When did your oldest stop believing?

[booklover164]

My August born 6 year old told me he doesn't believe in Father Christmas and I'm so sad. His two younger siblings still do. At what age did your oldest child stop believing? 6 seems really young to me.

Had to tell the youngest not to spoil it for them as they worked it out around 8 or so. It was not an issue at school either as was mainly in the Sen room.

Last year, he was 8. But he keeps up the act for his younger brothers and has been told not to ruin it for others if they still believe because that’s unkind. The difficulty is at school they start talking. I’m surprised he believed as long as he did as he’s very matter of fact about things but I’m glad we got as long as we did.

I think it's down to the child's personality. Those who are 10/11 and still believe probably know it's not real but some love the excitement it involves and want to hang on to that feeling and experience. Why is this so bad? We're obsessed with kids growing up ridiculously fast these days. My 10 year old has questioned if Santa is real and he knows deep down it isn't but he likes to hold on to the whole experience it creates at home. We don't instigate it at all, he does. Before anyone says 'he's gonna get a shock in secondary school!' No - he isn't, because around his friends he's very different and most kids are at that age. He would never say to his friends 'I believe in Santa'. Just like he would never hug me in front of his friends but does at home!

But 6 year olds don't really know what they're talking about so basically it's more of them questioning and you provide the story!

Santa can use the same paper. How was it ruined because of that? 🤔

Yet I asked about it about 6, and I was first grandchild etc, was absolutely being discussed in playground. My sister/cousins about the same. This was the 70s.

In my opinion it goes on for longer now. My DD, born in 1998 stopped believing about 6/7. Christmas was still magical, and I will be filling her stocking tomorrow night.

10 - in year 6
and it was the teacher that told them not to tell the younger children in the younger years - not realising mine believed.

So thank you very much Mrs Harrison - not !
tho I know/agree she needed to know before she started secondary school.

This is so weird. You say "santas magic!" He can do anything blah blah.
But you took a no from your 2 yr old and there ended Santa?! Bizarre.

My eldest started asking questions at 8 nomad and someone’s home video on you tube of Santa coming down their chimney won her back in the game. Must have found out age 8 or 9 only because my mum told her, my answer was always vague along the lines of believe in the magic!
I now have a 3 year old and I’m sure she thinks the whole concept is bonkers and has refused to see a Santa this year 🤪 she sees us choosing gifts for people and picking anonymous gifts to give to others from gifting trees in Dunelm…I just try to teach her it’s a nice time of year to gift to others who might not have anything (probably partly as when I had my youngest we had nothing it literally would be a few £ on a charity shop toy). At the weekend she asked for her Christmas presents insisting we go to the boot of the car and listed a couple of specific items she put on her Christmas list she wrote in November! 😱 luckily Santa hadn’t left them in the boot as he hasn’t visited yet!
both mine are August babies if that makes a difference

@HansHolbein unless your child has additional needs, I cannot believe you are allowing them to go to secondary school still believing in Santa, I've never heard of a 12 year old believing in Santa in my life.

Why? That is super sad. If it doesn’t affect then and their friends haven’t involved themselves then it’s just an arbitrary number.

Bah humbug. The magic and fun of Christmas is half the fun.

My Nephew is 7 and still believes but is definitely asking questions. He has already said the Santa he saw on a day out was a fake one. My Niece is 3 and believes in both the Elf and Santa. I realised the presents came from my Mum and Dad when I was 8 but played along for a couple more years!

Both mine started getting suspicious around six but I’m not sure when they transitioned from suspicion to firm lack of belief as we have all continued to play along with increasing degrees of wryness!

My DC8 still believes although has asked some sensible questions about logistics. Personally, I'm over it. I struggle with the lies but don't have the heart to exclude them from this cultural experience. I tend to down play it and brush off questions with "what do you think?", "its magic". I've never purposely taken them to a grotto but have ended up meeting santa by accident several times because there tends to be one at family events this time of year. I've put only one decent gift in the stocking this year and the best ones come from me so hopefully not too much of a adjustment when they figure it out.

All three of ours were 10 plus when they "realised", but beautifully, the eldest one didn't spoil it for the younger two.

This is the first year in 20 I've had a whole house who knows!!

Yes, my eldest is 6 and has never "believed", it's clearly always been a game. I was exactly the same myself as a child and I still always loved Christmas.

I'm not sure about my 3 year old, he's not quite as articulate as my eldest was at that age so it's difficult to tell. Not sure if he believes it all literally or also thinks it's a game.

A friend has a 7yo who still completely believes.

I can DS ( now 20) needed to know exactly how his baby sister got out of my tummy aged 2. He decided he was an atheist before he was 5. Doing STEM at Oxbridge some people are just very logical.

I'm just reading through the thread a bit now and have read your post and a few others like it. I agree actually, anecdotally that tends to fit with my experience too. Im not Christian but have a different faith which I was brought up in and passing it along to my kids. However was also brought up to celebrate Christmas a fun cultural event and do have some Christian family members, which again is what we do with our kids. As things stand my 6yo believes in and talks about God but definitely doesn't believe in Santa.

My 8.5 year old seems to still fully believe which surprises me because he's generally very clever and switched on. I stopped believing when I was 7 so I thought last year would be our last.

My mother taught 7/8 yesr olds and said the usual path is they ask lots of questions around this age then the following year not one question and they play along.

Surely any child older that about 8 who says they believe is humouring mum and dad / angling for presents! I was pretty gullible and loved magic and had a pre internet childhood and even I accepted the truth by 8.

This 100%!

My 10 year old knows - logically - that reindeer don't fly and Santa can't get around the whole world in one night, and she definitely knows that the Santas you can go and visit aren't the "real" Santa. But it's fun to think that magic could exist out there and it's part of the fun of Christmas thinking what Santa might like as a treat (snowman shaped-crumpet with jam this year) and watching for him coming on flight radar 😁

10 officially.

I'm pretty sure that from 8 it was the power of wanting to believe though... and why shouldn't children want to believe in unicorns, santa, and that their Hogwarts letter is going to arrive? They know logically its not true... but nothing wrong with a little magic.

Mine was 7 but she didn't tell me and played along because there are younger children in the family and it is loads of fun.
Eventually, when she left primary school at 10 I thought I had better tell her before she got mocked at secondary, but turned out there was no need.

My mum told me the other day that I believed til I was 12. I had to break it to her that I’d known since I was about 8, but I hadn’t wanted to break her heart as I was the youngest, so I went along with it.
Her face fell. think I broke her heart telling her that. I’m in my 40s 😂

The 9 year old is desperately hanging on, but the 5 year old told me recently he wasn't real.