An English vicar stands accused of ruining Christmas for a class of Year Six students by saying that Santa Claus didn’t exist and their parents were the ones putting presents under the Christmas tree.

Last week, Rev Dr Paul Chamberlain was supposed to speak about the birth of Jesus in front of Year Six pupils from the Lee-on-the-Solent Junior School in Hampshire, England, but he somehow ended up talking about the existence of Santa Claus, a topic that many of the children weren’t ready for. He casually told the class that Father Christmas was not real and that it was their parents buying them presents and eating the cookies they left for Santa. Apparently, all this came as a shock for many of the kids, who started sobbing and later told their parents about the traumatic experience. The minister has since been forced to apologize to the children, their parents, and the school for his revelations.

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“You’re all year six, now let’s be real, Santa isn’t real,” Chamberlain said to the class, most of whom were ages 10 and 11.

“After talking about the Nativity story from the Bible, he made some comments about the existence of Father Christmas,” a spokesperson for the Diocese of Portsmouth told Mail Online. “Paul has accepted that this was an error of judgment and he should not have done so. He apologized unreservedly to the school, to the parents and the children and the headteacher immediately wrote to all parents to explain this.”

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Some of the parents described the priest’s actions as ‘wrong’ or ‘disgusting’, while others said that they were going to have to “push as much magic” as possible this holiday season to help their kids get over the trauma.

We will say that it is a bit ironic for a man of religion to speak about the existence of Santa Claus to kids, considering the evidence or lack thereof of their own beliefs…