If you haven’t, you really need to look through some photo galleries of “Scared of Santa” photos. Here is one to get you started: https://wgntv.com/home-for-the-holidays/photos-scared-of-santa/

Here are two pictures of a very young Kevin with a mall Santa:

I’m not afraid of addressing THE Santa subject because I believe only adults read here. When I was little, I believed in Santa until second grade. I very clearly recall my mom calling me into her bedroom in an apartment we lived in for a very short time when we first moved to Winchester.

Her question seemed to come out of the blue when she asked me, “You know that Santa isn’t real, right?” Ummmm, what?

“I think you’re old enough to know that Santa Claus isn’t real.”

I remember I started crying. I had no idea whatsoever. I remember feeling lied to and very sad.

To this day, I have no idea what made her come clean when she did.

Skip forward to when Andrew was very small.

My dad bought a beautiful Santa costume. The red velvet was thick and luxurious and the edging around his hat was snowy white. He had a thick black belt and black boots. He really looked like Santa Claus when he wore the suit. Below, I have attached a picture of my mom with Santa and one of me and my sister, Jennifer with Santa:

The reason he bought the suit was because people would pay him to deliver gifts to their kids or visit with the kids. The parents would arrange to meet up with dad, give him the presents and then dad would deliver them.

I remember one time he said he never even met the child at all. The parents arranged for “Santa” to deliver the presents one night after bedtime. Then, they woke the child up to allow him to peek in on Santa while he laid the presents under the tree. I’m sure that child remembers that to this day.

At the same time dad was earning extra money being Santa, Andrew was around 2 years old. Andrew would watch him get dressed in his costume, so Andrew always knew the truth. We never tried to convince him otherwise. Below is a picture of Andrew and Santa AKA Pawpaw, when he visited Andrew’s daycare:

Dad sold his suit years before Ashley was born, but we never entertained the idea of fibbing to her anyway. We wanted her to know that as her parents, we put a lot of thought and time into her gifts. We wanted her to know that we spent our money on her and not some stranger.

That said, I am not the least bit judgmental when it comes to Santa Claus. My feeling is, we raised our kids the way we wanted and you are free to do the same.

You may wonder if our grand kids believe. They do not. But, if Andrew and Christina had decided to do the whole Santa thing, I would have never opened my mouth.