"let's think about that some more"

My son is pretty skeptical about the Easter bunny's existence, but I don't want to outright tell him that there's no Easter bunny and Santa Claus, and have him just believe it on my authority. I'd rather he analyze it for himself. Not sure I'm doing a good job encouraging that. This is a re-creation of the conversation we had the night before Easter when I was putting him to bed.

fta: So, do you think the Easter bunny will come to hide eggs in the house?
son: But he's just pretend!
fta: What?! Why do you think that?
son: Because. He's just pretend.
fta: But don't you need a reason to think he's just pretend?
son: I don't know.
fta: Well, we can look at the evidence and decide if there's more evidence that the Easter bunny is real or is just pretend.
son: confused
fta: Do you know what evidence is?
son: No.
fta: It's things that tell us something is true or not true. For example, if I say, "You love the movie Cars," what evidence do we have to support that?
son: I don't know.
fta: How about this: We can see that you have a Cars blanket. And Cars shoes and Cars pillow and Cars sheet and a toy Lighting McQueen and a toy Dinoco The King. Right?
son: Yeah!
fta: So we can say, hmm, I think we have a lot of evidence that you like the movie Cars. All those things are evidence.
son: unsure
fta: Or, we can say it differently. If I say, "You hate the movie Cars," do we have any evidence that tells me I'm wrong?
son: Ummm...
fta: How about the blanket, the pillow, the toys, the shoes...All that is evidence that you don't hate Cars, you love it.
son: Yeah, I love Cars!
fta: So, how about the Easter bunny? What kind of evidence do we have that the Easter bunny is real or just pretend?
son: I dunno.
fta: Well, there's the Easter eggs in our house in the morning.
son: But you buy those!
fta: How do you know?
son: I saw you.
fta: No you didn't; I bought them on the way home from work.
son: Oh.
fta: But you can see that all the kinds of candy the Easter bunny brings are the same kinds of candy that we could buy at the store, right?
son: Yeah, like cranberry mini-eggs and chocolate peanut butter things.
fta: Cadbury mini-eggs.
son: Oh, right. Caaadbury.
fta: Okay, so what good night song do you want me to sing you?
son: Let's think about the Easter bunny some more.
fta: Oh, okay. What other evidence do we have?
son: Um.
fta: How would the Easter bunny get in the house? Does he come in the chimney like Santa?
son: Santa's just pretend!
fta: Really? And we don't have a chimney. Maybe the bunny comes in through the door.
son: He doesn't have a key.
fta: Maybe he knocks and we let him in?
son: Or he breaks down the door!
fta: How rude! But there's no evidence that the door gets broken. We would see it if it broke.
son: Oh. Let's think about the Easter bunny some more.
fta: Okay. Wait a second, have you ever seen a bunny as big as a person? That could talk?
son: No way!
fta: And how would he carry all that candy and those eggs for all the Christians all over the world? That'd be a big bag.
son: Yeah, as big as the Pacific Ocean!
fta: That's so big! Okay, good night. I'll see you in the morning and we'll see what the Easter bunny brought us.
son: But he's just pretend! There's no evidence.
fta: But what about the Easter eggs? Who will hide them?
son: You will!
fta: We'll see. Good night, bud. I love you.
son: I love you too! Good night!