The month of December is a long awaited month because of the Christmas season. Christmas is a time where children receive presents from who they believe is Santa. Santa is known as a spirit who goes to the house of every child, and gives them the presents based upon how good they have been throughout the year. Most children have been told, by their parents, that the spirit of Santa is real, and that if they do not listen and be good then they will either get nothing for the holiday or get a lump of coal. Growing up, sophomore, Joshua Wexler, believed that Santa was real. He first found that Santa was not real when he caught his parents on videotape when he was in fourth grade.

“I was devastated, like heartbroken when I found out he was not real. I always was very skeptical as a kid, but with the spirit of Santa, I believed he was real for a long time. I used to think it is silly that I thought he was real, but it is now fun to be Santa for my little sister, because she believes he is real, so it is pretty magical knowing that she believes he is real, just like I had,” Wexler said.

Like Wexler, a lot of kids find out that Santa is not real at a very early age. Parents are often behind the spirit of Santa, and it is also the parents who usually tell their children about Santa. Some families have an Elf on the Shelf which is a little elf who can be anywhere who watches the children and then reports back to Santa and tells him if they have been good or bad. Many children also believed that the elf was real, because their parents swore that the elf was real to scare children, so they would do better at home and earn presents to open on Christmas Day. As a child, sophomore, McKenzie Morgan, believed in Santa and the Elf on the Shelf and was always scared that she would do something bad and that she would not get anything for Christmas.

“I always believe in things, like Santa and the Elf on the Shelf as a kid, because as kids, you always want to believe. When I was going into middle school, my mom sat my brother and I down and told us the biggest lie I had ever heard, that Santa and my elf was not real. When I found out, I started crying, and would not stop crying,” Morgan said.

Many kids have funny reactions when they find out the truth about Santa. Children often cry because they feel as if their whole childhood during Christmas was a lie. When kids with younger siblings find out, they might cry, but then they realized that they can now help be the Santa for their younger siblings and help move the Elf on the Shelf to different spots. Parents often feel relieved that their older children know the secret behind Santa, because they can get help with the older kids on Christmas Eve with gifts and such. English teacher, Amberly Reynolds, has a high school daughter who she was very happy to tell her the truth about Santa, but told her daughter that she can now help her mom with setting presents for her younger siblings.

“She cried for a while, but when I said that she can now help me be Santa for a night with setting out presents, it made her a lot happier. I was relieved when I told her, because it felt like some of the stress I had got lifted off my shoulders,” Reynolds said.

The truth about Santa is what broke many children’s hearts during the Christmas season, because finding out that it was their parents and not this guy in a red suit, hurt. The reactions are often sad for parents, but telling their kids about the stress they had to go through was now a relief for them, because they now do not have to worry about that particular stress during the holiday. Although Santa may not be real, the magic of Santa is very much, and he lives through the parents and siblings wishing to create a Merry Christmas for their children and younger siblings.