Is There Really a Santa Claus?

Four or five years ago we made the conscious decision to let Ryker (and any other children we may have) believe in Santa. I didn't really care one way or another, not having been a believer as a child myself. My only reservation was the fear of the time when we would be caught and have to reveal all of our trickery. But Brian was excited about it and all into talking about it and making him seem real, so we did it. Every year Santa brings them one special present and fills their stockings. We make him cookies and milk and leave them, along with the carrots for the reindeer, on the mantle on Christmas Eve. The kids are really into and have a lot of fun with it.

This year Santa brought them a ZooToob. It is a tube full of small plastic animals. They come from an education store and they are scale models really of actual animals so they are totally realistic looking, although they are only 3 or 4 inches long. They had a set of sharks that they like to play with in the bath tub so Santa brought them a set of whales and dolphins to add to the collection. Unfortunately they don't come with anything that identifies the species. So we research on the internet to try to discover which type of whale "Big Whitey" is, etc. But a couple of nights ago Ryker made a discovery. The name of the animal is on the underside. We hadn't noticed it because it isn't colored or anything it is just raised lettering on the belly of the shark. All of the sharks were labeled on their bellies. So Brian naturally turned over the whales to see what they said but couldn't find anything. He told the kids that the whales and dolphins didn't have names on them. Ryker decided that is was probably because they were from Santa and not from a store. Brian agreed and they continued playing. Then Ryker turned over a whale to see for himself and exclaimed, "Made in China! I thought they were made in the North Pole?" Brian was at a total loss for an explanation. The time had come when we would just have to fess up to the truth. But Ryker's next sentence was not, "Is there really a Santa Claus?", instead it was, "He probably puts that on them so that they'll be like all of the other toys." Crisis averted...for now.