At what age did your child stop believing in Father Christmas

[ishouldprobablygettherapy]

In light of another thread I read some of yesterday, I saw very mixed opinions about when children do and don't believe in Father Christmas. Or whether some others ever do at all.

So my question is, what age did YOUR children stop believing??

My son is 21 in December and we have genuinely never had this conversation. The closest we came was after a few drinks at my work party last year. Looking back, I would say 7-9, buy I think he adores the build up and the magic. We're from long line of magical Christmas lovers!

9

DD is 9 and I'm pretty sure she knew at about 7, but hasn't said anything and still plays along, she won't want to admit she knows it's not real.

DS is 7 and definitely still believes .. he'll have no issues with asking me outright when the time comes! 🤣

Mine is just about to turn 2 so we aren't into the Christmas thing yet. I remember being about 8 and knowing deep down he wasn't rule but still told my parents I did as I didn't want to risk not getting presents!

I was 7 when my Dad used the same wrapping paper as 'Santa' for my Mums presents, she was so cross and tried to hide the paper. I carried on believing for her sake and pretended not to notice, but it was spoiled for me by friends at school 😂

I hope my own DDs believe for a while they are 3 and 5, even if DD1 finds out, I hope she'll keep the magic for DD2 a little longer.

All of them somewhere around 9.
I never beleived because my Mum thought it was a load of nonsense. I told her bluntly that if she said that to my kids I would never talk to her again!

I can't believe most of these answers....I never believed in father christmas, my Sister never believed in him and, during my childhood (1960s) i don't think i ever met a child who did. The idea of a child actually believing in FC would be a bit of a joke at primary school.

I'm not saying FC was never mentioned at home, our parents certainly talked about him coming down the chimney. It was a nice fantasy, funny and romantic, and we certainly enjoyed the idea and joined in. It was like fairies, pixies, elves, dragons, giants etc. You knew they were imaginary, but that didn't mean you could enjoy the ideas and get pleasure out of thinking what it would be like if they did exist.

I think adults often underestimate the extent to which children can understand that some things are real and some things are imaginary.

This is heartbreaking 😪 my daughter is almost 5 and id hate for her to stop believing for years yet!

It's reassuring to see that a large portion of children still do believe! It's part of the magic at Christmas I think!

Totally agree. I loved Santa when I was wee and I loved it for my son…. Was truly magical!

I never believed it! The more questions I asked the more it seemed completely nonsensical 🙃

I think my almost 5 year old will be the same. She already asks some very intelligent questions about it all!!

Same. I don’t believe all the people who say their child was 9-11. Children that age are far more cynical and quizzical than that.

I think that I was about 7 or 8 when I started having doubts. It’s also hard to not question if when films are centred around the character ‘still’ believing, not just taking as read that he is a real thing. Like why would films question something being real if it was completely factually real?

Mine is just a toddler. However I think I believed until I was 12 (maybe in denial for 1 or 2 years though). My older siblings kept it going for me, rather than ruining it. The conversation never came up at school either! I just slowly figured it out.

@teenysaladandsniffofarose and @novalia89 I promise I still genuinely believed until I was 12 (like I say in the post above, can't remember if I was in denial for 1 or 2 years though). All depends on older siblings, classmates, how real the parents make it, and perhaps I was a little gullible😁

Both were around 7 from memory.

About 8/9. I have never admitted it though and still leave stockings outside their doors. They're teens now.

DS, now 13, asked every year between the ages of 6 and 9 if Santa was real. I'd put a question back to him, "what do you think?" and he'd reply yes. At 10 I was fed up with the pretense and hoped he would ask again. Of course, he didn't! I ended up just telling him the truth after that Xmas was over, he was fine with it.

DD, 8, still believes AFAIK but I'm aware this is probably our last year of having a believer in the house.

My eldest was 12 and then he kept quiet about it for another year till his younger brother figured it out, bless him.

I’m 37 and I still believe.

In my house it’s very much, you don’t believe you don’t get 😂 pretty much scare them into believing

What do you mean
Of course he is real
I never stop believing and I certainly wouldn’t tell my kids such a nasty lie 🙈🙈🙈

Dd1 when coming up to 9 - or so I thought, because she told me in very matter of fact tones that she knew FC was me and daddy, so I might as well admit it.

So I did.
Many years later, when she was early 20s, she told me she’d been dying for me to deny it, so she could go on believing a little longer.
I do so wish I had! 🙁
So presumably she still wasn’t 100% convinced.

My eldest was 8 and my youngest was told at 5 by a friend who was very religious.
I would have loved for the magic to last a bit longer.

10

7 thanks to older kids at school. She wasn't too upset about it.