Donovan McDaniel knows how hard it can be to let go. Still, he never imagined how tough it would be to let go of his son’s belief in Santa.
On Dec. 1, the father of two shared the bittersweet moment on Instagram when his 13-year-old son pried out the truth about the beloved Christmas figure. The heartfelt post captured a universal parental experience: the struggle of watching a child reach a new milestone in growing older.
“Well, it took 13 years, but he figured it out,” McDaniel wrote in his post. “We never really planned on being that family that does the thing this long (I’m not gonna type it cause we all know what I’m talking about ), but my Maverick is the best person I have ever met, and Aly and I decided we’d keep it going until he asked.”
“The truth is he has been asking for a couple years and the dad in me couldn’t look into those big beautiful brown eyes and tell him what he already knew oh my heart,” the caption continued. “Good news is now we have an extra helper. I told him he was promoted to head elf — tell me how you handle this with your kiddos in the comments. Also how old were you when you found out?”
Speaking to TODAY.com, McDaniel explains the time finally came when he was wrapping gifts in the kitchen for a Christmas party. His son, Maverick, sat nearby, watching him intently.
“I could tell he wanted to say something or ask me something,” McDaniel recalls. Eventually, Maverick spoke his mind.
“It’s something I think I know, but I don’t want to say it and be wrong,” Maverick said, according to McDaniel, “which, again, is like the sweetest thing ever. My son is the nicest person I’ve ever met.’”
McDaniel took him aside and away from his younger brother to confirm what Maverick had long suspected. The kitchen camera, which happened to be recording, captured the emotional exchange. McDaniel shared the moment on Instagram, which has been viewed over 7 million times.
In the video, McDaniel and Maverick stand before their family Christmas tree as they speak in whispers.
“Santa is not real, is he?” Maverick asks McDaniel, who seems to be at a loss for what to say.
“He’s not real,” Maverick repeats, this time with a bit of assertion. “I know.”
McDaniel cracks an apologetic laugh, and then, surprisingly, Maverick chuckles too.
“He’s not,” Maverick says and smiles.
“Come here,” McDaniel replies and pulls his son into a hug. Still embracing, he whispers to Maverick, “I’m Santa … just don’t tell your brother.”
Now, with a laugh, McDaniel admits the truth: It wasn’t that Maverick was especially naive. Rather, McDaniel himself struggled to surrender the magic.
Like Maverick, McDaniel was 13 when he learned about Santa.
“My parents had gone through a divorce. It was a whole mess. We were coming off a downer year,” he says, chuckling heartily about it now. “Some kid at school broke the news in a way (that became clear) everybody else knew, and I had to kind of pretend like, ‘Oh yeah, I know!’ Tears streaming down my face, clenched fist.”
“We as parents want to protect our kids from all the things, keep all the sweet things, keep all the good things,” McDaniel says. “And so I think I went a little overboard last year really trying to have substantial evidence — with props I paid for and letters that were, like, notarized by an elf.”
McDaniel went so far as to leave footprints “because we — you know— he left them” and set up carrots “the reindeer ate.”
“It was a whole thing. He even left his license.”
“We were one of the last houses on his stop, and he was just ready to go home,” McDaniel recalls of the elaborate narrative he spun for Maverick, which he recalls ultimately backfiring. “He was just like, ‘Huh, this is a little overkill. Santa’s just doing his thing. This is part of the thing. Why would he accidentally leave his license at our house?’”
This year, Maverick was ready.
“He’s becoming such a kind, wonderful young man, and I wanted him to hear it from me, not anyone else,” he says. “It’s bittersweet as a parent — watching your child outgrow the magic, but also seeing them grow into someone so thoughtful and mature.
In the end, McDaniel summed up the experience with the same warmth and wisdom that resonated in the video: “I don’t think there’s a cap on believing in good things or magic in the world. That’s what the idea of Santa is about — and that’s a kind of magic I hope my kids always carry with them.”
Of course, not all is lost for McDaniel. His 9-year-old son still believes.
