Believe in Santa

Ktsmum

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 son and his (then) girlfriend went to see Santa at Lapland when they were in their twenties.

we didn't do Easter Bunny either, but Christmas was great when our children were young, and then the GC..hubby and I still look forward to Christmas, I was a wee bit disapointed when GS was told by his dad when he was only 5 that there was no Santa

you're right Allira, Santa Claus is just another name for St Nicholas..

In Germany, he is an Easter hare and I assume he crossed the Atlantic with Germans who emigrated to the U.S from 1848 onwards. There he tranmogrified into an Easter bunny,

He was totally unknown in my childhood both in Scotland and in Denmark, the two countries where I grew up.

As far as I know, this tendency not to let children believe in Santa Claus is part of the "never lie to children" idea.

Certainly, children learn by example, so not telling them lies is fine, but , but ...
...if Santa Claus is a no go, what happens to the first great love of my life? I was two when I fell hopelessly in love with Puss in Boots.
If Santa is a lie, then surely both Puss in Boots, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and hordes of other beloved "inhabitants"of our childhood have to go too?

One Christmas Eve, our minister’s sermon was about how we ‘. teach ‘ children to believe in Santa Claus, but not Jesus. He highlighted the ‘ nonsense ‘ of elves helping Santa at the North Pole to produce thousands of gifts, then fly across the sky with sleigh and reindeer, then visit homes all over the world - all in one night. His point, of course, was that the life and deeds of Jesus was a much more credible scenario, the teaching of which he felt was much neglected. He made it amusing, but I’m sure many of the congregation went away thinking about the point he was making.

Santa Claus is not really a myth, just a story that was enlarged upon. St Nicholas was an European medieval bishop who provided food and treats for the poor children in his area at mid-Winter to celebrate the birth of Christ. It was then mixed with other stories about such giving.

The Easter story, I always thought was a bit gory for small children. Never did the bunny, but eggs were a symbol of new life - not sure how that fits with rabbits, we did chicks.

You can't control what you family decide what to do. Get over it.

I do think even if you do not agree, that parents do as they see fit as to how they parent their children..One of my grandchildren never believed in him, we took her to see him aged three and she backed away, saying I don't like him, he is not coming in my house. She wouldn't have a present off him.
Same with fairies or elves, she didn't believe in them either..We never knew why, she was treated the same way as her brother so where she got her ideas from, never knew,.

FranP

Santa Claus is not really a myth, just a story that was enlarged upon. St Nicholas was an European medieval bishop who provided food and treats for the poor children in his area at mid-Winter to celebrate the birth of Christ. It was then mixed with other stories about such giving.

The Easter story, I always thought was a bit gory for small children. Never did the bunny, but eggs were a symbol of new life - not sure how that fits with rabbits, we did chicks.

That part of Easter has its origins in paganism, from which the word Easter is derived anyway.

What’s sad about not lying to children

Nobody believes Superman or Cinderella are real do they?
It sounds to me as if you want to relive your children’s early childhood through their children.
With all respect, this is an unhealthy attitude and you need to step right back.

My DD and her DH have so far included Father Christmas and Easter Bunny in our GC's lives. The boy is nearly 14 and I hope they have told him it isn't real, but I imagine he has known for a long time.

When my younger DD was about 7 her friend Martin (a week older) found a pile of Christmas presents ready-wrapped in his parents' wardrobe and unwrapped them all, then hot-footed it to ours to tell her there was no such thing as Father Christmas. I never forgave him!

Whitewavemark2

Culturally there can be found a magical figure throughout Europe.

In the U.K. it was Father Christmas.
In Italy it is a witch and St Lucy
In France it was St Nicholas
In Spain it was/is the three wise men
In Holland it is Sinterclaus - who became Santa Claus in the USA
In Norway the Yule goat

And so on -but everywhere - more or less has adopted Santa Claus now - although I prefer our own Father Christmas.

So there has always been a magical Christmas figure for children that adds to the mystery and excitement.

It still is Father Christmas where I live.

For me, the excitement of Christmas Eve, because Father Christmas was coming, was magical, so I wanted the same for dds, and I’m so glad the Gdcs have been allowed to enjoy the same. I do wonder now whether dd1 (now 10) still believes, but 🤞for the two younger ones. It’s all over soon enough anyway - I do absolutely loathe adults who try to spoil it for children, or who accuse parents of ‘lying’ about 🎅🏻.
When I’m a dictator, such miseries will be put in the stocks and pelted with reindeer poo.

And while I’m at it, anyone in the U.K. who talks of putting out ‘milk and cookies’ for FC will suffer a similar fate. That might be considered adequate across the pond, but in the U.K. Father Christmas deserves a tot of something warming on a cold winter’s night, plus a couple of mince pies.

TG3465, when dd1 was only 5, a neighbour took it upon herself to tell dd that FC was ‘a fairytale’.
Dd1 was distraught.

The woman in question had form for loudly arguing, effing and blinding in public, as dd had once witnessed, so I said she’d probably been so naughty when she was little, that FC never came, so no wonder she didn’t believe in him.

Thank goodness, it worked like a dream!

me too Witzend, please allow me to come along and pelt them too...let children be children for a little bit longer..

Witzend

*TG3465*, when dd1 was only 5, a neighbour took it upon herself to tell dd that FC was ‘a fairytale’.
Dd1 was distraught.

The woman in question had form for loudly arguing, effing and blinding in public, as dd had once witnessed, so I said she’d probably been so naughty when she was little, that FC never came, so no wonder she didn’t believe in him.

Thank goodness, it worked like a dream!

My neighbour ( who’s actually lovely and has no idea that she caused such an upset) said to me when my daughter was standing next to me ‘ of course, DD is too old to believe in Father Christmas now isn’t she’. ‘She’ can still remember how upset she was on hearing those words. When I lived in a bedsit in Birmingham in my late teens I can still remember hearing the milkman one Christmas morning; the sound of the bottles jingling on his milk float sounded like sleigh bells and for a second to me it was sleigh bells.

I always think it’s lovely how older siblings usually go along with the Father Christmas story for the sake of their younger brothers or sisters.

Cossy

All our children “did” Santa, Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny.

It was fun and magical for us all!

Just put £5 under my grandsons pillow for the tooth fairy. I think it was a shilling when I was a child.
It’s a bit of harmless fun, in my opinion.
I think at nearly seven he’s quite clued up that there is no such thing.

When my DD was about seven she told me that she no longer believed in Father Christmas. I asked her how long she’d known and she said since she was five but she hadn’t wanted to upset me!

In my family, we keep that magic alive without lying to the kids

The thing is we drill it into kids that lying is bad, yet we constantly lie to them about santa and the rest.

I celebrate yule, there's no santa and it's the original midwinter celebration (Christianity claimed it as Christ's birth and took over). But you say you know the real meaning of Christmas and because your kids grew into good Christians that's the reason... But where does the Bible mention santa or the easter bunny? It doesn't and they have nothing to do with gods or religion. You seem to be confusing two very different concepts.

In our family we believe in the magic of Father Christmas. He fills a small stocking and leaves a few presents for the children. The rest of the presents are from family and friends that thank you letters need to be written after Christmas.

No Easter Bunny here but we do an Easter egg hunt and do Easter crafts but the tooth fairy aways makes an appearance! I see no harm in a bit of fantasy and magic

I use to love Christmas, but it's not the same when they have grown up, I can't be bothered with decorations, when I remember making our own with crimping paper with different colours, now I just have a tree, with little presents
And making sure on the first of December everything was in place home made chocolate shapes for Callander, my grandkids spend with other grandparents so I don't see them

Allira

Of course Father Christmas is St Nicholas!
Bearer of gifts for the poor and the patron saint of children.

It's a shame if children aren't made aware of him in one way or another, although his Saint's Day is 6th December, not 24th.

Our two were lucky enough to get both the red welly out for the 6th and we were in Germany and FC when we came to the UK for Christmas!I
They were also told about Peter and the twigs for the naughty children in the 6th.