My 11 year old still believes in Father Christmas!

[Usernumber46463637262]

But he does have sen, he's autistic amongst other issues and very young for his age with learning delays. Working at year 2 level at school.

he started secondary in September, in a mainstream school. We are fighting to get him into a sen school

wtaf am I gonna do? He honestly still believes, not tell him? Tell him?

i was hoping he'd figure it out for himself.

another huge concern is him telling dd7 who also has sen and would be devastated. He wouldn't tell her out of spite but more because he is brutally honest? Shall I wait another year so at least then Dd will be 8, nearly 9? She's starting to question things herself anyway but does still believe I think , DS is not questioning it at all.

I think the likelihood of him talking about Santa at school is low. If I don't tell him I'm not sure what kids talk about these days but I can't recall myself or any of my peers talking about Santa in secondary, I know there was a couple kids who still believed in year 7 and they were never bullied or anything. I was in secondary in the early 2000s.

to add, despite DS having a love/hate thing with Santa he is not a big thing in this house. My kids know mummy and daddy but most of it and Santa just brings some chocolate and a couple stocking fillers here.

any other sen parents been through this??

I’d tell him very gently from now.

I'm here too with a rising secondary age child (autistic too). I don't think I'm going to tell them at the moment- similar to you with the small stocking only. Don't think they'd handle it well yet.

I didn’t tell them. I said as you get older it’s harder to see magic so it’s natural from age ten onwards to stop believing. So it’s up to you what you believe but others might not so it’s better to not talk about it with others. It never really comes up in secondary school though it isn’t really something they bring up.

My 11 year old also believes. I won’t tell her I didn’t tell my 14year old who still says he believes but I’m guessing he just says that for the little ones.

I think it's sweet, I would continue for another year. He will work it out eventually.

Prepare the way for him to be told, but don't actually tell him?

So talk about everyone working together to make Christmas magical, that different countries have different traditions...

Ask him what he believes about the tooth fairy and the Easter bunny.

How does he think FC gets to all the different places.

Talk about traditions... whatever you can.

Get him to question things.

That way it's much less of a deal when you do tell them or they hear it elsewhere.

I'd tell him now because the other year 7's will talk about it casually, ie Santa not being real.

Well, it's mid-November. If he doesn't hear it between now and Christmas, and you're worried, maybe let him have one more Christmas believing and tell him in the new year?

I taught a lad in Y7 who still believed. He was sen and his form class were very protective of him. When he expressed his belief in Santa in one of me lessons not one of them laughed or broke that magic for him. I think of him often.

Sorry, I know that's not really advice though OP, I just love that memory. He was one of the loveliest lads I ever taught.

I would tell him if the other kids at school find out he will be laughed at

That's nice to hear. DS does have significant learning delays and the other kids do look out for him!

I don't disagree. My mother told me before secondary, I had no idea 😅 but I can't re call a time at school that Santa was ever talked about!

@theseriousmoonlight This really gives me
Hope for my daughter who is also Autistic. X