Is Santa Real? A Mother’s Response.

It is a question I have avoided giving a true and honest answer to for awhile and as much as I did not want to accept it, I had to. My now ten year old daughter began asking this question many years ago and I would always follow it up with something to the extent of “as long as you believe, Santa will come.” This prolonged the process and joy of us playing Santa for awhile until I was hit smack dab in the face with reality. She asked if Santa was real and expressed concern about being picked on if she believed and he was not real, I knew then that it was time.

I tossed around many responses in my head and none of them seemed fitting for how I wanted her to find out the truth about Santa. I took to Pinterest and came across a letter that a mother and father wrote to their son. As I read each line, tears streamed down my face yet I knew, this was the perfect response I had been struggling to come up with. I knew then, that was how she was going to find out.

I wrote her a letter taking pieces from the letter I had read on Pinterest and including things of my own to personalize it for my daughter. This Christmas we took a road trip to Texas. Before we left, I set out gifts from Santa and included an envelope with the letter.

As I looked at her gifts and stocking with the letter, my heart sank with reality that my baby girl is not such a baby anymore. I knew that when we returned back home, she would find this letter and find out the truth about Santa. I did not know how she would react, I did not know if she would be mad, sad, or handle it well like with Elfie. So many thoughts and emotions stirred inside me. I literally waited until the early morning hours before we left to write the letter, it was by far one of the hardest things I have written so far. Instead of typing up everything I wrote, here is a picture of the letter.

While we were in Texas, she would ask a few times if Santa would still come to her house in North Carolina even though we would not be there and I just shrugged my shoulders and had a “I am not really sure, we will see when we get home” kinda response. To her excitement when we walked in, she saw the gifts! She also noticed the envelope and immediately began knit-picking the handwriting.

She opened up the letter and sat down on the couch to read it. She had a simple smirk while she read it and as soon as she read it she looked over at me and said, “thank you for telling me, will you please still do it?” I had a sigh of relief and took a breath that I had been holding not knowing how she would respond. It was then that God reassured me, it was the right time. I owe the mother of the letter I found on Pinterest a huge thank you, because of her I was able to answer this question in the way I wanted to but couldn’t find the right words myself. This sure has been a year of maturity for my girl and even though I have gone through many tissues, I am thankful for these moments.

Link to the letter mentioned in the post: Telling Kids the Truth About Santa