Telling the truth.

This week my older son started hinting that he was ready or needed to be told the truth about Santa Claus and other holiday characters. He has held onto his belief in Santa a bit longer than I would have expected. I felt the time has come to tell him the truth. Thankfully he took the news well and we were able to talk about Christmas traditions that we could substitute for pretending that Santa had visited us. The good thing is that now he understands that "Santa" does not have an unlimited budget and is more realistic about what he asks for. He knows that he can ask for a Slingbox or a Nintendo DS but that does not necessarily mean he is going to get it. This was a little harder to explain when Santa was the person behind the presents.