Who burst your Santa Claus bubble?

How old were you when you learned — or figured out — the truth about Saint Nick?

(If you are 6 years of age or younger, you should stop reading this now. If you are 7, well, “it’s marginal, right?” to quote a recent comment from President Trump.)

I can’t say I ever believed. And I can’t say anybody ever expected me to. Santa represented the act of gift-giving to me, and the backstory was nothing but myth and fairy tale. I knew who was leaving the presents under the tree.

(If you are 6 or younger and I just burst your Santa Claus bubble, well . . . I warned you two paragraphs ago to stop reading. If you are 7, well it was “marginal,”anyway, wasn’t it? Maybe it was time for you to learn the truth. Maybe it was past time. After all, you are in your third year of schooling. . . . But you can always blame me.)

Should people actually blame someone for enlightening them on this subject?

Does anyone ever actually harbour ill feelings for the person who told them the truth — or inadvertently let it slip — about Santa?

I suspect the heartache can linger for a day or two for some people, but most generally get over it in an hour or so, I reckon. And I suspect that most forget how they learned the truth about Santa, and who might have told them.

Not so one Collman Lloyd, the 7-year-old on the receiving end of the “marginal” comment from Trump, who is being cast as some sort of Scrooge because of it.

(Excuse me while I hahahahahaha! over the media reactions to all of this . . . )

Collman will always remember who burst her Santa Claus bubble. And she will often be reminded by people — often not-so-perfect strangers — that the president of the United States burst her Santa Claus bubble.

Unless she was fibbing all along, of course, and just told Trump what she thought he wanted to hear — and for the bragging rights: “I spoke to the president, the actual president!”

Just how far can Collman — and her family — ride this sudden wave of public attention? Can an appearance on the Ellen Show and another on Oprah be far off? Can the family spin this into, bottom line, millions of dollars?

Hey, maybe there really was a Santa for Collman, after all.

— Jillian