By Tam Nguyen, Nguoi Viet
WESTMINSTER, Calif. – While standing in line for my 2-year-old son to meet Santa Claus and have his photo taken with him, I wondered to myself what would happen if he asked me if Santa were real.
A young boy tries to tell Santa Claus what he would like for Christmas. (KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images)
If I told him the truth, would his heart be broken, just like mine was when my parents ate Santa’s cookies and drank his milk when I was a young boy?
Every year on Christmas Eve, I put cookies and milk on the table by the tree. Even though we didn’t have a fireplace, I thought he would somehow came inside the house with his special powers. Every year was the same thing: the cookies and milk were gone, but I didn‘t get the presents I had asked Santa to bring. Still, I believed in him until Christmas Eve when I was about 7 or 8.
I should have known better ,but I kept believing in him. One year, I was at the supermarket and was planning to get more cookies for Santa, but my mom said, “Don’t get anything too sweet because Santa is diabetic.” My mom is diabetic, and she had been eating the cookies for all those years, and I didn’t even notice.
So that following night, I put cookies and milk on the table like usual. I woke up in the middle of the night and decided to peek in the living room where the tree was. That’s when I saw my mom eating the cookies and my dad drinking the milk.
That’s when I knew Santa wasn’t real. I just sat on the floor with tears in my eyes, watching them eat and drink the evidence.
So how did others feel when they found out Santa wasn‘t real?
Inside the mall where shoppers were buying gifts for their families, a few took the time to share their Santa stories with Nguoi Viet 2.
Amanda Gomez, 14, of Santa Ana, said she figured out the truth about Santa on her own.
“I was 8 years old when I sat on Santa’s lap. Everything went great until my bracelet got stuck on the beard, and the beard came off when I got off his lap. I stood there screaming along with the other kids waiting in line,” she said.
Tonya Nguyen, 30, of Garden Grove, was 10 when she found out Santa wasn’t real.
“My family was out shopping at a mall and Santa was there but the line was too long. My dad then said let’s just go to another mall where the line for Santa isn’t so long. I still remember the look on my dad’s face when he realized what he had just said. He had a blank stare and I yelled at him saying YOU LIED TO ME!!!”
Her brother, Tyler, 28, visiting from New York, was 8 at the time and was also in line waiting for Santa with his sister.
“The pictured was even more funny because we weren’t smiling and Santa told me whoever doesn’t believe in Santa would be on the naughty list,” Tyler said. From the looks of it, Tyler and Tonya are on Santa’s naughty list for sure.
Samantha Cole, 41, of Huntington Beach, had a situation at home where Santa wasn’t what she had expected.
“My dad decided to be Santa when I was about in first or second grade. He opened my bedroom door dressed as Santa with the belly and beard, the whole shebang,” Cole said. “He handed me the Barbie that I had written (about) to Santa, and it was a special moment until he started sneezing. He kept sneezing and his belly went from fat to flat instantly, and I saw the pillow fell out of Santa’s coat. My first instinct was to jump out of my bed and yank on the beard, and sure enough it came off along with the wig and hat and I saw my dad’s face. I just cried myself to sleep while holding the doll that night.”
Share with us your stories on how you found out Santa isn’t real, and how you felt in the comments below.
