Does your 9/10 year old still believe in Santa?

[pinkponie]

My DD1 is 9, will be 9.5 at Christmas. She currently still believes in Santa, at least she says she does. A lot could change between now and Christmas I guess but I really hope I get another Christmas with her believing. Does anyone else with dc that age still believe?

If I had an 11 year old who still genuinely believed I would consider it a parenting failure.

My daughter realised at 5 that Santa and Elf on the Shelf aren't real. She kept asking roundabout questions, observing the setups and snooped around to find leftover pipe cleaners that I used for an elf prank. She concluded we were behind it all, and by conjecture, the tooth fairy as well. She wasn't that upset at all though, just seemed pleased she figured it out.

I told mine before their last Christmas at primary school. I didn’t want them going to secondary and getting teased or bullied. They all kept it a secret for younger siblings/cousins no bother.

Some kids with various forms of SN might still believe.

Honestly I’m not sure , I just felt we still had another year of keeping the magic alive maybe 🤔 .
If she asks again, which no doubt she will , we will tell her the truth

I was wondering the same. Surely he knows that people buy presents for each other. Has he never sent a thank you letter text etc

Yes. Just 9 so will be 9.5 at Xmas. Def hoping get one more (yr 5)

be amazing if get 2 - yr 5 and 6

but after that yr 6 one then need to tell by summer holidays following year

as can’t start secondary school and say they do as will get the piss taken out of them

If I had an 11 year old who DIDN’T still believe, I’d consider that a parenting fail. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.

So you’re happy for your 11 year old to not know the difference between truth and reality? Or do YOU believe in Father Christmas?

Sure I believe in Father Christmas…. I look on the sky with excited eyes. 🎅🏻

I don’t think ten month old kids even understand Father Christmas yet.

Yes, they are. Trust me, I’m as surprised about this as anyone - especially knowing my son who is incredibly practical. We’ve also never done Elf on the Shelf or any of that malarkey.

They also haven’t ever been into Disney or even role play type games tbh. Both smart kids and quite mature for their ages.

I worked with someone a few years back who told me she believed until she was 13. I couldn’t understand how she could get to that age and not know. She said when other kids told her she just didn’t believe them.

And now here we are!

From what I’ve seen it isn’t that uncommon, there are a lot of children in our street and at our Christmas party last year all the primary school kids (including yr 6) were believers. Wasn’t like that when I was a kid.

Ok, I’ve just asked him if he thinks magicians genuinely have magic powers or if they just know how to do clever tricks and he said he does think some are magic - based on his previous experience with a magician who was skilled in slight of hand!

He gets presents from us and others. Santa leaves presents from himself.

And before there’s a pile on he doesn’t get a mountain of them. 😄

He also still sticks a letter up the chimney.

Just to demonstrate I’m not encouraging this, his tooth fell out a week ago and he’s had it on his window sill waiting for the TF ever since but the TF keeps forgetting to get some cash. This isn’t the first time but he’s pretty patient about it. 😄

How sad, to miss all the magical excitement of Father Christmas coming! I’m so glad our dds enjoyed the same excitement I did, until at least 9 or 10, and ditto the Gdcs now, too.

DD was 9.5 and in Y5 when there were just too many school mates who told the truth in the playground come October.

She was already doubting it but wasn't heartbroken by it. We still did Santa presents until she was 18. I don't believe in the "it's only magical if they believe" theory, nothing really changed.

My now DD 13 still 100% believed when she left primary at age 11, I told her the truth before she started secondary and literally watched the magic just drain away. She’s always been great at keeping it from her younger siblings and joined in with helping us. My middle DS 11 has I think been skeptical the last couple of years but never said anything but I will also speak to him before starting secondary. My youngest DS 8 still definitely believes and has never questioned it but we will see.
I’m so glad I got to keep the magic alive for so long and kept that innocence for them as children grow up way too quick these days.

My DS IS 11 in November and he gets more of a buzz trying to work out where I’d hid the presents 🤣

To be honest, they probably haven't seen much of that - their school doesn't do the shoebox appeal and they watch very little live TV (mostly iPlayer/Netflix) so very few charity ads. Plus, as I said, Santa only brings a few stocking presents, so I'm not sure they would think that he ought to be providing coats or food. They get that some families have more money, or choose to spend more money on Christmas presents, that doesn't seem to interfere with Santa much.

No it's not entirely logical, but it's also not completely outlandish.

It’s more in jan. What did you get

fc got me xyz

No but they all pretend and act although if she was a single child maybe it could have lasted. However, she knows the fake smiles from the older siblings.

My saying you don’t believe you won’t receive - we “all” believe in Santa at our house.

I told my 10 year old recently because most of his friends already knew last xmas. He was adamant that they were wrong but I really didn't want him looking silly still believing next year (and he would have looked silly. You could already see the strange looks from peers that have known for years this year)

He was heartbroken though. It was a horrible conversation to have.

We told our son the October half term after he started secondary school. He had an inkling but I don’t think fully knew. Heart over head!

But now he knows he is part of the Santa magic for all younger children who still believe and that’s an important responsibility!

So everyone has to pretend in case they don’t get presents?

Why is it sad? I was a very intelligent child and it made no sense even at that age. I was never much of a ‘Christmas person’ although my parents did their best.

I think the fact that children have to actually be told at such an advanced age is a little sad tbh. I would expect them at that age to be able to work it out.