Driving Claire to a birthday party, just the two of us, Claire brought up the topic of Santa Claus.  She started out asking in a roundabout way, “So what’s the deal with Santa Claus?”  I provided a non-committal answer.  After a little back and forth on the topic, Claire finally asked outright: is Santa real?

So she had figured it out.  Of course I gave her a straight answer to a straight question.  She said, “I knew it!  I knew it!” with a big smile.  Then she went through all of Santa’s presents and stocking stuffers from this Christmas, one by one, to ask who thought of each one.  She seemed to really enjoy this game, sort of an inside track on a big secret.  She asked a few more details about who easts the cookies we leave out, etc.

When Claire was done enquiring for details, I asked her, “How did you know figure it out?  Did a friend tell you? ”  She said nobody told her.  She just figured it out herself.  She said there were little clues.  What really gave it away, she said, was the “believe in Santa” movies.  They gave the most glaring clues.  We’re talking primarily about The Polar Express and Elf, favorites with the girls this Christmas.  If you watch the movies, you’ll see what we mean.

I congratulated Claire on figuring out this fun little trick, made a point of saying this was basically the only thing we had ever mislead her about, and asked for her help to keep this fun kittle secret safe for Molly.  Claire agreed with a big grin on her face.