Is Santa Real?

When our son was 7, he came up to me and said “I think Santa isn’t real, because” and he listed all the clues he could think of. I wasn’t expecting to have the talk so soon and he caught me off guard. With his puppy eyes on me, he was waiting for an answer there and then, so I took a deep breath and this is what I said to him:

“It’s more complicated than that. Let me tell you about Santa. There was a guy called Saint Nicholas. He lived 1700 years ago in a Greek town called Myra. You know where it is? It is now called Demre and it’s in Turkey. (I’m Turkish so I thought that connection would help). Saint Nicholas was the patron saint of children, amongst others. He had a big secret. He would help people in need secretly and he used to give people gifts in secret too. Nobody would know it was him who gave those gifts. Those secret gifts became sooo famous that the Dutch (we have very good Dutch friends, so daddy playing the connection card once again) heard about him. They called him Sinterklaas. Yes, that sounds like Santa Claus doesn’t it? It’s the same person! So that’s how Saint Nicholas became Santa Claus.”

“You know everybody dies and one day Saint Nicholas died too. But something amazing happened next. People continued giving gifts secretly to each other! First, some of them thought maybe it was still Saint Nicholas giving them those things, but when they heard that he had died, they realised what really happened. Saint Nicholas invented secret gifts. For 1700 years, we have been carrying on his secret. Yes, I am Santa and mummy is Santa. But you know what? Now that you have the secret, you will be Santa too!“

He was in utter shock but I continued.

“We will buy gifts for your little sister but you won’t tell her where those gifts came from. Trust me: Once you see the happiness in her eyes, you will understand why we are doing this. And when you are older and have children of your own, you will make sure they know about Santa too. You see Santa used to be one person, who just wanted to help others, but he is not a person any more, it’s an idea. It’s the idea of secret gifts and helping others. Everybody who wants to make people happy by giving them gifts in secret is Santa now.”

I didn’t know how he would take it all in. I was worried that he would tell his sister. On Christmas day my eyes were on him. When her sister opened a present and he saw her happiness, he winked at me. That was it. That was the day my son became Santa… He never said a word about it to anybody. Not even when we watched Christmas Chronicles 2 and he thought they were telling the world "the secret"... He is 9 now. He still talks about Santa with other kids and writes letters to Santa and every time he gives me a letter, I get a wink. That’s all I need. That’s how I know the magic will live on…

 

Originally published at The Family Lowdown on 1 November 2021.