When the kids stop believing 😟

[Chocolatefixeseverything]

To be a little sad I have no Santa believers anymore, what still children not quite adults Christmas rituals do you have? I share Christmas with her dad which I find difficult as it is.

I make advent a big deal. A small gift each day done in a tombola raffle style. It’s our favourite part of Christmas and spreads out the excitement. Now I don’t have a believer any more the gifts have changed but the fun remains.

I think most kids work out the truth way before parents realise ! Discussed this with friends once and we all admitted we pretended to our parents we still believed in case the presents stopped ! My parents continued to make up a Santa stocking until I had my own child because they enjoyed doing it , and now my husband and I carry on that tradition with our son , who is WELL over the age of believing 😊

We still do Santa, even though both DC are well past the point of believing. They actually prefer advent calendars, because they know they're getting something they want. I do 2 calendars each, 1 from Thornton's and 1 of something they ask for (candles, makeup etc). It can definitely get pricey though, so a few cheaper ideas I can think of are:
Just a stocking of small stuff they want/need
Christmas baking (we always make cookies for "Santa" and have done since our eldest's 1st Christmas)
Traditions during advent instead of on the day - just small things like decorating the house, making paper chains

Something we've always done is choose a picture of each child from each month and turn it into a grid so there's 12 pictures of the DC. DH did it as a gift for me when they were younger but now they do it themselves.

Mine don't believe...they're 15 and 11 and we are STILL putting out milk and biscuits for Father Christmas thank you very much.,

We still read "The Night Before Christmas" on Christmas Eve AND the elves still come with a surprise parcel of pyjamas and mug etc.

I also say "Well I believe in him!" and live in a fantasy bubble for 24 hours.

Aaawww thanks this has cheered me right up ❤️ think shall carry on business as usual I think the build up of advent and s fantasy 24 hrs is a fantastic idea, not enough of that in the world today I'm all for it X

My son is 15, I adopted him when he was 7 so I have had very few Christmases when he believed.

So I carry on as normal, advent calendars, mince pie and carrots out on Christmas eve, Christmas PJs. I tell him I'm not prepared to risk it - he smiles and humours me. The only we don't do is a Santa visit, but we still go to a panto, watch the Nativity movies.
We do more grown up things now though like a trip to Kew Gardens to see the light show.

We now open presents at midnight and have a long lie in on Christmas day. Lovely.

Nothing really has changed. DD just wrote her letter, she asked politely what Father Christmas and the reindeers would like for a snack.

She totally loves Christmas, knowing who gets the presents hasn’t made any impact.

Good things about it are being able to discuss presents and the timing of celebrating. We are Germans so the main event is Christmas
Eve. It was always a difficult time, getting the presents down to the tree without being obvious and DH lightening the candles while trying to stop DD going down and “checking”.

Meh. It’s no biggie. It’s still fun. We still do Christmassy things and play the tunes and watch the movies and put the stocking out. Just make it happy Christmas fun rather than about some dude coming down the chimney.

The first Christmas my brother and I didn't believe my mum made a treasure hunt to find the gifts in the house. It was so much fun! It was only for one year but it was such a nice thing to do which I'll always remember!