Grandad's Gift by Richard Nichols

I didn't believe him at first.

I looked at him on the playground through squinted suspicious eyes.

There's no such thing as Santa Claus, it said, and laughed at me.

Of course, if he was right, then I'd been lied to through all of the nine years of my life.

But I was a clever boy, and I could understand why, if it was true that there was no such thing as Father Christmas,

all parents would collude with each other to create this magical present-bringing character.

But I didn't want to hear it from the biggest idiot in the class on the last day of term.

If my holiday was going to be ruined and Christmas was never going to be quite the same again,

then I needed to hear it from someone that I could trust.

Which is why, when my granddad collected me from school that day, and we walked to his car,

I asked him if it was true that Santa Claus wasn't real.

"'Goodness me, my boy,' he snorted.

"'Of course Santa Claus is real.

And it really annoys me when people pretend that he isn't.

Now this surprised me.

My granddad was never one for pulling punches, if something needed saying he was the one to say it.

I knew him to be honest, because it was him I had asked earlier on in the year about the tooth fairy,

and he'd just smiled and said,

"'Believing in the tooth fairy is a great game that parents love to play.

Don't spoil it for them just yet, not until you think they're ready.

And so I hadn't.

...