Skeptical Six-Year-Old Destroys Santa In The Most Savage Christmas Letter

Christmas is a lovely time of year. Even the biggest grouches among us have to admit that there is much to enjoy right now. While most of us outgrow the idea of Christmas once we are adults, there are some who manage to maintain their sense of wonder. On the other hand, there are some children who are not willing to be fooled by the stories of Christmas.

We’ve all met that one child who has very real questions about the feasibility of Santa Claus. This is especially true for children who are not being raised in the Christian faith or even children who happen to reside in homes that do not have a chimney. Some parents will work hard to maintain the illusion. Others are happy to let their children make their own choices on the matter.

The latter scenario can be a nightmare for families that have more than one child. It is perfectly okay for one child to be a skeptic, but they will often go out of their way to spoil the holiday for others in their family. The child in this story decided to send their skepticism straight to the source by writing a letter to Santa himself.

The best part of the letter is that the child makes it abundantly clear that they are only writing it because they were given the assignment by their teacher. The child lets Santa know that their naughty list does not have any names on it and that their nice list does not have any names on it. As a final parting shot, he tells Santa that his life is as empty as those lists.

We aren’t going to lie to you, but “I’m not telling you my name” took us right out. Of course, once the letter was shared on Twitter, there had to be some people who took the worrywart approach. Some wondered if the boy needed antidepressants. In our humble opinion, there is nothing wrong with a little bit of healthy skepticism.

If you would like to check out the awesome story of a pitbull who DOES believe in Santa, then we urge you to take a closer look at the video below. As for the parents of skeptics, don’t force your little ones to believe against their will. They may develop a terrifying Christmas related phobia and that is the last thing that any of us should ever want.

Santa's Holding A Dying Child Viral Story Is Fake News and Here Is The Proof Internet Presented

One of the mysteries of the internet is that people really enjoy reading and sharing “heartwarming” content about horribly sad things, a genre previously shorthanded as grief porn. The latest entry is a part-time Santa in Tennessee, who claimed to a local newspaper columnist that a very sick little boy recently died in his arms. The story “cannot be verified,” the paper said Wednesday.

Eric Schmitt-Matzen is a mechanical engineer and Santa portrayer, complete with a long and lustrous full-time Santa beard. He told Knoxville News-Sentinel columnist Sam Venable that he was called by a nurse to “a local hospital” several weeks ago to pay a special visit to a terminally ill child. Schmitt-Matzen says he handed the little boy a gift, and that they had a gut-wrenching conversation, just before the boy passed:

“They say I’m gonna die,’ he told me. ‘How can I tell when I get to where I’m going?’

“I said, ‘Can you do me a big favor?’

“He said, ‘Sure!’

“When you get there, you tell ’em you’re Santa’s Number One elf, and I know they’ll let you in.

“He said, ‘They will?’

“I said, ‘Sure!’

“He kinda sat up and gave me a big hug and asked one more question: ‘Santa, can you help me?’

“I wrapped my arms around him. Before I could say anything, he died right there. I let him stay, just kept hugging and holding on to him.

As with any godawful thing that appears superficially moving to the people who didn’t have to witness it, Schmitt-Matzen’s story took off. It was re-told as verifiably true on USA Today, CNN, People, the BBC, the Daily Mail, and the Washington Post, among many, many others.

But on Wednesday, three days after it was published, the News-Sentinel published an update, saying their attempts to verify the story have been “unsuccessful:”

Since publication, the News Sentinel has done additional investigation in an attempt to independently verify Schmitt-Matzen’s account. This has proven unsuccessful. Although facts about his background have checked out, his story of bringing a gift to a dying child remains unverified. The News Sentinel cannot establish that Schmitt-Matzen’s account is inaccurate, but more importantly, ongoing reporting cannot establish that it is accurate.

Snopes has also investigated the story and says they’ve confirmed with two area hospitals that an incident matching that description didn’t happen at their facilities. The Post, whose re-telling of the story was particularly treacly, spoke to East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, who also said it didn’t happen there.

The newspaper is indicating that they’re not done checking out the story yet. Schmitt-Matzen defended it as true to the Washington Post: “If some people want to call me a liar... I can handle that better than I can handle a child in my arms dying,” he said. “It’s sticks and stones.”

Whether it’s true or not, it’s certainly remarkable how many interviews he crammed into three days.