Well, sure, he’s not now. But after the Big Santa Reveal…well, it’s hard to say what might happen. I, for one, shudder to think.
Embarrassingly, I was also nine before I figured out the “there’s no Santa” thing. I wasn’t freaked out or traumatized, but I was definitely resentful and vowed at that moment never to do the same thing to my own children. I started applying the same critical thinking I had used to debunk Santa Claus to religion in general, and that’s how I became a full-on atheist at thirteen. Santa Claus made me an atheist!