“My son looks at me, he goes, ‘There’s no Santa. You’ve been lying to me,’” recalls Highfill, 56, of Pleasanton, California. “He caught me red-handed, I didn’t know what to say.”

Again. Believers of Santa Claus: Stop reading. Go sing a Christmas carol or eat a cookie or something.

There’s a long tradition of polling on Saint Nick, and it shows that belief in Santa — and favorability and job approval — has been quite steady over the years.

My 6-year-old pieced together that Santa is not real, but my 9-year-old still wants to hold on to the belief. I told them he lives in their hearts.