Santa Claus doesn’t really hand-craft and deliver presents in his magic sleigh for every boy and girl. The responsibility of being Santa Claus falls on parents, and that responsibility comes with a price tag.

Most parents will spend about $271 per child on Christmas gifts, according to the financial education website Investopedia. Only 1 in 10 planned on spending over $500 per child. But those numbers are just averages, meaning some parents could be spending even more than that.

Let’s put those numbers into perspective. The average monthly bill for electricity for a household is about $110, according to the National Association of Home Builders. So parents could potentially spend as much or more on presents for their children than they would spend on electricity.

For some kids, it can be hard to understand and appreciate just how much it costs to provide the classic Christmas morning experience. Especially in their younger years, when the majority of their gratitude is directed at a fictional benign man in a sleigh. While many children believe that a jolly old man dropped through the chimney to bring them their gifts, some students always knew their parents deserved the credit when it came to presents.

Junior Marcos Guevara of Cliffwood is grateful that his parents never perpetuated the myth of Saint Nick.

“My parents actually never told me that Santa Claus was real, which I always thank them for. I was always aware that my gifts were hard-earned by them and they were the ones deserving of thanks,” said Guevara.