I Still Believe in Santa

I saw Santa every year growing up.  Not just the mall Santa, the actual Santa delivering gifts on Christmas Eve.

Every year we spend Christmas Eve with my dad's side of the family- we exchange gifts, eat dinner, sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus, walk to church and then have to drive the hour back home before Santa comes.  We would usually get home pretty late which meant Santa was waiting for us to get to bed quick!  Sometimes we would "catch Santa in the act" or see him walking down the street to his sleigh! (We didn't have a fire place/chimney so our parents used to tell us that he parked at the end of the street and would come through the door.) Whenever he would see us he would run away, we would freak out, my sister would cry and we would hurry to bed!  This happened every year!  Literally, it wasn't always the same way, but we saw him.  

This is what had me believing long after the "normal age" of believing but how could you not when you actually saw the man every year on Christmas Eve?!  

Sixth grade was my first year at the middle school and even though it wasn't the cool thing to do, I still believed in Santa!  I heard a lot of other kids talking about how he wasn't real and yada yada yada, but they didn't know what I knew! So I became a little skeptical but didn't want to risk not getting presents by not believing in him!

That Christmas was the last one that I truly believed in Santa Claus (cause I still believe in the Magic of Christmas and even at 23 I'm told if you don't believe, you don't receive!)

It wasn't until after Christmas that it was confirmed that Santa "wasn't real".  I had picked up on things throughout the season, like when my sister got something from Santa that I could have sworn I saw my mom buy or that the wrapping paper looked very familiar.  But the icing on the cake was when we went on a Ski Trip the days following Christmas.  We were with a few other families and this one kid that was about 7 years younger than me had gotten a "cool" computer-like toy (kinda like a leap frog pad or whatever those things were).  All the kids his age loved the toy and I knew he had gotten it from Santa.  Then I heard the other moms ask where the boy's mom had gotten the toy and when she answered, I knew!

This brought tons of confusion.  How was I seeing him every year late at night on Christmas Eve?  Who was the Santa I saw walking down the street, running through my back yard, jumping on my trampoline, and even running from my house and leaving the back door open?  I found out that Santa was one of my mom's brothers.  Every year, before they had kids of their own, they (and my grandparents) slept over my house to be there when we opened presents on Christmas morning!  Before they came over one of my uncles would play Santa for us.  

Now that my sisters and I are older,  my dad plays Santa for my littler cousins.  We rush back from our Christmas Eve festivities so that they get to experience the excitement (and sometimes tears) of seeing Santa on Christmas Eve.  This tradition still gets me giddy about Christmas, makes me believe every year and definitely makes me feel like a kid again.

So even though Santa isn't "real", I still believe!  I still believe in the magic of Christmas!

 How did you find out Santa wasn't real?  Or what are some of your Christmas traditions?!

Merry Christmas!  Wishing you and yours a happy, healthy, and joyous holiday season! :)