to think that a child who believes in Santa beyond 6/7ish is either...

[santaslayer]

a bit naive or a bit dim?

I'm neither a troll nor 2bubs4me so no hunting.

I dont remember ever believing in Santa, and I remember quite a lot from my pre-school years. I knew the size of the Earth, the number of people and the impossibility of the logistics of 'Santa'. I also knew better than to beleive everything my parents said .

My DS is basically the same. I understand that 3yo's believe - it's cute, but I think it's a bit creepy when 8+yo's still do.

But I would never actually criticise a parent for having such deluded sheltered DCs.

So my kids are either dim or naive according to you? Ds still wholehearted believes in Santa because we met the real one in Lapland 2 years ago. DD whi is 11 hasn't said either way if she believes or not, but a bit of magic in life isn't wrong in the crap world we live in.

IME, both of myself and what I have witnessed in my own children, there isn't a simple line between beleiving and not beleiving. They don't wake up on their 7th b'day and think 'Oh, look Father Christmas is a big fat lie!'. They hear rumours in school, their older siblings tease them about it, they wake up and see daddy sneaking out of their rooms in the wee small hours..... and then, when all belief has more or less disappeared, they like to collude in the 'lie'. They know it's not true, they know their parents know they know it;s not true, but it's part of the structure of christmas and they go along with it and somehow the 'magic' is still there.

My 12 yr old and 14yr old know it's not true and have for a while but have only started talking about it with me in the last year or so - they help to choose presents for each other's stockings. DS2 is 8 and DD tells me he doesn't beleive anymore but he hasn't told me so yet!

DH and I buy stockings for each other. I'd not bother but DH loves it as much as the DC

Father Christmas still visits me and I'm 31. I'm not dim or naive.

Obviously we have to go back and stay at my parents, but Father Christmas knows where you are. And we do have to go to bed before my mum earlier than usual in case we bump into my mum father christmas because she he likes to get London done earlier in the night see.

We have stopped leaving a mince pie and a shot of brandy out though because Father Christmas my Dad was getting fat.

hohoho

My DDs are 10 and they still believe, and I'm glad they do, a little surprised perhaps as they are bright kids, certainly not 'naive' or 'dim' as you put it.
I'm glad though, there's too much of a rush to grow up these days.

I did wonder if they were going along with it all for my sake but I overhead one of them talking to our 14 year old neighbour who they both think is the coolest girl on earth, and they were asking her what she was hoping Santa would bring . There's no way she would have mentioned it if she had the slightest doubt bless her.

My dd is 8 and hasn't said she doesn't believe anymore but she doesn't talk about FC coming this year either. As long as she doesn't ruin it for my younger children (5 & 2) by telling them her thoughts and plays along its fine.
When I stopped believing the Magic of Christmas faded quickly as I was busy helping wrap my siblings presents Christmas eve!

We all believe in my house, and we're all over 18. And he always fills our stockings.

2010 thread people!

Or actually has SN. DS1 only caught onto the Santa idea the Christmas after his 7th birthday.

Does it really matter to you that much?

Just noticed, SoupDragon

Dating back from about the time DS1 decided to take an interest in all things Santa related, in fact!

troll

tbh only thing I can think of reading ur post is that u sound miserable - u think kids who believe in santy past a certain age or dim or naive... why!