When I was first ordained, an older priest gave me three commandments for a successful ministry: one, try not to upset the flower ladies; two, don’t preach pacifism on Remembrance Sunday; and, three – and most important – never tell children that Santa isn’t real.

If only someone had had that talk with RevDr Paul Chamberlain, who last Christmas reduced a classroom full of year 6 children to tears by telling them the truth: “It’s your mum and dad.” (I hope that doesn’t come as a shock to any of you.)

He has since apologised and, in his defence, he’d assumed that at their age they would have worked that out already. But I know from my own experience both that some children still believe for longer than others and how traumatic it is for them when their illusion is finally shattered.

In my son’s case, it was his evil twin sister who burst the bubble. They were only nine but she had some older friends, one of whom had given the game away to her – although she wasn’t bothered because she liked the idea of knowing something that her brother didn’t.

So........

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