Santa - Believers and non-believers

[Midnight_Fairy]

I think the parents hold the expectation. Not the kids. But thats just my personality lol. I just have never held tbe expectation of it. Surley if other kids tell our kids something is not true, and in this case, its not...then how can we as parents be angry, or sad. I dont know? Maybe its just me lol.

I also do not understand how Christmas is only magic with santa?! Say what!?

I have never done much Santa stuff. They like Santa films, and used to like going to see Santa but they know he is a 'part' of Christmas thats just what it is. Not that he actually does come. He is just a part of the xmas package lol.

Christmas is magic. Yule is magic. The whole season is magic upon its self.

As for telling. Mine have never said 'santa is not real' to other kids. They have never had a need too because its never been a big deal or secret in our house. I think that helps. Santa IS part of xmas to them....so they have never had a reason to tell other kids any thing otherwise.

 

[loeylo]

I agree that it is just about respect. At 4, kids should be old enough to understand tact and not to blurt out something which is likely to be hurtful to others.

I'd be super annoyed if someone else ruined it for my daughter. That is how my younger sister found out, she was only 5 and we were both devastated as I was only 7 and also still believed. My mum was so angry! It was a kid from a different faith who told my sister.

I think want embodies the magic of Christmas and if a kid is brought up believing in want, finding out he is real destroys a lot of the magic. In our house, he only brought a few presents (most were from our parents) so it wasn't even a "commercial" thing, it was the excitement that there was a magical man at the north pole who had a sleigh and flying reindeers, and we could leave out a carrot to feed the reindeers.

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

We dont do santa either. she has heard from peppa pig about father christmas. but wevve got a book covering the solstice and it says people gives gifts. so ill see what she does.

And this is where it all comes from!

 

[lindseymw]

We do Santa in our house. Joshua however, decided at 5 years old that Santa wasn't real and that's that. He's a very logical child and just couldn't believe that a man travels around the world in one night.

We still carry it on for Jacob as he still very much believes.

We sat Joshua down and explained that many children still believe including a lot of his friends and it wouldn't be very nice to tell them. He understood completely and so far hasn't said anything to other children, he quite enjoys the magic for Jacob. I would be mortified if it was my child that told all the other kids!

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

Magic is real so none lost here!

 

[Scout]

We do Santa and I'd be upset and sad for dd to find out he's not real at a young age. As a child, I remember Christmas just not being the same when I found out it was my parents buying all the gifts. There is something magical about believing in Santa and I want my dd to have that for as long as possible.

 

[sequeena]

Thomas believes in santa and we expect that he will believe for a long time. I would be upset if someone told him santa wasn't real but I'd just say santa only comes to those who believe.

 

[SarahBear]

I think the parents hold the expectation. Not the kids. But thats just my personality lol. I just have never held tbe expectation of it. Surley if other kids tell our kids something is not true, and in this case, its not...then how can we as parents be angry, or sad. I dont know? Maybe its just me lol.

I also do not understand how Christmas is only magic with santa?! Say what!?

I have never done much Santa stuff. They like Santa films, and used to like going to see Santa but they know he is a 'part' of Christmas thats just what it is. Not that he actually does come. He is just a part of the xmas package lol.

Christmas is magic. Yule is magic. The whole season is magic upon its self.

As for telling. Mine have never said 'santa is not real' to other kids. They have never had a need too because its never been a big deal or secret in our house. I think that helps. Santa IS part of xmas to them....so they have never had a reason to tell other kids any thing otherwise.

Thanks. Hopefully that's the case for Violet too. I never told kids either. My sister, however, at 4 went around telling kids that Santa was dead. She wasn't being malicious. She just came to that conclusion when told that Santa was based on St. Nicholas from a long time ago.

 

[SarahBear]

Magic is real so none lost here!

Yeah, I hear all these people talk about the loss of Santa equating to the loss of magic for Christmas and I feel like that's a REALLY good argument against Santa! Christmas still felt "magical" to me in a way as a kid and that didn't die a horrible death with the death of the Santa Myth because I never did believe. It just had a gradual decrease in magic as everything else does as you grow up. It was a natural transition. It also kept values on the right thing - family and community, not some stranger from the north pole. We still enjoyed Christmas movies and music and stuff that had Santa. He was a part of Christmas, but he was just a pretend story part.

 

[minties]

We've never mentioned Santa to our kids and they enjoy Christmas.

Christmas isn't really magical or about kids feeling magic, it's about eating lots of food and greedily expecting gifts. That's how I viewed it as a kid anyway. I was all consumed by the opening of those presents!

My kids have always rolled their eyes at the idea of tooth fairies etc etc, especially Thomas. He cottons on to what he calls "grown up rubbish" of his own accord. He always questions everything and explains why it can't possibly be real.

Sophie has her own ideas but she would find Santa creepy anyway.

 

[Pearls18]

It doesn't matter what anyone believes, so long as we are all teaching our kids to be respectful of what others believe.

 

[JumpingIn]

I honestly feel it's sad when people think that no Santa=no magic. It's like believing that no God=no reason to live. It baffles me!

Christmas is the most loving, sparkly, snuggly, chocolatety, beautiful, caring and special time of year. Gingerbread men, baking together, decorations and crafts, present exchange, films on the sofa in your PJs, twinkly lights and tinsel, turkey with the family, games and crackers and bells and music. It all makes some mythical guy who judges you and breaks into your house look pants

 

[.Mrs.B.]

To me magic is something that cannot be explained by science, something that can't ever really exist so as wonderful as Christmas time is (believe me I am Christmas crazy, lol) it wouldn't be 'magic'.

 

[CaptainMummy]

I honestly feel it's sad when people think that no Santa=no magic. It's like believing that no God=no reason to live. It baffles me!

Christmas is the most loving, sparkly, snuggly, chocolatety, beautiful, caring and special time of year. Gingerbread men, baking together, decorations and crafts, present exchange, films on the sofa in your PJs, twinkly lights and tinsel, turkey with the family, games and crackers and bells and music. It all makes some mythical guy who judges you and breaks into your house look pants

I wish this were true... but pretty much every child i know (mine included) cares solely about Santa! Of course they love the decorations, doing Christmas crafts and baking, singing Christmas songs, giving and receiving gifts with family... but it all builds up to that moment when they go downstairs and see what Santa has brought them. There is nothing like it in the world, the feeling on Christmas eve when they are too excited to go to sleep, because Santa is coming, sprinkling the reindeer dust to make sure rudolph doesn't miss them, leaving milk and cookies for Santa to eat... and then to see your children so amazed and excited that Santa has actually been... and left them all those presents! To me, it definitely wouldn't be the same without santa.

I guess I am so used to it because we believed in Santa, my parents really went to town with it so I can't imagine it any other way. I do find it really interesting to read about how others do everything though!

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

I honestly feel it's sad when people think that no Santa=no magic. It's like believing that no God=no reason to live. It baffles me!

Christmas is the most loving, sparkly, snuggly, chocolatety, beautiful, caring and special time of year. Gingerbread men, baking together, decorations and crafts, present exchange, films on the sofa in your PJs, twinkly lights and tinsel, turkey with the family, games and crackers and bells and music. It all makes some mythical guy who judges you and breaks into your house look pants

yes! Plus seasons and the magic of that and the changes! Mine were never sad about santa not being real lol and they wouldnt be the type to blab to others cause they dont think about it like that

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

And yes,its sad if kids tell kids jist to be nasty...but I would never ask mine to lie about it if asked what they thought.

 

[jessmke]

I don't think believing in Santa necessarily means you are making Christmas all about the presents. Every year Santa brought each of us a pair of flannel pajamas and put some candies and socks in our stockings. That was it. For us it wasn't about what he brought, it was the excitement for this magical man and his reindeer to come to our house. I used to put cookies and milk in the kitchen and then cover the kitchen floor in flour so I could get his footprints, sometimes he brought a reindeer into the house who would take a bite out of a carrot in the fridge. I used to set up noise traps in the house so he would trip them and wake me up so I could rush out and see him (he was too sly to ever get caught in my traps). I can't even remember all the stuff we used to do but we planned it all out and looked forward to it every year. We loved the anticipation of Santa more than what he brought us. I totally think there is more magic to Christmas than just Santa, and if you never believed in Santa then of course those other magical things come first to mind, but when you believe as a child and look forward to the excitement all year and then have someone tell you it isn't real then yes, a great deal of magic is take away.

We never woke up Christmas morning and rushed out to get at the presents (we already knew what he got us, it was the same every year!), we would always wake up on Christmas morning and check for footprints in the kitchen, etc. Once we knew Santa wasn't real we stopped doing all that stuff and for us that's when it became all about the presents because we didn't have the exciting phenomenon of Santa coming to focus on anymore.

We used to do the same trap setting and footprint stuff for leprechauns on St. Patrick's Day, and the Easter bunny on Easter Sunday, and each of those characters would do something cool and exciting every year (like when the leprechauns turned all the milk in the fridge green!). Once we knew Santa wasn't real we immediately knew these other characters weren't real so the magic of those days died for us too. I can't wait to do things like this with my kids so I would be really upset if they found out the truth about Santa before they were old enough to figure it out for themselves.

 

[Pearls18]

And yes,its sad if kids tell kids jist to be nasty...but I would never ask mine to lie about it if asked what they thought.

I don't think parents should tell their kids to lie, it's just asking them to be respectful, discreet, and basically not be THAT kid that boasts about it not being real or picking on the kids that believe.

 

[Rainbow82]

My parents used to go all out on years when they could afford it and I think I was 8/9 when I stopped believing but I don't think that the magic is all about Santa, I think it's all the anticipation and the activities like the baking etc. We will be doing Santa with DS but Santa will bring a small stocking with the usual orange, sweets, colouring book and pens type presents. The big presents will come from us. OH and I both grew up in Germany and so we will also leave out the letter for Santa on 5th December and Saint Nick will replace it with sweets/small present. Don't think the letter being taken is an actual tradition or anything just what we did as kids lol.

I don't think it would upset me in a few years if someone told DS Santa isn't real but I can see how it would upset some people.

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

Yes being nasty is different to speaking their mind if asked.