When Johnny was three our Christmas was fun.
We got up early to see what Santa had done.
That Santa existed he had little doubt,
For Santa had eaten the food we left out.

At four and at five he still was naive.
He was filled with excitement on each Christmas Eve.
But when he was six, he started to doubt.
We were sure he was going to find the truth out.

We had to be sneaky and tell little lies.
We just didn’t want to spoil his surprise.
Not only for him, but also to please us,
Of course he was taught, the birthday of Jesus.

That was the true meaning we tried to impart,
If he was to have Jesus’ love in his heart.
Then one day, after school, he sat down and cried.
His friends had told him that his parents had lied.

We tried to explain, the things we had done
Were to make him excited, to make Christmas fun.
We found out how hard our trust was to mend,
When we heard him discussing his hurt with a friend.

“No Santa Claus? No Easter Bunny?
They told me those lies and they think that it’s funny?
I tell you just what, I’m gonna do.
I’m gonna check into this Jesus stuff too!”

OK, if you don’t like Conundrum, tear the page out. Maybe I should have had the margin perforated to make it easy. While I was still in college, I heard this story from a Baptist minister who worked with the students. He claimed that it actually happened to him; since then he has been very careful about being truthful with his children, no matter how white the lie might seem to be. If we are untruthful with them, about someone as important in their lives as Santa Clause, it may cause them to think that we have been lying to them about God also. Every parent must make his or her own decision, on how to handle the Santa Clause conundrum.