On a bright and sunny June day in 1996, I was tending the small garden in my back yard accompanied by my first grand-daughter, Gianna. Gianna was a very happy child. Always willing to help and always ready with a barrage of questions that I was sure would turn her into a magnificent woman some day (I was right). She was busy watering some of the flowers in the potted plants as I was picking up twigs and brush. As I reached down with my weed-picker and plopped a dandelion out of my lawn by its root, Gianna let out an awful scream. Thinking she may have injured herself, I ran to her side to find her staring up at me with as stern a scowl as you can imagine from a four year old. "You killed that baby flower, Papa" she cried. "I pick those flowers for my mom and she likes them" she said sternly. Standing there with the dandelion still intact in my hand, I was at a loss for words for the better part of a minute. After she followed me to the other side of the yard, where we transplanted the lovely little flower, I began to tell her the story of a dandelion's life. It wasn't until she turned sixteen that I was reminded of the story that I had created to soothe her I and decided to put it to print. I hope you like it as much as she did.

When your child gets the news that Santa is not real, will you be ready with the right answer? This is a story of how one child got the news and how her grandfather eased her pain.
Gianna had crept down the stairs to watch Santa place presents under the tree every Christmas morning since she can remember. When a neighboring parent decides to inform her that Santa is just a man in a costume and he isn't real at all, her world collapses and she feels cheated. Not wanting this to have an effect on his granddaughter's Christmas Spirit, her grandfather sets a plan into action that would ease her pain and renew her trust. The results were much more than he had expected. There are surely many stories of how this family issue is handled. This is only one of them that worked.