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As long as Santa has crept into the discussion, allow me a quick semi-OT comment.
I can tell you exactly who blew the whistle on the Santa thing for me - it was Dennis the Menace! At age six, I was introduced, by my older brother, to a stack of Dennis the Menace comic books, (ostensibly by Hank Ketchum, though I think the comics were ghosted out to other hands).
Several Christmas issues contained stories which focused on the efforts of Dennis' parents to keep the Santa illusion together for their kid. These stories would seem to have greater appeal to parents than to children, and they certainly spelled a quick end to the Santa charade for me. If I recall, the stories sometimes ended with some kind of "Santa is real after all" coda, but it was too little too late. After endless pages of seeing grown-ups donning Santa suits and parents sneaking gifts out under cover of darkness, I could not go back to a state of willful ignorance. Instead, I asked my folks some tough questions, like, Do you believe in Santa? And they answered me, "We believe in the SPIRIT of Santa Claus." Exactly what the Dennis comics predicted they would say!
Of course, I'll be playing Santa again this year at the Gaylord Palms Resort in Orlando. Hmm.
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