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.

Around 10/11 for both. I had to talk to them before they started high school to make sure they both knew.

Why? What happens if a 10 or 11 yo still believes in the magic of Christmas? 🤔

I thought I stopped believing quite young, but this thread has made me realise I was a very gullible child!
I remember being in year 3, and was at my friends house. She sat me down and said she had something important to tell me. I was actually devastated when she told me he wasn’t real, and up to that point had no inclination at all that he might not be
if she didn’t tell me, god knows how long I would have gone on believing for!

They will probbaly be laughed at my their peers.

DD1 is almost 8 (Year 3 at school) and is definitely questioning things this year and has announced she knows the Father Christmas we saw at the garden centre isn't the real one. So I suspect this year may be our last of her believing.

I suspect you've misunderstood. Many families are like mine - with my 18 and 20 year-old, we still talk about Santa coming and they put out stockings. They've known it was us since primary school, but have continued to play along because it's fun, and because none of us want Christmas to lose its magic.

My two are 11 and 7. Last year the eldest insisted it all wasn’t real etc, questioning and we had a conversation about not everyone believes in the same things etc. I’m 99% sure she knows but is playing along. I don’t think she’s thick or
lacking critical thinking skills though if she did believe 100%, I think it’s sweet and innocent.

My 7 year old came out in the summer that he wasn’t real and she thought it was parents putting out the presents. We just made non committal noises and again reiterated that not everyone believes in the same things.

Santa is not such a big deal in our house, he brings the stockings and one or two presents off their list. Everything else is from us/family. They know we buy and wrap presents for them.
We told them you never know if the Santa you see in the garden centre etc is the real one or a helper (helps when you get a crappy Santa!). So them transitioning to not believing isn’t such a big deal.

My 11yo tells me they go along with their friends when they say it isn’t real but they do believe.

DS2 has SN and is 14 still "believes".

DS1 believed until he was about 10. I was very good at creating the "magic". He was savvy enough not to let on to friends. He did feel sad when he realised it wasn't true. Still gets loads of presents from "Santa"!!

DS was 10. We actually told DS after his last christmas before secondary school. His younger sister worked it out for herself at anout 9.

It seems that this generation of children believes longer I am in my 60’s nobody believed after the age of about 8. Yet we were far less sophisticated and childlike than now. As a child Father Christmas delivered the presents from other people but we always knew who they were from so they could be thanked. I know my parents would open the presents and write down what was in them and who from then rewrap them when we were very young.

I have a bright nt nearly 12 year old who seems to still believe. I asked if her friends ever talk about whether Santa’s real in primary or secondary and she said no. I think it’s fine for there to be a gradual realisation when they have their own doubts rather than crash their beliefs?

I was 9 in the 1980s.

My 12 and 10 year old still believe. We kept it very simple from the beginning - one gift plus stocking. They go a wee Scottish rural primary school. No unsupervised online activity.

We will tell our 12 year old next summer before she starts secondary school. She is autistic so I think it is related to 'fixed ideas'.

I’m surprised that some people have to have a sit down talk with their kids to say that Santa isn’t real. I don’t see the need. Children will naturally stop believing or perhaps just play along with the magic.
I really don’t see the need to make a big thing about it.

Kids having a bit of make believe fun once a year is hardly doing them any harm. What about young children having some innocence and a believing in a bit of magic?

I had a heated debate with my 15 year old about exactly what Santa and Rudolph want left out this year. I had heard it was a Baileys and some Brie as the reindeer needs to keep his calcium up but she thought water and a drycracker.

They both have stockings still of course. As did I until I had kids at 34 when my mummy told me Santa had to focus on new children now. What else was I to do? Buy my own socks?

(I think they stopped about 8 ish but played along for a year or so. I was 7 but I had an older brother who told me when he found out at 9).

Not sure either of mine have.

The Santa signs are going out tonight.

They are 22 and 17!!! 🤣🤣

Yep really sad. DS is 7 and for the last year or so hasn’t believed. Sad as they only really properly get it from age 2 or 3! I blame school, lots of kids in his class ruining it for others.

Hes not my oldest though. DS1 is 9 and in a lovely class, DS2 announced Santa isn’t real and DS1’s voice….. he was like ‘what???? Oh yeah yeah huh I knew that, course he’s not real’ 💔 annoying as pretty sure this would have been his last year semi believing before he properly knew anyway!

Feel like it’s over before it’s even begun, we’ve barely started our own traditions yet even ugh.

That was me, for DS1’s first Xmas I had to check with my mum that Santa didn’t really exist and I had to do the work 😂

Obviously I did really know but we’d never acknowledged it and I got a stocking until I got married.

My 11 year old still acts like she believe but I think she just likes the rituals tbh.

They still like the signs going out and who are we to stop that, it's a bit of fun, so keep it going.

I decorated the tree the other day and put their first Christmas decorations on and some they made at preschool all those years ago.

I don't think he ever believed, but he was certainly voicing his disbelief at 5.

My oldest is 7 (close to 8) and still believes. I honestly have no idea how tbh, since he questions everything, believes in the big bang theory, is very scientific, and looks at everything under a magnifying glass! He is so black and white, so a mystical man with a magic key, I just don't know how he does?! His classmates do believe as well, so that helps!
I must have spun a hell of a good story 😂I think next year he'll not, probably hear at school 😭 I just hope he doesn't tell his younger sibling!! The second one usually finds out sooner due to this very reason!

Christmas is never the same again once you find out!

My eldest was about 10 or 11. Youngest didn't really ever believe, she just isn't easily hoodwinked. Did nothing different for either of them. Eldest still believed when youngest didn't! I think I was 10.

"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 😁"

@soundsys Exactly! Mine knows logically too it isn't possible for this to really happen but still wants to look at the Santa tracker and still wants that whole experience. We go along with it like a drama performance almost! It's like we're doing a play that we all enjoy. I would never ever sit him down and say 'you know it's not all real. We've just been pretending for 10 years'. As I said earlier too I am not worried about school or friends as I've seen him with friends and he's completely different - like a pre-teen already! But I can see this Christmas fantasy is important for him and he loves it at home because he knows if we all say it out loud then we stop making cookies and giving that extra present from 'Santa'.