Believe in Santa

My Dd is 22 now but I will never ever forget taking her to Lapland to meet 'the real Santa' , the look on her face when Santa and the elves welcomed her in and called her by name was absolutely magic. To each their own but there's no harm in a white lie to make a lovely memory

My DD won't tell my DGD just 10 yrs that the Easter Bunny, Father Christmas, Tooth Fairy and Elf on the Shelf doesn't exist. She is convinced the child doesn't know but I'm not so sure. I've told her to tell her but she wants to keep the magic going as long as possible. I found out at age 6 from a card from Father Christmas. I recognised my dad's hand writing and he'd written 'Be a good girl' which was something he said to me every time he went to work. I was young but quite bright to work it out. Never said I knew though lol

You are never too old. I am 76 and I still look in the skies for Santa on Christmas Eve. It's just the magic I love. I am also a Christian and always celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

You're quite wise, it is the choice of your sons.

You did as you wished, their turn now.

We did the Father Christmas thing, but when the children realised I told them that FC is the spirit of Christmas, giving gifts with love and in that way got around the apparent lie.

When my son was about 9 he still appeared to believe in FC so I decided I'd have to make sure he "knew." He said that of course he knew, but he wanted to pretend for hsi sister who was 4 years younger; he did a great job!!

I rather overdid it with my youngest who chose to do a project in junior school to prove all her peers were wrong 😑
Egg on my face when her conclusions were that I personally had let her down so badly for allowing her to believe for so long, when she trusted me to be honest.

My FIL is a vicar and he and MIL were concerned that if they told their sons that Father Christmas was real, when they found out it was a myth they might also stop believing in God so they told them it wasn’t true right from the start. That didn’t quite work as they’d hoped - my husband is an atheist and feels very angry that he missed out on the magic as a child! When we told them that we were doing the ‘Santa’ thing with our son my MIL said ‘So you’re fine with telling your child lies?!’ which I thought was rather harsh!

I can’t remember a time when Father Christmas officially ceased to be for my children - he just faded gently away with no trauma involved. He magically appeared again which the arrival of the grandchildren, then eventually slowly drifted into the stratosphere again. He had to go home.

I don’t really know anything about the Easter Bunny story, we missed out on that one.

I always did the whole Father Christmas thing with my daughter as a child and no doubt she’ll do it with her toddler.
But now, I think to myself we tell children to be wary of strangers and here we are encouraging them to sit on the lap of a fat man in a red suit while he gives them a gift. 🤔
Same goes for allowing same man to creep into their house when everyone’s sleeping and leave a stocking at the end of their bed.
All sounds highly dodgy!

Hi. I guess you are American? I never heard of the Easter Bunny when I was a child. But I did believe in Santa Claus until I was 8 years old.

Be glad you were not brought up as a Presbyterian in Scotland and told as a child about the devil. Also hell fire.

We carried Father Christmas through with our kids until they all twigged one by one. Same with the Grandchildren. However I used to work with someone whose religion did not celebrate Christmas, and the mother told me that her little girl had been into Nursery (so age 3/4?) and told all the other children that there was no such thing as FC, it's your mum and dad. Apparently there were lots of tears. I must have looked shocked as she added - well at least she was telling the truth and not peddling lies. I did think it was a shame though, to have the illusion spoiled unexpectedly so young.

My grandchildren are all teenagers or adults now, but we still open all our gifts together on Christmas morning. No Father Christmas, but there is still some magic and excitement in the house, and we love to decorate inside and out.

I'm 68 years old and I still believe in Father Christmas. When the eldest of our 3 sons was about 14 and we were doing the usual Christmas Eve hanging up of stockings, putting out a mince pie and drink for Father Christmas, along with a cartoon for the reindeer; my husband whispered to him," you know she'll have you doing this when you are thirty, don't you!" His reply, "I know, great isn't it!" Job done! As an adult he has never been able to get to sleep on Christmas Eve, even after a night at the pub with his mates. He is now a parent and he is the one eagerly waiting for his kids to wake up and ends up going into bedrooms saying, "he's been!"

my daughter and son in law are not religious but let the kids still believe in the magic of Santa and Easter Bunny, I think let the kids enjoy the magic while they can, irrespective of religion

As has already been pointed out, Santa (why not Santo?) Claus is St Nicholas, whose day is 6th December. It is very much part of the run-up to Christmas in Germany, when children receive traditional sweets and little presents.

My dad used to love Santa, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter bunny more than I did. He even built me a fairy ring in the garden. Those were the most magical days of my life and, even to this day, I still keep the magic going wherever I can. It is sad that children are robbed of make believe when they are small. It fires their imaginations, gives them insight into other worlds. And yet they get taught all sorts of ghastly things when they are still very small and do not have the capacity to understand the narrative adults are feeding them to suit their own ends.

How sad not to allow the magic, especially in these days of children growing up so quickly.
I can’t think of any of my friends, cousins, children or grandchildren being traumatised when they discovered the truth about Father Christmas. It just happened slowly.
As for the Vicar who was worried that his children wouldn’t believe in God either if they found out. Well , no doubt they will eventually make their own minds up about that too. I can’t see how he could prove that either way.

I never allowed my girls to believe in fake fantasy figures - it always seemed absurd to me.

My D did the same with her children. But my GD asked if I could keep a secret and told me Father Christmas was real but not to tell her mum as she didn’t believe in him. We often laugh about this now GD is 21

We always put presents under the tree as we were given them for the children, they knew not to touch from babyhood. On Christmas morning Father Christmas had filled their stockings and left them a special present from their Christmas list under the tree. One Christmas I over heard my daughters friend tell her there wasn't a Father Christmas, my daughter asked her if she got a special present the friend said no so my daughter said that's because you don't believe.

I’m not sure what the Easter Bunny and “Santa” have to do with Christianity?
Absolutely nothing. They are fun traditions; that is all.

Arto1s

I’m not sure what the Easter Bunny and “Santa” have to do with Christianity?
Absolutely nothing. They are fun traditions; that is all.

Well, St Nicholas was a Christian saint.
Does that not count?

Santa Claus, Sinterklaas, is an abbreviation of St Nicholas.

GoodAfternoonTea

My dad used to love Santa, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter bunny more than I did. He even built me a fairy ring in the garden. Those were the most magical days of my life and, even to this day, I still keep the magic going wherever I can. It is sad that children are robbed of make believe when they are small. It fires their imaginations, gives them insight into other worlds. And yet they get taught all sorts of ghastly things when they are still very small and do not have the capacity to understand the narrative adults are feeding them to suit their own ends.

I agree.