The truth behind Santa, as seen by grown-ups

Sure, it's a family story they can chuckle about NOW. But Lisa Highfill wasn't laughing that December day almost 20 years ago.

She had just parked the car in the garage when her then-8-year-old son let loose with something he had found out while at school.

“My son looks at me, he goes, ‘There’s no Santa. You’ve been lying to me,'" recalls Highfill, 56, of Pleasanton, California. “He caught me red-handed, I didn’t know what to say.”

She's not alone in that. Welcome to the holiday season.