Actually, it didn’t go down like this. Thank goodness!
Let it go down in history that on Tuesday, April 6, 2010. We told Sport who the Easter Bunny* was.
I should rephrase that. I told him about the Easter Bunny. I simply said, in a soothing motherly tone, “Sport, there really is no Easter Bunny.” The two of us talked a lot about it. He swore that Mr. A was in the room last year when the Easter Bunny stopped by to have a swing on our swing set. We told Sport how Mr. A used the garage stairs to get in & out of the house without the kids noticing.
Once he accepted that, the first thing out of his mouth was, “Well then is Santa real?” I wasn’t sure if I wanted to burst that bubble too. I said, “What do you think?” He said, “Yeah.. HE is real.” Ugh! My heart broke. You see, around Christmas time many kids at school were telling him there was no Santa. He said there were only 3 or 4 saying there IS a Santa. He came back with, “Well is he?” I said, “What do you think?” (I was kinda lost here, huh?)
This is the point in the conversation when Mr. A walked into the room. He sat down next to Sport, put his hand on his shoulder and said, “Sport. There’s no such thing as Santa Claus. …or the Easter Bunny. … or Tooth Fairy.” (WHAT!!?) Here I was trying to break it to the kid as gently as possible; ease him into this whole concept; maybe let him realize the Santa thing on his own. Not Alex!
So there it was. By little boy was in on the biggest charade in the world.
At first, I think Sport felt stupid for buying into the whole thing. He just KNEW he saw the Easter Bunny the night before Easter (of this year). It was just his imagination running wild. And I’m sure the poor kid didn’t sleep well thinking there was a massive rabbit in the hall staring at him.
I explained that there is no living person named Santa Claus. Maybe a long time ago a man name Kris Kringle was nice & gave toys to some kids. I said that I felt “Santa” is the spirit of the season; the joy of giving. Yes, I’m the one to put the gifts under the tree, but “Santa” is the feeling of happiness we get at Christmas time.
After a few minutes I think he felt …respected. (I guess is the word I’m looking for) He was cool enough, mature enough, for us to tell him the truth. He had this knowledge that not everyone had. That’s probably the real pleasure right there!
I ended by telling him not to get God & Jesus confused with all of this. I said that anything that sneaks into the house & leaves things for you is probably not real. By this point he was like, “Yeah, I know. Those obviously aren’t real. Come on…”
He’s getting too big. *sniff*
*Side note: I mean really!! Easter Bunny!? What the heck is THAT all about? A 7 foot tall rabbit wearing a vest & bow tie, walking on it’s hind legs? Seriously? As a kid, I never got it. I never knew if I was supposed to think the guy at the mall in the rabbit costume was the Easter Bunny or if an actual rabbit was the Easter Bunny. My sister, Carrie & I had a good ole laugh discussing this a few weeks ago. How would an actual rabbit carry stuff? Or why on earth would there even BE a 7 foot tall rabbit? Funny stuff.
Sorry, this got much longer than I anticipated.
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bookmarking this for the inevitable conversation about all of this around here…
thanks for blogging about this!
How old is he? I think at some point kids just "know." Sounded you did MUCH better than my fumbled attempt on the whole G-d/Jesus talk with my kids!
I broke the news to Caitlyn at the beginning of this school year as well. Only I started with Santa. The kids at school were telling each other that Santa is really your mom and dad. And I didn't want her to be the ONLY kid in school who still believed just to be made fun of. She sobbed. Cause that's what she does. Went so far as to tell me that "a little bit of the Christmas spirit is now gone." Nothing like being dramatic. A few hours later, she came down the stairs, all teary eyed again, and said "Then I guess there is no easter bunny either huh?"
I will say that now that she knows, my life around these holidays is soooo much simpler. It was fantastic to have all of the presents wrapped before 3am Christmas morning =P
Twitter: haglerhappening
April 15, 2010 at 11:08 am
Lucas is 9 & in 3rd grade.
Like Nance, I didn't want him to be the only kid at school who didn't know.
It will be fun to have him help with the gifts now.
I've never bought into the whole Easter Bunny thing (see your side note * Jill) I'm way too pragmatic for that. And I've never told my kids there is one. The baskets are from Mom & Dad, the eggs we hide…but I don't say there's NOT one, I just don't talk about it. My MIL says there is and tells them this but I never have. Sad, that I'm an Easter Bunny hater…I should be more into it but it just doesn't make sense to me.
) Thanks for the story. Sweet Luke. 
Cousin Tracey 
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