If you send your kid to secondary school still believing in Santa the resulting fallout is on your head

[Stripitout]

Try and weigh up how important your Christmas magic is against your kid being mercilessly teased when their peers find out they still believe

My 13 year believes in Santa. I'm happy for him to keep that childlike magic going a bit longer.

My guess is that the kids want the gift (FOMO) or the parents want a photo opportunity.

I have a friend who is Hindu and moved to the U.K. as an adult. As such she hadn’t grown up with Christmas and it was a bit of a mystery to her. She asked one day if I could explain some things to her. Her first question was if Father Christmas was real. I said that it was the parents. She then said ‘but you leave offerings to him. It’s like Lakshmi during Diwali.’ I explained that children believe but adults know and they eat the mince pie and drink the whisky you leave out. She was shocked and said ‘you eat the offering to your God!’

@EmmaEmEmz Does he have some sort of AEN? If not-and possibly even if-tell him, please.

I know such a kid.
She's 10, with a mentality of a 4 year old.
Don't think the parents are doing their only, very much prayed for daughter any good for the future.

No they shouldn't, but there shouldn't be wars, famine, rape and a whole host of other nasty things either. Here's the surprise though - there is and there always will be. Kids have bullied other kids and adults bullied other adults since time immemorial. I don't see it changing any time soon. The best parents can do is not to set their own child up as prey.

Mine is 11 and in year 6. Dc still believes.

I never needed to tell my DC that Santa wasn’t real - he told me when he was about 6.

Surely the kids who still believe when they’re in secondary school must be actively choosing to do so in the face of considerable evidence to the contrary from other kids.

No self-respecting parent starts this nonsense and any child who asks at any age should be told it’s a lovely Christmas myth.

That’s not ‘spoiling the magic’ or ‘being a grinch’, it’s being a sensible adult.

As for the Elf, s/he can do one. No bloody way.

This can badly wrong. As a first time parent, I got myself worked up about never telling them lies, so I explained about Saint Nicholas and that this was a way of remembering him etc.

My kid told his whole class that Santa was dead and it was definitely true because him mum said so and she always tells the truth.

With his brothers, I just never mentioned Santa at all.

Did you go on to explain that Santa is not; in fact, a God?

My 9yr old still believes 🫣

I told my son just before secondary aged just gone 12, he really had no idea, same with some of his friends (other ds was told age 10 as he’d always kind of known). Some kids are honestly just innocent, yes the parents need to tell them but my god your post reads as very mean!!

For older siblings, the disappointment of findingout Santa isn't real is soon replaced with the excitement of being 'in on it' with maintaining the story for younger ones.

The issue here is bullying. It doesn’t matter what they are bullying a child about, that is what needs to be sorted.

Christmas in the UK in 2024 has very little to do with Jesus for most people. Thos can be very easily observed, given tuat Christmas is an awful lot more popular than Christianity is! And, as has been pointed out, the winter celebration and some of its traditions existed long before the Christians nabbed it.

We must hope so ( or even more than one).

Oh yes. She was coming at it from a Hindu angle so to her Santa was like Ganesh or Vishnu, another deity.

My DS1 decided Father Christmas, the tooth fairy and God were all made up by grown ups when he was 8 or 9. What could I say? 😂 So actually I think atheists have an advantage in understanding Father Christmas isn’t real. I asked DS1 to keep the secret so as not to spoil it for his younger siblings (Father Christmas) and his Christian friends (God) Seemed to work without too much trauma.

TheDowagerCountessofPembroke · Today 14:17

She was shocked and said ‘you eat the offering to your God!’

Ha ha, that's brilliant!

You know what doesn't do the reputation of Christianity any good at all? Hypocrites who enjoy sneering at people of other faiths and no faith, as if nobody could possibly have any morals or values outside the Christian religion, and Christmas has no value if you don't happen to take the story of Jesus literally. My elderly parents are atheists. My partner and I are atheists. Our adult kids are atheists. We celebrate Christmas because being together as a family, sharing kindness, love and gratitude (and yes, having fun) are important to us. Now bog off with your sanctimony. You are just showing the whole of Mumsnet all that is wrong with the Church.

My kids are mid twenties...they know that if they don't believe on Xmas Eve he doesn't come! 😜

The resulting fallout would on the head of the parents as well as the kid.

The kid is the one I would feel sorry for because their peers will literally wipe the floor with them, they would need resilience beyond their years and their parent(s) would have to support them through it.

I hope to god no one has been stupid enough to put a child through something like that.

My DS is a lot more naive and trusting than DD. She found out when she was 8, but didn't let on to DS (3 years younger)
I did tell DS before secondary school, because I wasnt 100% sure he'd sussed it, and I didn't want him to be teased about it (He used to ask santa for the most expensive things on his list in case we couldn't afford them!)