ROBERTSDALE, Ala. — This is the Christmas season, and boys and girls all over are being extra good so they can get on Santa’s toy-bringing “nice” list.

However, youngsters being youngsters, there are bound to be a few slips now and then.

Adults know that Santa knows the difference between a slip and deliberate, truly bad behavior, but tell that to the average kindergarten student.

That was the beginning for the “Dear Santa, I can explain …” unit that Kindergarten teacher Pam Krushling gave her students at Robertsdale Elementary School recently.

“We were focusing on character education, and I saw a t-shirt with “Dear Santa, I can explain …”,” said Krushling.

Krushling used the humorous saying to start a writing lesson for her students.

“I asked then to write about the bad choice they have made,” said Krushling.

She added that she told her students of a “bad choice” she had made while a youngster. It involved using the phone at a time when she had been told not to — the adults in the house were expecting an important call.

“I was very sorry, especially after I got caught,” chuckled Krushling.

The unit taught an important lesson.

“I wanted the students to learn a lesson about honesty and to apologize for their mistakes,” said Krushling. “I think some of them did.”

“It was like confessional time,” said Krushling, adding that the lesson opened up a “flood of mistakes.”

One youngster, Krushling said “got upset all over again” about touching something the student should not have.

The youngster had been told not to touch the object, but the child did and the fragile thing broke.

“But I am sorry,” Krushling reported the student as saying.

RES Principal Charles Downey was pleased with the lesson.

“It show that it’s not just material things at Christmas,” he said. “It’s a time to continue learning and to think about, to show compassion for others. It’s a way of learning the meaning of this holiday.”