To insist Father Christmas is real until I drop dead?

[johnnymarrr]

My mum has always insisted Father Christmas is real. I believed until I was around 11, despite most kids at school not believing I pretended I also didn't but secretly believed with all my heart, and my mum and dad would go all out for Christmas and it made it SO special.

She still insists he's real now (I'm grown up now with kids of my own and I have 4 older siblings, eldest is almost 40!!) and my mum still insists to us that he is real and buys us presents from Santa 😂

AIBU to do the same for my kids? Or is this really odd?!

I was terrified of santa when I was young.
An old man breaking into your home at night when everyone sleeps? Super creepy. I was so relieved when my mum told me he wasn't real! My brother was initially heartbroken until he realised he would still get presents, then he got over it pretty quick

Wtf? Why are you sprouting nonsense- of course he’s real!

I am planning to insist he is real forever too. I suspect we will naturally move into the dc knowing that we are playing a game rather than real belief as they get older.

My mum use to insist that the cat bought and wrapped a present for my until I was 30. She used to wrap the present deliberately badly (unlike her beautiful presents) and leave some cat fur on the sellotape. I think it is from little madnesses like that that a lot of my joy in christmas comes.

@Stompythedinosaur the cat present is hilarious and Incredible! might have to snatch the idea for my DCs

St. Nicholas was a Bishop who lived in the fourth century in a place called Myra in Asia Minor (now called Turkey). He was a very rich man because his parents died when he was young and left him a lot of money. He was also a very kind man and had a reputation for helping the poor and giving secret gifts to people who needed it.

He was real and my argument is that we are all Santas!

Not real???? I'm putting neighbourhood watch on stand-by, someone comes into our house every 24/25th December , eats our mince pies and drinks our whisky! We also make sure the chimney's swept in time, what a waste of money if he's not real.

I'm 58 and still get a present every year from Santa.

100% real!! I can hear the bell :-) (Polar Express)

Of course Father Christmas is real. He still visits both my parents (pushing 80) and me and all my siblings. He keeps delivering as long as you keep believing.

Thank you for this thread - I have found my people.

My kids are late teens and still get presents from Santa. And always will.

Veni I loved Virginia's letter, and look! Here's the house she lived in back then

www.google.com.au/maps/place/115+W+95th+St,+New+York,+NY+10025,+USA/@40.7925394,-73.968837,3a,75y,36.31h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sAEIrbQl7CF29F5FTkJJ0Og!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DAEIrbQl7CF29F5FTkJJ0Og%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D36.306625%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c2f62780d5912d:0xfcec8c00057011d1!8m2!3d40.7927005!4d-73.9686545

If you don't believe, then watch Miracle on 34th Street again. They prove it in court.

Incidentally, bit of a stand off last year as me and partner went to bed on Christmas Eve. She pointed at the milk, cookies and carrot left in the hearth, as if to say 'go on then!'. I hadn't a clue what She was implying.

Very happy memories of my mum adding a large glass of sherry to the mince pies and carrots, "for Mrs Claus", ha. We will be looking forward to Mrs and Father Christmas' visit for as.long as we can each year...

Then who are Norad tracking each December 24th?
Santa is totally real.

No, you're not being unreasonable. He will always exist. Those that insist on telling their children otherwise are missing the point, and giving up something wonderful.

Of course he’s real and I have always told my dc’s, now 17 and 14, that if they don’t believe, they won’t receive.

VeniVidiWeeWee and MawkishTwaddle - where I live they always read out the “Letter to Virginia” at the end of the evening news on Christmas Eve. Makes me cry every time.

Never mind Santa (we all know about him) I'm just glad someone else gets visited by the Birthday Fairy! My friends at school tried to tell me there was no such thing, I know they were lying.

I haven't managed to sleep "at home" (in the house I grew up in) on Christmas Eve for over a decade, but most of my DSiblings still have over the years and there's always at least 1 or 2 there. Anyone who does sleep there on Christmas Eve still has to put out a (clean!!) pair of socks, and it is filled with fruit, sweets and a book on Christmas Morning. The YOUNGEST of those is now mid 30s.

If there are DGC in the house on Christmas Eve, I believe there is judicious timing of various movements in and out of that room late at night, as DGPs are not involved in stockings.

DH also tells DD that "if you don't believe, you won't receive" (she's almost 13).....I always believe, and I'm looking forward to receiving (a stocking) again in a year or so when everyone in our household leaves one out (no younger DCs).

This thread comes up every year, and every year I think it's utterly bizarre that people want to pretend that Santa Claus /Father Christmas is actually real. He's not.
You can have wonderful magic at Christmas without insisting that Santa Claus is a real person, you know.

I also always think it must be fucking awful for all those kids who won't be getting very much at all at Christmas, and there's certainly enough of them in the UK these days.

TheKitchenWitch
Tongue in cheek doesn't bother me. It's nice to have a bit of silly festive cheer and humour. Life's too short to be miserable in my opinion.

The sincere twee insisting he's real and being affronted by people not buying into heaps of fantasy/ claims of not understanding who would possibly want to ruin the magic of Christmas that confuses me. (But then I also feel the same about adults over investing in other make believe things so am probably a terrible person )

Santa is real?

Great!

I'll just sit back & let him take care of presents this year!

the letter to virginia is lovely. I also love the 'we are all santa' letter:

wcrz.com/how-to-explain-santa-to-children/

That's a good point, Maisy - it's very different if it's said in a silly or humorous way than if it's mawkish and twee.

It probably depends on your own experiences, too - I found it very disconcerting when I told my parents aged 5 that I knew it was make-believe and got back 'if you don't believe, you don't get presents.' As there was no doubt in my mind about who was actually supplying the presents (I'd spied on them to make sure I was right!), I interpreted it as 'go along with the lie or else!' at an age where I was still discerning fantasy from reality. The same line to a 13-year-old would be much more tongue-in-cheek, shared humour.

WomanOfTime
That's my feeling on it.I find infantalising older kids and adults to be bizarre and something I don't understand.