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

seven-day-weekend

Haven't read the thread.

If there was only my own opinion to consider, I would not do Santa at all, in any other way than 'pretend'.

SpottyKnickers

We do magic reindeer food, mince pie out for Santa etc. We also have a magic santa key and a 'Santa please stop here' sign for the garden. We also go on a 'Santa Express' trip on a local steam railway.

Its the real fun of Christmas IMO. It doesnt cost a lot but we spend time together and have fun. I hate the idea of it all becoming too grabby. We have a rule in our house that the children get 4 presents - Something they want, something they need, something to wear, something to read.

In our house, Santa brings the stocking which includes small bits and pieces - little toys, socks, pants, craft sets etc. He also brings a family board game. Last year he gave us Hungry Hippo's, this year he is giving us Kerplunk.

Scorpio33

For us, there were no stocking presents.

Then we would each get one "main" present from mum & dad (agreed up to a budget), and would get lots of smaller ones from Father Christmas. We would also get other smaller ones from relatives, but all presents would be delivered by Father Christmas on Christmas eve.

If other seemed to have more than us that was of course as their mum & dad had a bigger budget for the main present..

Birdie85

kettlefish wrote: »

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:

I'll definitely be doing this too! My parents still look back with horror at the year I got a Playmobil dolls house and it took them pretty much all day to build! Will be learning from that one!

I remember being told at a fairly early age and having a lot of dicussions about FC with friends... it was the ones with older siblings who seemed hell bent on ruining it for the rest of us because someone had ruined it for them. I have an older brother but he was under strict instructions to never give the game away and to his credit, he's never told me the truth (this applied to trips to Disney World too, where I genuinely believed I was meeting the real Mickey and Minnie etc! ). I never spoke to my parents about figuring it out... we just all knew one year but carried on the pretence. We still do now and FC always leaves at least one present.

With my LO we'll be starting the magic of Christmas from his first year and keep it going for as long as possible. I do like the idea that FC brings the stocking and Mum and Dad provide the big presents though, will make it easier to explain once he's older and starts asking more questions.

p-pincher

We are a Santa Household here. I love it. Im not sure if DD aged 9 still believes but I really dont think she would tell me. DD aged 6 is still a believer. Eldest dd did tell me that they had a discussion at school and one of the boys said Santa wasn't but dd just rolled her eyes. I don't think she would want to admit the truth. We do everything, pyjama elves on Christmas eve with new nightwear, reindeer food, mince pie and a beer for Santa and a carrot and milk for Rudolph, stockings, key for Santa the lot.

My mum was the same and all 4 kids and we all absolutely loved every minute. I remember sitting by the windowsill with my sister on Christmas eve convincing ourselves we could hear sleigh bells. The excitement in the morning when we got our stockings and then tip toeing downstairs for my dad to check if we had been good enough to be left anything.

Each to there own though, like many traditions some people like it and some don't. But i have to say i'm really grateful to my parents, we didn't exactly have lots of money but Christmas was a really magical time for me growing up x

hay77

Mojisola wrote: »

And how do you explain that Father Christmas always brings rich kids much better presents? Most kids can see how unfair that is from quite a young age.

I always told my DD that Santa decided whether she had been good and I sent the money to him to pay for the gifts. That way she knew who the presents were from but they were delivered by Santa because she had been good.

jellyhead

claire16c wrote: »

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.

Wow, but some of the children in year 2 have not long turned 6 :eek:

Mine stopped believing in year 2, and refused to believe in the tooth fairy or easter bunny from day one but he was in the minority.

I asked a school teacher and she said that hers still believed, with her eldest being in year 4. I volunteered in a year 5 class and the teacher there estimated that at least half of the year 5 children genuinely believed, especially the girl who was going to Lapland :j

Anyway, when my eldest questioned me I told him the truth, but the following year he wanted to pretend that he still believed, and we tracked Santa on NORAD, etc.

He was pleased that he had a little brother when he was 9, so he had somebody to pretend with because secretly he still wanted to believe. He is now 17 and still joins in with all the pretence for his brother because he enjoys the magic and fun of it all. Youngest is 8 and will probably have to be told the truth before he goes to high school.

Even when they know the truth it's still a lovely bit of magic to pretend they believe in, for a while at least. My teenager enjoys walking around a nearby village in the snow to see the elaborate charity lights displays, petting the reindeer, etc. and hanging up his stocking before bed. He watches The Snowman with us.

Santa doesn't tag his present, but you can tell it's from him because it's next to the stocking whose small gifts are wrapped with the same paper as the one present he gives.

One thing I've never done is the behaviour modification. My children have good hearts and try their best most of the time, and that's good enough. I don't want them to wonder why the naughty child down the street has been more 'good' than they have.

DigForVictory

No "discussion" on Santa yet. 11yo knows I buy things that appear later in stockings (he knows where I've stashed & squirrelled things) but accepts I'm "just helping"...

dizziblonde

They seem to be becoming sceptical a bit by about Y1 age and by Y2 a fair few have it sussed but play along in the interests of getting presents as a generalish rule around here.

I'll follow my mother's version of events (worked out over years to get round an oikish me who would ask such awkward questions as why the santa gift tags were in my mum's handwriting)... parents buy the presents and send them to Santa to store and deliver on Christmas Eve if you've behaved yourself... hence relatives' presents are given from the relatives because Santa's too busy to deliver all of those as well.

And since he's so busy - all the Santas on TV and in shopping centres are subcontracted staff he hires to get through the December rush.

jellyhead

Yes, my 8 year old knows that the Santas are subcontractors.

I was quite sad when my eldest stopped believing in year 2, even though I hadn't believed at his age either. He didn't have a sibling to pretend with though. It's not so much the Santa thing itself, it's the 'magic'. He didn't believe in anything magical.

I wouldn't go so far as to agree with other posters who pity children who don't have Santa in their lives - it doesn't have to be Santa, and the Jehovah's Witness children at my school were perfectly happy not having the whole christmas thing - but I think that a bit of magic is nice.

When I was a child I secretly hoped that one day I'd discover a magic carpet or climb the magic faraway tree. It wasn't about gifts, just magic My 8 year old feels the same about God.