Member-only story
§ 6, ¶ 9: The Santa Clause
It’s Hard to Stop Believing in Santa Once You’ve Met Him
A short piece on meeting the real Santa when I was a kid
There was a time when I lost faith in Santa. Me and my buddy Ned were 10, and one day at school a boy in our class blurted, “Santa ain’t real. It’s your parents that leave presents under the tree.”
Ned and I called him a liar. The derisive laughter of our fellow students was terrible, but conveyed the truth of the boy’s words. The teacher shouted for everyone to quiet down. Then she asked me and Ned, “Is it true? Do you two boys still believe in Santa?”
We nodded.
She turned back to the rest of our class, said something like, “This is what happens when you don’t take school seriously. You turn into a dunderhead who believes in silly kid stuff.”
Everyone laughed even harder.
Teacher called our parents. Mine and Ned’s. Told them the whole thing. My parents sat me down and explained that Santa was, indeed, made up. They also said I wasn’t a kid anymore, and should’ve known better. Since they knew most of my classmate’s parents, they berated me for embarrassing them in our community.
