Here is something to get your mental wheels turning. Is it right for parents to lie to their kids about the existence of Santa Claus? Before you rush and say yes, bear with me.

I remember, way back when, that Christmas was my favorite holiday and the days leading to the holiday was my favorite time of the year. I’m sure that most of the draw was the gift getting (when you are a kid, you aren’t really gift giving), but there was something more than that. There was a sense of nervous excitement from the time Thanksgiving was over until the day itself. There was something about not knowing what you are going to get and what Santa brought by surprise. But more than all that, there was a sense of wonder and a sense that on that one day something magical that you couldn’t comprehend would happen.

I also remember the day that I found out that Santa was nothing more than a tricksy hoax. It was in elementary school and our classroom was out for recess. A bunch of kids were playing on the blacktop playground and some of them starting discussing the rumor that Santa was not real. It all started when one kid asked another “Hey do you know that Santa isn’t real”? The other kid replied in the affirmative and then they decided to tell the disbelievers how the flimflam worked. I kept my mouth shut but I remember saying in my head, “Man these kids aren’t going to get any presents, after all, Santa is watching them right now”!

I inconspicuously eavesdropped on their conversation as they continued their slanderous remarks. They proceeded to describe how we had all been hornswoggled for so long — the parents would hide the presents that they bought themselves using the list that we wrote to Santa and then hide them until the night before Christmas. Then they would wait for the unsuspecting little ones to fall asleep and then they would put the presents out as if Santa had done it himself. At this point, their revelations were starting to make sense and I started to unravel years of deceit and hoodwinking. The straw that broke the reindeer’s back was the revelation that the milk and cookies were probably eaten by the parents or just thrown out altogether. I was reeling! It didn’t seem possible that my parents would stoop to this level of chicanery. I had a mental Luke moment where, clutching to my youthful innocence, I cried out (in my head mind you) “No…NO! That’s not true. That’s impossible”! And just like the first time you watched Empire Strikes Back, you didn’t want to believe Vader was Luke’s father, but somehow in the back of your mind you knew that it was true. I remember being asked if I knew the truth by one of the kids, after it had been spread out before me like so much road kill, to which I coolly replied “Oh yeah, I knew”. That night I confronted my parents, with the hope that it might have all been lies, but they admitted their part in the collusion.

After that, Christmas seemed to lose its luster. The sense of wonder faded leaving only the cold reality of crowds, packed malls, and dense traffic. It’s no wonder that I haven’t felt the “Christmas spirit” since about 1983. I wonder, if I had know the truth from the beginning would Christmas still be a “diamond” instead of a “cubic zirconia”.

I could argue this both ways. I could see wanting to keep the illusion alive for your kids. Ignorance is bliss after all. I also could argue that it’s probably not really healthy to outright lie to your kids and then take the rug out from under their feet. Oh well, just something to think about.