The Christmas Eve I Discovered the Secret of Santa

Took years of trial and error, loads of caffeine, and some wild, wacky ideas

Photo by Alicia Slough of Unsplash.

I was on a mission one Christmas to find out, once and for all, if Santa really existed.

And nothing was going to stand in my way.

My 9-year-old self reasoned, that if I could find any presents wrapped around the house from Santa that would be all the evidence I would need to crack the case of the fictitious red-suited worldly traveler.

I picked a Saturday evening when my parents were out at a friend’s Christmas dinner party. While the 16-year-old babysitter Lily was either jabbering with her boyfriend on the phone while engulfed in a Christmas movie, I began my quest for evidence.

I checked the garage. Nothing, but dirt, old tires, and dusty boxes. The utility room was crammed with towels and detergent. I looked under alls the beds in the house and even under the bathroom sink.

Where else could hidden presents be?

I almost gave up until I struck gold in my parents’ closet. Stashed away, way, way back behind some old towels and blankets were five packages of different shapes and sizes that all read either to either Mike or Scot from Santa Claus, the alleged big guy in the sky who I…