My third grader came home from school the other day and told me that he wasn't going to go to the mall this year and sit on Santa's lap. We usually go to sit on Santa’s lap on December 6th, which is St. Nicholas Day, and it has been a tradition since his first Christmas. When I asked him why, he said that he heard from his classmates that there was no such thing as Santa Claus, and that there is no way that Santa can be in every mall and be getting ready for Christmas at the same time.

My son is only eight years old - how can he already not believe in Santa Claus? I remember I believed in Santa Claus until I was 12 or 13. Maybe I was naive, but it didn't hurt anything or anybody to believe. I remember that even after I knew the truth, I never admitted it to my parents. I kind of thought that if they knew I didn't believe in Santa Claus, they wouldn't give me presents from Santa Claus.

I talked about this with my sister, and she told me about a service at www.santasvideocalls.com that gives your child a call from Santa himself. You can choose between video calls or regular telephone calls, and Santa Claus actually calls your child from the North Pole. I decided to order a telephone call for Chase. I was able to book a time where I knew we would be at home, and you should have seen his face! He was so excited to get a phone call, but when he found out that it was Santa Claus, he was even more excited.

When he got off the phone, the first thing he asked was how Santa Claus knew his name and telephone number, and if we could still go to the mall at December 6th to see Santa in person. It's definitely worth it to have one more year with Santa Claus and my kid being a kid.