santa who?

Since Emma was two years old, she has been asking question after question about Santa...really making me work to convince her that he is real. I remember changing the wrapping paper on her gifts at midnight on christmas eve that year so that she would believe that Santa really did bring them. I picked out the ugliest paper that I could find...something that didn't look like anything I would ever buy...all of this to convince a two year old that there was such thing as Santa!! This year, she has started saying things like Santa comes to her classroom every night and puts something special in their stockings. Then she'll say, "Well...Mr. DiNoto REALLY does it and he just tells the kids it's Santa". The other day, I overheard her telling her friends that Santa is fake. I asked her later on what she meant by that and she just kept saying that Santa is fake and he's just a grandpa with a red suit on and there's no way he really knows what we do, etc. I told her that if she doesn't believe in him, he may not bring her gifts...she replied with, "Ok, fine then..he's real. But he's really not." Ugh! She's only five years old and way too young not to believe in Santa, but she's such a realist and sees things in black and white and just can't be convinced. I'm not giving in, though. I'm not ready to let the dream die. Above all, I want my kids to know and appreciate what Christmas is really about....the fact that God loved us so much that He took on the form of man and walked and lived among us and then died undeservingly so that we may live. I, however, am such a dreamer/romantic/sensationalist and a HUGE lover of christmas, that not having my kids believe in Santa is just out of the question ;)