Santa is a lie!

Okay, I didn't say it quite like that... but I did sit down my little Grinch to have a talk.

This morning we followed some suggestions from my blog followers. First up, we googled St. Nick, and since the Internet is always true, we used it as our resource to get the "real" story.

Turns out I had apparently never read the real story, have you? A wealthy man became a church leader and helped the poor, needy etc... and gave them money or whatever they needed a really long time ago. When he passed away he became a saint and stories flew around about his good deeds and how he was helping people even from the grave. One story involved bags of gold being thrown through a window and landing in stockings or shoes hanging by a fire (which is the origin of our tradition today) so that a poor man would have a dowry for his daughter and she wouldn't have to become a slave. The stories grew and spread and eventually some Italians stole St. Nick's remains from Turkey and now they are resting in Italy under a beautiful monument that is visited by a lot of people each year. St. Nick has a day, Dec. 6th and celebrations are held in his honor in Europe every year.

Well, that's what I got from the story anyways. It might have been wise to read a few other accounts regarding this subject but I was pressed for time. My son now thinks that Santa is a ghost since St. Nick died.

Then we discussed that St. Nick was the real Santa. When he died people liked his attitude of giving so much that they continued the tradition and started to say it was from Santa to make it more fun etc... So that's why we get presents from Santa and why some people believe in Santa.

Now for the important part. We discussed that when someone believes something different than us that it's okay. We don't need to prove them wrong and telling them that they're wrong will probably just hurt their feelings. At this point my son was bawling his eyes out.

I asked why he was crying.

He said, "Because I feel like I'm the only one who doesn't believe in Santa and if I tell kids they'll beat me up."

Hmmm, not where I thought the conversation would go.

I explained that a lot of people don't believe in Santa and that no one should be beating him up for his beliefs.

He calmed down from the crying but then got very indignant, "I can't just not tell people that they're wrong! I have to say what I believe in!"

I didn't know what to say to that. He's right, we do need to say what we believe in (still not sure this applies in the Santa Claus context but i don't want to wreck it for all the other items its important).

I gave him a huge hug and we talked about ways that we could nicely share our beliefs. He agreed to quit preaching at his brothers and promised to be a little kinder to lost souls that still believe in Santa. We finished up discussing how it all really comes from God since he is the one who blesses us with the money and the desire to give and share. There may have also been some "yo momma was so poor..." stories thrown in too.

I'm really not sure what we accomplished.

It all got very confusing and I ended up comparing Santa to Jesus at one point just like my sister.

All I know now is that I probably have a future missionary on my hands. I hope I can teach him the kinder gentler way to do this but I have fear that he'll prefer the shouting forceful method. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Thank you all for your input, I got a lot of good ideas from you and felt comforted by those that do and those that don't believe in Santa.

For the record my younger two still firmly believe in all the magic of Christmas and its pretty adorable. I put approximately zero effort into maintaining the magic (I wrap one present from Santa, no cookies, no visits, no stories, just a present) so it's all their little hearts and minds that make it happen. They also believe in the tooth fairy and I put no effort into that either (as in I often forget to make sure she visits and then lie to cover up the mishap!).

Now, how do I manage to give the ukulele to my son for Christmas? Now that Santa's a sham I cant do that. It cant come from me or it's unfair to the other two and we're back to the spoiling thing. I think my remaining options are to sign it from Jesus (is that blasphemous?) or have it anonymously appear on our doorstep. Anyone got any better ideas?