The Grinch

My son (the 9 year old) wanted a notebook for Christmas, but not just any notebook, a special kind of bungee notebook. He even asked Santa for one, plus he went to the store with my sister after Thanksgiving and pointed out the exact one that he wanted. It was such a simple present that of course I bought it for him. He was happy to get it, and even brought it with him to my parents' house.

I was just looking through Christmas pictures with my kids and my sister when he pointed it out in one of the photos. I explained to him how I knew it was the one he wanted because my sister had shown me at the store the next time we went (without the kids). He got a confused look on his face and said, "but Dad, Santa brought that to me."

"Oh crap!" I thought, but instead said "Yeah, maybe we should have a talk about that. You know that Santa's not real, right? It's just me and your mom that buy the stuff."

He didn't know. He even started crying. It made me feel like a heartless jerk. I explained to him about how it doesn't change anything for Christmas other than the fact that he no longer has to worry about being good all year in order to get presents, and that it would still be exciting to see his younger brother get excited about it. He was still a little upset, but is ok with it now, once I explained to him about how he doesn't want to be the nerd in his class who all the other kids make fun of because he still believes.

I still feel like the grinch who stole Christmas. I should have waited another year to tell him, it's just that I slipped up, got caught, and figured it was easier to tell the truth rather than come up with another explanation about how I'd gotten confused or something. I guess kids have to grow up sometime though.