It finally happened. Unexpectedly, my nearly eight year old son questioned the existence of Santa Claus. That’s right… in September, long before Christmas, he came to the conclusion that SC might not be real.

We were very dramatic. “Are you sure you want to know? Once we tell you the answer, there’s no going back, you’ll know forever.” There was no going back. He asked again, promised he wouldn’t cry, said he wanted to know. So I told him (somewhat gleefully.)

I did forget to make Mica promise not to cry before delivering the bad news. She, of course, burst into tears. This made B break his no-crying promise and make another one to “never grow up and leave you.” He promised to stay forever.

Later, with the cat out of the bag he asked about the Easter Bunny, no not real either. He then wanted us to list all the holidays in order in case he forgot one. Mica didn’t want me to do that so he asked if I could repeat them backwards… and then, when that didn’t work either, randomly. I just told him that there aren’t any more holidays with fake present-givers. He was very interested in how much money we had spent on his gifts, trying to figure it out himself when we wouldn’t tell him. Somehow, the Tooth Fairy never came up, though he has lost two teeth in the last week. I’m expecting this conversation in the near future.

I was proud of my son. Reality matrix… intact.

Happy vacation Santa.