The Truth About The Man In Red

Losing Santa didn't have to mean losing Christmas

- Rebecca Meiser

Was the night before Christmas, and all through my head, were the haunting three words my friend Julia said: “Santa’s not real.” It was 1994, and at age nine I was

way too old to still believe in Santa Claus. And yet, blindsided by Julia’s casual response to my Santa enthusiasm that year, I doubled down and branded Julia a liar. After all, movies had taught me that Christmas magic outweighed what I’d already begun suspecting as fact. What did she know, anyway? I had it on good authority that one year, my dad heard sleigh bells and hoofs on our roofs himself.