Santa

I dropped the boys off at story time this morning at our local library, then went over to the children's DVD section to choose their movies for the week. The theme for today's storytime was Santa Claus and Christmas, as it was the last session before the end of the year. I was browsing through the movies when the first story book ended, and I heard Pauly pipe up (loudly! I could hear him from across the library) "Santa isn't real!" Oh joy. Nobody else seemed to comment on it, the teachers just went on and I couldn't hear any other kids reacting to it, but I figured this needed an explanation.

Afterwards, I took him aside and we had this conversation:
Mommy: Pauly, I heard you say during story time, "Santa isn't real!" Do you think that was the thing to do?
Pauly, sheepishly: No.
M: Do you know why not?
P: Um, I don't know.
M: When Rosie's watching the Wiggles, do you tell her "Wags the Dog isn't real!"?
P: No.
M: How about when we read storybooks, do you say "This isn't real!"?
P: No.
M: Why don't you tell Rosie that Wags the Dog isn't real?
P: Well, because she loves dogs and she would probably be upset.
M: Do you think the kids here love Santa?
P: Yeah. I love Santa, too, and I'm upset that he isn't real.
M: We don't need to upset the other kids, there's no reason to do that.

Then we took their candy canes and went home.