The Death of Santa

I didn't want to kill Santa Claus, but ultimately he had to go.

It all started innocently enough. Every Christmas, presents appeared under the tree, one or two bearing gift tags from Santa. Santa always brought Greg something special.

We were never the kind of family that leaves out milk and cookies out on Christmas Eve - after all, our last name is Cohen! - but around age eight Greg insisted. He felt it was the least he could do in return for the cool gifts. He was thrilled when Santa left a thank you note in return.

Due to the timing of his lost teeth, Greg never noticed that Santa's writing closely resembled the tooth fairy's. Every time he lost a tooth, he would leave it under his pillow and the tooth fairy would take it, always leaving a note on a hand-made TF notecard with the requisite payment.

And so fantasy became reality in our house, Even when Greg hit age 12 said his friends were denying Santa's existence, we told him to make his own decision - then had "Santa" leave a begged-for electric guitar that Mom and Dad had told him he couldn't have.

Psych-out accomplished. Surely Santa was real. Who else could have overcome parents' objections to get the guitar under the tree? The fat man who was able to come down our narrow chimney and fatten up further with the cookies Greg had left him. Greg returned to school insisting he had proof his friends were wrong about Santa.

Naturally this came to a bad end. I realize now we should have given him the guitar ourselves and let Santa fade out of our lives. Greg's vehement schoolyard defense of Santa was of course not just shot down but derided and I had to take the blame for "lying."