You're a little child when your parents take you to the local mall to go see Santa Claus.
The guy up on the stage certainly LOOKS like Santa Claus, and he says and does all the right things that make you believe he is Santa Claus...sits you on his knee, says "Ho Ho Ho," "Merry Christmas," asks you what you want for Christmas etc.
You have only a very limited concept of who and what Santa is, but this guy at the mall certainly LOOKS likeSanta, and acts they way you'd expect Santa to act.
Plus, you really WANT him to be Santa, so you're forgiving of some things that kinda make you doubt...like how his beard looks kinda fake and he doesn't really seem all that fat, like his suit was padded somehow...but he smiles and appears jolly and you wanna get your Christmas wish so up you go like a good little tyke and get your picture taken and pas on your wishlist.
On the way home, you start to notice OTHER Santa Clauses walking around, on the streets or in front of other stores...but when you question your parents, they explain that THOSE Santa's aren't the REAL Santa...they're just his "helpers"....but don't worry, the Santa they took you to see was the REAL one.
Christmas rolls around, and while you maybe get SOME of the things you asked for, you don't get them all, especially that one IMPORTANT toy you wanted most of all...but hey Santa got it at least partly right, so while you're disappointed you try not to blame him too much.
Years go by, and one day you decide to look into whatever happened to that Santa Claus you met at the mall, the one you BELIEVED in. Cause you're kinda sorta having doubts now as to just how much TRUTH you were told about him...also your mind is remembering things from that past encounter that you had forgotten about...like how his breath smelled like whiskey, how he kinda grabbed your wrists a bit too hard while pulling you on his lap, or how some of the things he said were totally inappropriate for young ears...you may even remember him touching you in a way that made you...uncomfortable....
Turns out, through your research, that not only was this person NOT the "real" Santa Claus, but he was an ex-convict, an alcoholic, abusive husband and father, had been accused of such things as murder, rape, child molestation, & cruelty to animals...
Turns out the only reason he even got the Santa job at the store was because their other guy canceled at the last minute and the store needed a cheap replacement on the fly.
So not only was this MAN not the REAL Santa...he was so morally bankrupt he should never even have been allowed to be a representative of his "Helpers!"
Imagine your crushing disappointment!
All this time you had maintained faith that your parents had lead you to the one, TRUE Santa...even when he disappointed you by not giving you all that you asked for, or ANYTHING you asked for, you believed that HE was the one, the ONLY, THE Santa Claus...all the rest were fakes.
Now you find out YOUR Santa was nothing but a man made fake as well, and a truly POOR choice based on his track record.
Inevitably, you are now scarred from ever trusting or believing in another version of Santa Claus ever again, even though there are scores of them to choose from at various places around your town.
Every store you visit, in fact, claims THEIR Santa is the "Real Deal."
But the more you look into it, the more you examine it, you can only now come to one conclusion:
Sorry Virginia, there IS NO SANTA CLAUS.
