Breaking their little hearts

You know that time when you have believed something all of your life only to be told by your parents that it has all been a lie?

 

I'm picturing one of my children saying that to someone in the future as they talk about the day that their parents broke their little hearts when mom and dad finally fessed up and gave them the sad news that Santa is not real!

 

I know, it's harsh but bear with me as I tell you how it all went down... (oh the pictures are from last year. I just added them to make this post less sad)

 

Ok so last Monday as a Family Home Evening activity, we all wrote our letters to Santa. My kids have loved this tradition and this year's activity didn't seem any different from the past ones. After all the letters were written, we had each one read out loud what they had wished for. Oh before I continue, we also make our kids write down the most important gift they want as the first thing on their list, that way if Santa can't get everything on their list, at least he got the most important one.

 

Anyways, Marcus wanted a 3DS and a game to come with it. Maddie also wrote a 3DS in her list but it was the last one on her letter. So that night, after the kids had gone to bed, I went online and started checking the prices of the things on their list. We have not had a very good year financially and so the budget was very tight.

 

After some research I have found that the coveted 3DS was not in the budget. Stress started creeping in. How can we make this a good Christmas for the kids and not put ourselves into debt? Having the kids believe that Santa gives them the things on their list would be hard to get around with. They would be crushed if, on Christmas day, they discovered that Santa gave them something else, something that was not on the top of their list.

 

So I consulted with hubby and we came to the conclusion that we needed to come out clean and let the kids know that mom and dad are Santa.

 

All through out Thanksgiving day, as we passed by the stores all they talked about was their gifts and what Santa will bring them. Finally on the drive to the movie theater, we told them the hard news. They were shocked and of course confused and sad.

 

The funny thing was as Marcus was processing this news he said..."So that's why Caleb's (his friend) parents told him that Santa was not real. I just thought that they said that to him because he was on the naughty list!"

 

I'm telling you that kid is hilarious sometimes.  

So now that the kids are in on the secret, we told them to not tell anyone, especially their friends. We told them to keep this our secret. We shall see if they can keep this info to themselves.

After our little talk, Maddie would come up to me once in a while during the rest of the week and ask me quesions like...
"if you were Santa, who was eating the cookies and drinking the milk that we put out for Santa?"
"If you were Santa, howcome you got me the wrong size of shoes last year?" (that girl's feet grew fast that by the time Christmas came, the shoes I got her was too small)
"If you are Santa, does this mean we don't have to write our lists?"

and many more. You can tell that this bit of info really threw the kids' world in a spin.

Finally Maddie said to me that she still wants to believe in Santa. That poor girl can't let it go. I said she may do so but know that she's not getting the $180 gift this year cause mama can't afford it.

Oh the things we put our kids through for the sake of Holiday traditions!

Till next time,
Grace