Santa....what do/did you tell your children?

emilyjayne_3

kingfisherblue wrote: »

Father Christmas is alive, well, and keen to know what parents want to give their children. I communicate with him via email, that it is a magic email address that only mums and dads can use. I know this because my son truly believes it. Although he is 15, he has a mental age of about five. He has Down's Syndrome and numerous medical problems, so is always shattered by 9pm, which is his bedtime. His younger brother has helped me to carry everything downstairs since he was about nine years old, but keeps up the pretence for my other son.

When my older son sees presents in my room, I tell him that because Father Christmas is so busy, I am helping him out. FC only needs everything on Christmas Eve, when his magical powers help him to get all the presents to boys and girls all over the world. Of course, tracking FC on NORAD and having night time in Australia when it is daytime over here, helps FC to visit every household.

We always leave out a carrot for Rudolph, with a drink of juice or milk and a biscuit for FC (no alcohol as FC is driving!). They never manage to finish it all, because so many other children are generous enough to leave snacks as well. Mind you, FC is a bit messy and leaves crumbs! They both have their own plates, painted by the boys.

I am up several times a night with my son, so it is inevitable that he notices the stockings. However, he isn't allowed to look at them until we get up, which is no earlier than 7am. Then, both boys and my adult daughter join me in bed with their stockings. I think this year will be the last that my daughter is at home, as she and her fianc! are saving for a deposit for a home of their own. Stockings are opened in my bed before we go downstairs, and yes, we always find that Father Christmas has been

This made me smile .

I knew from when I was about 8, but never asked as I knew it would be sad to 'definitely' know! Its much more exciting to still believe a part of it & I'm 22!

go_cat

Santa lives in the PIR of the house alarm and my son often asks it if he has been good with me or my DH stood waving behind him to get the sensor to go off

Santa through the PIR monitors behaviour throughout the year :T

As a child I loved the magic of Santa and I want my son to have that magic for as long as I can and I have to tell white lies to achieve it I will

Mojisola

ciderwithrosie wrote: »

Yep, Father Christmas only ever brought the stocking presents. Big presents were definitely from us and other relatives. It's only fair and sensible really as...

The child learns to thank people who have spent their money and time getting them a gift

If the much long for gift is out of stock before Christmas, how do you explain this to a child if Father Christmas is supposedly supplying it - he can't run out, he's magic. Or do you tell them they weren't good enough? This is hardly good parenting to deceive them so.

Also, they were never allowed to get up before 8am on Christmas morning, especially as we probably wouldn't have gone to bed ourselves til the early hours and nothing worse than overtired, fractious children - makes for a very long day!

ciderwithrosie wrote: »

Eh? I said Father Christmas only brings the stocking presents - which would be of fairly similar content to any household I imagine. We used to get an orange, apple, chocolate coins, a rolled up blower thing, and a few other little gifts that would fit in one of my dad's old football socks. I know my best friend always used to get a toothbrush amongst other things.

It was always known by me and my brothers and later by my boys that Mum and Dad give the main presents. My boys have never complained if their friends had more expensive presents because their parents were wealthier - they never asked for much and were happy with what they had.

I was agreeing with you - there are too many things you have explain away if all the presents come from FC - toys not available, the way rich kids get better presents, having to thank relatives for things that FC brought, etc.

It's much easier to make only the stocking stuff from FC.

fluffnutter

I don't think you have to create a big fantasy but equally I don't think you need dispel all the magic of Christmas either. Personally I just don't mention Father Christmas to my son but I expect that others will and he'll go through a period of believing at some point. I certainly won't tell him there's no Santa if he mentions it, but I'll make no effort to pretend that the presents he receives are from some big fat fictitious bloke in a red suit. I'll tell him they're from the people who love him.

And I definitely can't abide all that behaviour modification crap that comes with Christmas. If you don't behave Santa won't bring you any presents... 1) it doesn't work, 2) if you don't like the way your kids behave have the balls to tell them rather than pretend some made up fat guy doesn't like it and 3) what parent ever actually follows this up and doesn't buy their kid anything?

Carl31

We tried to keep it going as long as possible with our older kids. They're now 11/12 and the game is up, even though I think they wish it wasn't. Our 4 year old is fully into it, and intend to make sure Santa is kept alive in this house as long as possible.....

...but nowadays, it seems there are many parents hell bent on ruining it all. There were kids 6/7 as our older lot grew up that had been told Xmas parents are not Santa etc... I just don't get the mentality, its once a year and probably one of the biggest parts of being a child, to take that away from them is just mean

kettlefish

Father Christmas brought our stockings, and mum and dad used him as a glorified courier for the bigger presents - ordering from him and sending the money directly. It made it much more believable to us - we were very logical kids and started asking how his "elves" could make a toy ferry port or Baby Born exactly like the one in the shops, packaging and all, and also knew FC couldn't afford to buy them all. Also, it helped explain why the class "naughty boy" had £300+ spent every Christmas and we didn't We never had much money due to mum and dad's vast mortgage (they bought a house in the very early 90s and had to buy a bigger one in the mid 90s so lost cash) but we did have the most wonderful Christmases.

In fact, it was all so believable that it was only during my first year at secondary school that I realised he wasn't real This was despite the fact that mum and dad never went out of their way to provide "evidence" of FC and visiting some very unconvincing, obviously-someone's-dad-in-a-beard grottoes!

The only thing I will be doing differently for our DD is building the toys in advance - poor dad sat at the dining table for 5 hours building my Barbie people carrier, and then there was the year (6 years or so ago) that the joint present - an Xbox - came with no power pack in the box :eek:

carrielovesfanta

We were never told that Father Christmas was real for two reasons:

1: My mum is very deeply in the "not lying to kids" camp

2: She was strung along with Santa for a long time by her parents (footprints in the snow etc etc) and was devastated when she found out.

Personally it has never bothered me that I knew Santa wasn't real because we still embraced it as a fun part of Christmas along with everything else. We went to see Santa in his grotto, even phoned him via Teletext!! I even used to leave out brandy and mince pies knowing full well that my dad would drink the brandy and my mum would eat the pie.

I'm not planning on having kids so I'm not in a quandary myself. I can see why it's fun for little ones, but I don't think people should go to great lengths to keep kids believing after they grow out of it naturally.

Goldiegirl

I was never actually told that there was no Father Christmas, but I worked it out by the age of about 6 or 7.

I had some younger cousins and perpetuated the myth for their benefit, feeling quite grown up, that I knew the truth.

However,I still put my pillowcase out on the end of the bed, and it was always full of presents on Christmas morning. From the age of 11, I was always awake when my dad came in with the presents. I heard the alarm go off, all the rustling and muffled swearing, and used to have to hide under the bed clothes to muffle my giggling!

This went on until I was 16, when I left school. Then I had a word with my dad, suggesting that this year we put the presents under the tree. He wasn't best pleased, and wished I'd spoken up 5 years before!

claire16c

My parents told me Father Christmas delivered my stocking and a few presents under the tree. Ill do the same for mine.

I worked out when I was about 5/6 that it wasn't real. I remember lying in bed thinking there is no way he can get in & out of everyone's house in the country, plus flying time, it just wasn't logical, let alone all around the world! And I recognised my mums & granddad handwriting on the tags. And I never thought Santas in garden centres etc were real! And I just knew my Dad was making marks in the carrot we left out. So my dad told me not to tell my 4 year old sister!

I remember by year 2 everyone had figured it out in my class apart from one girl so we told her! How mean were we!

So that makes me find it hard to believe a 10 year old would still be believing in it! Especially if their parents have said they won't get presents otherwise, in which case they're probably just pretending they still believe!

I did convince a 7 year old that some reindeers at the local garden centre were Santas, once he'd checked they had enough time to fly back to the North Pole before Xmas eve he really seemed to believe it.

Lunar_Eclipse

"The truth" has never really been discussed in our house either. Kids are 12 & 13.

Stockings containing small gifts & sweets are from Santa (we all have them!) and the gifts we give have labels saying as much.

As much as we've all loved doing the FC thing, I don't think I'd do it again, with the benefit of hindsight. It does feel completely dishonest.