Santa Claus. The man we look forward to sneaking into our houses once a year and giving us a gift. The man who watches over you 24/7, 364 days a year and then judges what type of present you deserve based on how you acted. The man with at least ten songs written about him. The man with three names. The man who is…your parents?

The day I found out Santa isn’t real I knew what it truly felt like to lose someone. I mean this guy had been in my life for ten years at that point and then all of a sudden boom! Santa isn’t real. My poor ten year old self was crushed. It was like I had lost a part of my childhood.

Here’s how it happened: My sister and I were playing hide and seek and I took refuge in my grandparents’ closet. I was casually hiding like any ten year old does when I saw a bag that clearly contained a present on Christmas day. I just assumed it was from my grandparents, except when I opened the same present it was from Santa instead. It was horrible.

As I’ve talked to my friends and others at Chapin High, I realized that I’m not the only child who didn’t have to sit through an awkward conversation with my parents as they tell me Santa is a phony.

Coach Speight found out one Christmas when he hid a video recorder downstairs to catch Santa red handed. Except Santa never showed; his dad did.

“I saw my dad and thought: Holy crud. I’m living with Santa,” Speight said recalling the memory with a tear in his eye.

Junior Hannah Lagasse experienced probably the most tragic way to find out that Santa doesn’t exist. “My mom and I were shopping for clothes for me to wear for Easter Day when she turned to me and said that the Easter Bunny isn’t coming this year because he isn’t real and neither is Santa.” She was nine at the time.

Who does that to a kid?

Santa is a beloved figure to any child and Christmas is virtually everyone’s favorite holiday. To find out the poster-man of Christmas is really your parents is a big bag of suck.

Junior Jessica Ervin found out Santa is made up in a rather weird way. “My mom made me start wrapping all the presents and handed me one and said ‘This one’s from Santa.’ I was like…okay.”

Freshman Jamie Millif found out when she asked her mom and her mom told her to ask her dad instead.

Sophomore K. Lee Graham said, “I went downstairs and saw my parents putting out Christmas presents but I didn’t tell them.”

That’s another thing that kids do when they find out Santa isn’t real; it’s something I did. I didn’t tell my parents that I knew he wasn’t real until this year and that was only because of this article. Of course I know they knew that I figured it out, but it was the first time we acknowledged it.

The reason I kept my finding hush, hush was because I knew that if they knew I knew, they would stop being Santa. I couldn’t see a Christmas without Santa and I don’t think I ever will.

Santa Claus is just one of the many reasons that makes Christmas better than any other holiday. He gives little kids something to believe in. He’s the little bit of magic we have in our world and that’s what makes him special. That’s why when kids (or maybe it’s just me) find out that he isn’t real they’re sad.

However, I refuse to acknowledge the unreality of Santa. Maybe that makes me childish, but what’s Christmas without Santa? Just a bunch of presents you receive on someone else’s birthday. So to all those who have been told that Santa is your parents, I say forget that!

Believe in Santa.