Dear Santa: She's getting wiser

A few months ago, Miss K started questioning the validity of Santa Claus. I wasn't prepared for her to start questioning whether or not he was real and I convinced her that he indeed was. I pulled it off, even though I would have liked to tell her the truth about it.
For  many reasons, I really dislike the idea of Santa. I don't like lying to my children for starters.  Too much emphasis is put on Santa and Christmas and he's not the one buying the gifts. And most importantly, what does he have to do with Jesus?
I honestly think by the age of  seven or eight, it makes sense to squash the idea. I'm tired of this "jolly old man" taking the credit for Christmas gifts and confusing my children about the real reason we celebrate this holiday.
Yes, this is partly my own fault, because I should have never let it get out of control when Miss K was able to understand Christmas. It was only about three years ago when I changed direction with this. I decided that I would buy the Santa gifts and have them come from my husband and I and Santa would get credit for one of the gifts from her Santa list and her stocking.

 Ok, I'm going to step off my soapbox now.

So last night Miss K did it again. She caught me completely off guard and said to me "mom, I know there is no Santa. There is no way he is real. Reindeer do not fly and there is no Rudolph.."

Me, completely shocked at how much she really disbelieved it started laughing. The kind of laughing that makes you unable to breathe laughing. I was making dinner, so I tried to hide my face in the fridge to collect myself.

After gaining some composure I said " how are you so sure? So if you believe there is no Santa, then I guess you won't be getting any Santa gifts and Little E will."

She stared at me for a moment and quickly rebutted " so it's true then. There is NO Santa. It's just you and daddy."

Some quick thinking on my part here.

"Ok then, I'll call him.You can talk to him".

She looks at me like WTH. I seriously caught her off guard. And then I quickly starting searching the internet for a phone number. Of course, I was not having any luck and she starting disbelieving me again.

Then my husband phone rings.

He tells Miss K, "it's for you!! Come here."

He turns the speaker on and you hear a jolly old voice that sounds like Santa talking about how he's so busy, he's got his "nice list" all ready to go for Christmas and that he heard that you've been good this year.

Miss K was flabbergasted. She got this look on her face that was priceless.

The phone call ended and she was just shocked that he called and told her she had been good. She said "mom, I have been good. I have."

 So I've decided to keep the "magic" going one more Christmas.....we'll break the news after the tree comes down.