Santa Claus

So, yesterday we were sitting around in the living room enjoying the humor that is Sponge Bob* when the topic came up.

*(Really, we were *watching* episodes of Sponge Bob and talking about funny scenes from them. Really. I know, strange.)

Oh, so the topic:


Santa Claus.

Now, I have been telling her over and over that the reason for Christmas is to celebrate Jesus' birthday. And she gets that... but when I ask "what's Christmas for?" She'll flip back and forth between "Jesus' Birthday!" and "Santa?"

So, as we're sitting there, I looked at John and he looked back at me. I said, should we tell her the truth? Would that make us bad parents? And he didn't think so, and I didn't think so (cause I think she's old enough to understand that Santa does not = presents... No-ho-hoooo, mommy and daddy = presents and really) so we...

*gulp*

told her that Santa isn't real. That's he's just pretend. That mommy and daddy buy presents for her for Christmas and that the mall Santas are just people who dress up in Santa outfits. Because Santa isn't real.

After taking a second to catch my breath, I looked at Katie to see how she was taking it...

And she was fine.

She said something about the Santas at the store being strangers and that Santa is pretend. And I calmly agreed.

I was still waiting for tears or some indication that we had burst all of her little girl dreams but she just said "Santa is pretend." and I said yes, again. And that was pretty much it.

And then John piped in with "And so are the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny."

Now, I don't know if Katie heard that but I sure wasn't going to burst every little bubble on such a beautiful Sunday afternoon.

Also, I didn't want her to start asking questions about the validity of the Toy Fairy... because she's TOTALLY real.