Santa Claus

Son:- “Dad, I think I am old enough to know now, Is there a Santa Claus?”

Not being the fastest thinker, Dad stalled for time,

Dad:- “OK, I agree that you are old enough, But before I tell you, I have a question for you”.

“You see, the truth is a dangerous thing, once you know something, you can’t un-know it.”

“Once you know the truth about Santa Claus, you will never again understand and relate to him as you do now.”

“So my question to you is, Are you sure you want to know?”.

After a brief pause,

Son:- “Yes, I want to know”

Dad:- “OK I will tell you, Yes, there IS a Santa Claus”.

Son:- “Really?”

Dad:- “Yes, really, but he is not an old man with a beard in a red suit”.

“That is just what we tell kids”.

“You see, kids are too young to understand the true nature of Santa Claus, so we explain it in a way that they can understand”.

“The truth about Santa Claus is that he is not a person at all, he is an idea”.

“Think about all those presents Santa gave you over the years”.

“I actually bought them myself, I watched you open them, and did it bother me that you didn’t thank me?”.

“Of course not!”

“ In fact, it gave me great pleasure, you see, Santa Claus is the IDEA OF GIVING FOR THE SAKE OF GIVING, without thought of thanks or acknowledgement”.

“When I saw that woman collapse on the subway last week and called for help, I knew that she would never know that it was me who called for an ambulance, I was being Santa Clause when I did that”.

Son:- “Oh”

Dad:- “Now that you know, you are part of it.”

“You have to be Santa Claus too now”.

“That means that you can never tell a young kid the secret, and you have to help us select Santa presents for them, and most important, you have to look for opportunities to help people”.

“Got it?”.

with thanks to son-of-satire for the banner