To tell or not to tell, that is the question

Last night we picked out some things to give to our church Angel Tree. This is a tree that you pick a gender and age from and then get a gift, wrap it and bring it back. The elementary school principal comes to get them and they are delivered. We have done this in the past and decided that it would be good to let the older boys help pick out things and really talk about what we are doing. This kind of thing usually produces a high volume of questioning from our oldest. (the same child at 5 asked me what would happen to the earth when Jesus came back, at 3 asked me why God made our car white and other people cars other colors, at 5 asked if his baby brother would come out looking like him or his friend who was Latino). So we prepared ourselves mentally and took on the task. 

At dinner, Tyler asked if Santa could just give this little boy presents, why did we have to help.  Well, my husband answered. Santa will come to his house just like ours, but you get presents from both santa and mommy and daddy. We want him to get things from his mommy and daddy too. 

I could see this conversation heading the same sticky place the last conversation did when Tyler questioned why some people don't have daddys. 

At the time, I really thought our answer was ok. It best suited the situation (at the dinner table with smaller ears listening) and gave enough reason to still believe in santa. However,  since then I have questioned myself. Should we tell him more? Did we lie to our child??? I have no idea if Santa is going to visit this little boy, my guess is that we were Santa and his parents, or parent which ever the case may be, has told him to be really good so he might come. I found myself picturing this little boy not knowing if the jolly man would come, cuddled in his cold house under only one blanket, tears streaming down his face in fear that he might not. His stomach may be growling because dinner was small, due to the increased cost of propane. Then my scrooge side kicked in. I have been to houses to deliever baskets  of food only to find big screen tvs and more gaming systems than Best Buy. I thought to myself, this may be the case and your letting your heart get broken over a selfish person. (mind you I am not saying gaming systems are wrong I am saying sell one to buy food) 
At any rate, I came back to the middle some how and returned my thoughts to Tyler. So I am still unsure if what we said was right, if we should expand to him alone or let it go.




Post note- I do believe it is our part to help regardless of how the person appears (i.e. lots of gaming systems and big tv, but no money for food). It is not my place to pass judgement on anyone, reagrdless of what my eyes see. My eyes are human, God's eyes are not. Therefore, we do the deed and let Him do the work.  My Scrooge self was put in check fairly quickly, but I am human and I know He is ok with that. I hope you all choose to help in some way that you can this season and more importantly all year around.