When did you tell your children Santa doesn’t exist?

[Honeybeexo]

I’m not a parent (25 no kids), but I’m thinking back to when my mum told me and my sister (we were 9 and 11, just as I started high school) that Santa didn’t exist. She said she told us because she didn’t want me teased in secondary school for believing in him. Me and my sister were a little suspicious but still totally shocked when she told us, it was horrible, haha!

Just wondering how others have told their kids, and whether it made them unhappy or they weren’t bothered?

I confirmed it at 5 when some kid at school told him.

Although, thinking back, I think ds1 probably worked it out before he was 9, just didn't want to risk saying jt incase he was real and didn't come.

Never. They were still getting stockings until they were in their 20s but obviously didn't believe. We only stopped so that the grandchildren didn't get confused

I told Dd (8) last year when she asked me to tell her the truth. I had fobbed her off the year before with 'what do you think darling?' but she had worked it out. I did check she really wanted to know first. She was a bit disappointed but was fine. She's keeping the secret for her brother!

Never.

At 6 S1 said "Mummy I don't think the tooth fairy's real.... I think it's you" and I grinned and said "do you, sweetheart?"

By Christmas he and his friend had worked out that the presents delivery was logistically impossible .

We only did Stocking Presents from Father Christmas, other presents were from relevant people. (One year our friends gave us a bagful of presents labelled "from Father Christmas" which confused S2 for a while until we said "oh, they're playing a game pretending to be Father Christmas"... he seemed to accept this but it may have been the beginning of the end)

At least one year I left something out of the stockings, and handed them over later saying "Father Christmas asked me to tell you he forgot these". They humoured me.

I told my eldest before high school too. I've regretted it ever since, I wish I'd never said anything

We never have actually said he doesnt

They told me when they were in Yr6. Very tactfully, because they thought i still believed.

I told my son cos he asked me I wish I had lied it was awful he was 11 😔

WHAT do you mean...it can't be true...😂😂😂

Similar to others, we all still believe, even with teenagers.
In fact as they were growing up I managed to convince them by buying presents and leaving them for myself from Santa. I'm a single parent, a fab excuse to treat myself ( GHD's!! ) and then ask the DC's if they bought them??? Of course they didn't but it was enough to throw them off the truth.

I think we are at a point where we all think we believe in Santa but the kids know he isn't real...but daren't tell me😂😂😂

My dd is now 11 (nearly 12) and a year or two ago worked it out for herself. I won’t entirely confirm or deny that she’s right - I think there’s still some magic in not saying it outright - but yeah she knows he doesn’t exist.

Obviously she’s under strict instructions not to mention it to 6 yo Ds!

I don’t think my parents told us outright. I think we worked it out gradually in the same way, but I again they still said “oh he might be real”...

Doesn’t help that there’s always one clever cloggs who tells the whole class in yr 1 (or similar).

So pleased I'm not alone in having never told them. We still play along and the youngest is now at Uni.
Last year was the first I hadn't got a carrot to leave out for the reindeer and the DC were quite put out.

DS asked us to ‘tell me the truth’ at 7, so we did. But I did tell him it was a lovely story and the joy it brought was more important than whether it was real or not. I clearly remember knowing that Father Christmas wasn’t real but still thinking how amazing it would be to hear sleigh bells and looking out of the window ‘just in case’.

We never pretended FC was literally real. Even if he had, DS was at school from a Reception with a lot of kids from cultural backgrounds that didn’t do Christmas/presents/FC (or from European backgrounds that have different stories about who gives the presents and when), and is a natural sceptic. He adores the ritual and the stories and putting out carrots and mice pies etc, regardless.

@LavenderSatin

My youngest sibling is now 30 and it has never been acknowledged in my family even once that Santa might not exist. We still put out a mince pie and a carrot 😁

Same here. Although my youngest is high school age.

Santa gets whisky here .

I'm 36 and my parents have still never told me. I still get a stocking if I'm at home at Christmas.

@RaininSummer

Never. They were still getting stockings until they were in their 20s but obviously didn't believe. We only stopped so that the grandchildren didn't get confused

My mum still did this for us into our 20s too. We were never told but obviously we knew at secondary school that he didn't exist but I look back very fondly on all my childhood/young adult Christmases. It sounds cruel to me to actually tell them

A dd at about 8 3/4 told me in very matter of fact tones that she knew Father Christmas was me and daddy, so I might as well admit it.
So I did.

When she was in her early 20s she told me she’d been dying for me to deny it, so she could go on believing a little longer. 🙁
FC still came anyway, of course, and still does to anyone in this house at Christmas.

My cousin told me when I was 4, so I must not have believed for very long. 😅

I've always told my dc that FC is just a nice story for children, and never made him out to be literally real.

Never!
I’m passing down what my DM told me.
Children at school who say he doesn’t exist are on the naughty list, and their parents have to do their stocking.
Santa only comes to those who BELIEVE.
I got stockings until I had dd, in my 30s

They just worked it out, there was a thread a couple of years ago about lying to your kids about tooth fairy, Santa etc and I vividly remember one poster frothing so much over it and saying that her gran said on her deathbed that it had scarred her life that her own parents had lied to her, I mean wtf??

Saying that in my house Father Christmas brings them a stocking of small gifts, my SIL wanted me to go along with the pretence he bought everything! That I think doesn’t teach them that some things are too expensive and to be grateful for gifts from their relatives

@Gatehouse77

Don’t believe don't receive

Same in this house! And growing up. Just a bit of fun, no trauma, no broken hearts, no sense of betrayal.

(They figured it out themselves we've never 'told' them.)

Same in my house ... daughter is 9 and I’m pretty sure she still believes. She asked will her great grandads elf come to her house this year as her grandad passed away this year. He made a huge fuss of ‘Charlie’ the elf in his house being really naughty even though he had come to look after him (had cancer).

I think this may be the last year she actively believes though so I plan to make the most of it.

I don’t ever remember being told Santa wasn’t real but I also remember I defiantly did believe in him when younger so I clearly wasn’t that heartbroken when I found out!

I wasn't told. I think I was 12 when I fully accepted it and decided for myself he couldn't be real. I feel like for a year or 2 I had an inkling, but told myself he was real as I wanted to still believe. I was very lucky to have 2 older siblings who didn't ruin it for me, as I think this is how most kids find out (or at school!)

Never told mine, they gradually worked it out but I totally denied it and told them "If you don't believe, you don't receive !"
They just humour me now ...