When my son was 12, I finally told him that Santa wasn't real.

You might think, "How can a child so old still believe in Santa?". We live in China, where people don't really talk much about Santa, and because he is naïve.

I felt quite guilty.

It seemed I had taken something from him. I didn't just come out and say, "There is no Santa Claus". I tried to explain to him we can all be Santa Claus by buying and giving gifts to people. I said that one day he will be Santa Claus for his kids. He shook his head a bit, and I asked him if he understood what I meant. He said he did.

This year Christmas was on a Monday. My son stays at his school from Sunday morning to Friday afternoons, and there is no time off for Christmas. In the past, we have kept him home for Christmas, but he is in middle school now, and we didn't feel it would be a good idea. Instead, we celebrated Christmas on Saturday morning.

My son asked me if we should put out cookies and milk.

At that moment, I wondered if he really understood that Santa wasn't real. Suddenly, I told him that Santa would come on Sunday night because that was Christmas Eve, so we didn't need to put out the cookies. I also decided that I would get him another gift and leave it for him to get when he came home from school. It would be Santa's gift for him.

Children grow up and become their own people. The real world is going to beat the imagination and magic out of them. I feel a parent has a responsibility to figure out how to keep these things alive within their children as long as they can.

Santa Claus is one piece of magic and joy that I would like to keep for my son as long as possible, even if he knows Santa isn't real.