation of parents decide to propagate the Santa lie because they want to recapture just a little of the magic from their own childhood?

Do they fear if their kid knows the truth he’ll ruin Santa for the other families?

Now, as I said before, I don’t have kids. I don’t really get a say in this. I don’t even know what I would do if I had to make that decision.

I imagine it would be up there with circumcision, vaccinations, and whether or not to feed them sugar.

Wouldn’t it?

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