this probably won't become a made-for-TV special

It might be because she's part Rhodes.  Her grandpa hems and haws over Christmas every year, albeit in a good-natured way, mostly to tease everyone who takes the shopping and decorating too seriously.  He even gave us the book Skipping Christmas to read one year.  (It was a hoot.)   And her dad sings this song every year starting the day after New Year's: "It ain't Christmas no more.  Get that wreath off your front door.  Take down those lights, get them out of my sight.  It ain't Christmas no more."

Whatever the reason, Rachel seems to have grown quite cynical about Santa Claus this year.  There was a fair amount of eye-rolling over the annual State Farm visit for her youngest brother.  I listened quietly as she handled a conversation with a younger neighbor on the way to school one day.  It went something like this:

Neighbor: "Is Santa real?"

Rachel, carefully: "It's hard to say."

Then followed a discussion between the neighbor siblings about the reality of Santa Claus, and all that goes with it.

Later that day, in response to that conversation, Rachel asked me straight out: "Mom, is Santa real?"  She knows he isn't, but peer pressure was eating at her.

My mind flashed to every single movie and TV special that prolongs the myth of Santa for the questioning child.  However, since all we have ever done as parents is wink at Santa, I knew the time for truth was here.  So I answered the way she knew I would.

"I knew he wasn't real, Mom."

Are you ready for this?  She had biblical proof. 

Why Santa is not real, according to the Bible:

1. God did not make reindeer to fly.  Therefore, the whole Santa thing is a sham.  The things God made have to fulfill their intended purpose, and if the story does not hold up to that, it is not true.

2. Santa is not in the Biblical account of Christmas.  What more needs to be said?

3. Only God can be everywhere at once.  It's not possible for a person.

4. Santa cannot live forever, and if he was real, he'd be really old by now.  Too old to be alive.  God only allows people to live for a set time, since Noah's flood.  Usually not past 100.

So there you have it, my daughter is thinking Biblically about Santa.  I'm really glad I didn't attempt to prolong the myth.