To ask about children believing in Father Christmas, what age did they stop?

[NoKnit]

I have to ask as I am quite curious. What age did your child stop believing in santa?

The other week my 7 year old asked his Dad if santa was real and husband just told him no he isn't real although he shouldn't tell his little brother (who is 4). Although in fairness we could tell the 4 year old and he'd forget in a few minutes anyway

The thread about the 9 year old and his neighbour just got me thinking. We live in a country that doesn't really do santa, or does it their own way so it isn't a big deal to us. But I am pretty curious as to when your children stopped believing and if you think 7 is too young.

My 10 year old still believes, I'll tell him.the truth in a few months time. Most of his friends still believe. I have no idea how as they all know how to Google imformation.

It depends on the child. DC1 asked if Santa was real when he was 8yo and I asked what did he think, he said he thought he was real so I agreed and left it at that. The following year, age 9yo, he asked again and when I asked what did he think he said he thought he wasn't real, I asked if he wanted to know and he said yes so I told him. From other children I know it seems around average.

DC2 is 9yo and has started questioning but said Santa is real when I asked what did they think so I've not said anything more, I think the realisation is coming though.

Well if you were to believe mumsnet any child over 7 is a gullible fool.

But I'm in Ireland and it's common if not normal to believe at 10 I'd rather be surrounded by gullible fools than the joyless wankers these threads inevitably draw out though.

My youngest figured it out when he was 8 and we then had to break the news to the eldest who was quite upset. I think he would have gone off to comp believing if it hadn’t been brought to a head.

My 8 year old and 6 year old don’t believe anymore but should I tell them the truth as they will tell the 3 year old?? What do people do in that situation? When older children no longer believe but you still have little ones? Telling them not to tell won’t work unfortunately as that already happened about the tooth fairy 😏

My DS was 9. He started to really question it around 7/8 but I managed to stretch it out by telling him a very long and complicated theory. Basically that Santa is magic because where he lives in the North Pole is directly under a 1 mile area under the earths axis, where the world spins. And due to this things that wouldn’t normally exist happened i.e magic

He then came to me when he was 9 and told me that what I had told him didn’t make sense but he appreciated me going to such an effort to convince him

About five or six but they had the good sense to stay quiet and play the game.

My daughter was 7. She probably wouldn't have worked it out or considered it herself at that she but was told by an older child and quickly saw his logic! Quickly followed by Easter bunny, tooth fairy...
It has actually made things much easier since.

At that age

Dd 1 was 12, Dd2 told her in a angry exchange when she was 10 (she had worked it out the year before but didn't want to ruin it fir her sister until the argument)

my DDs both did a lot of questioning around age 7 / 8 but I gave ambiguous answers and said that Santa only comes to children who believe in him. So now they pretend to believe and we pretend to believe that they believe, with plenty of knowing smiles but no explicit discussion. It seems more fun that way.

@ViceVersa

My DS was 9. He started to really question it around 7/8 but I managed to stretch it out by telling him a very long and complicated theory. Basically that Santa is magic because where he lives in the North Pole is directly under a 1 mile area under the earths axis, where the world spins. And due to this things that wouldn’t normally exist happened i.e magic

He then came to me when he was 9 and told me that what I had told him didn’t make sense but he appreciated me going to such an effort to convince him

I love this

DS is 8 and has been flitting between believing and not believing for about three years. He's a clever boy with a good grasp of science so I think logically he understands Santa can't be real, but I'm quite convincing with my tales when I want to be

Mine's 7. she's worked out that the Santas she goes to see aren't real cos their beards aren't real. I find this can't be explained away by magic so I told her well Santa can't be everywhere so he has helpers.
She still believes but she's clearly starting to question.. 😞

My DD goes to village school in rural Scotland she stopped believing at about 7 she is now 10, but we never made a big thing of it just stocking. I asked her last year if anyone in her class still believed in Santa she said no , nobody believes in P5 ( yesr4) they just pretend they do for little ones. When I was a school in 1970s we believed in infant school but not in junior school 8 years old, my mother now in her 70s said kids stopped believing around 7-8 . The way kids talk at school I find it hard to believe in a multi cultural school that anyone would believe whole heartedly beyond 8 as they will know other kids that no longer believe or kids from other cultures or religions that don't do Santa, or a friend will have said something about doubts. Absolutely believing in Santa ends about 7-8 hedging your bets for another couple of years is normal but I've never met a 10 year old that really truly believes

Loads of people claim their 10yos believe. 10yos are not stupid. They know the magic reindeer are not caring around toys elves made. They may well be perfectly happy to 'believe' because it's fun, and they enjoy it (and the presents)

I would say most kids don't really believe beyond say 6-8.

I think mine were about 8 or nine. They happily played along with me and still in Thier 20s will put out mince pies and carrot for Santa and raindeer 🤣

ShedFace that has made me smile no end. 😍😊

Interesting answers as I am so curious. Here is unheard of for a child of school age to really believe someone comes into the house, same as they know monsters m, ghosts etc aren't real

As for the tooth fairy, he hasn't actually lost any teeth but pretty sure he knows she isn't real. We've never had a need to tell him

As for the older ones telling the 3 year old, mine wouldn't have remembered at age of 3 anyway they had really wild imaginations

I'd rather be surrounded by gullible fools than the joyless wankers these threads inevitably draw out though

Love this!

Counting down to the first poster that queries the critical thinking ability of a 4 year old.

Mine didn’t believe at 3 - said it was “just a story”, which is a line we’d used in the past about things in stories that she didn’t like (like Hansel and Gretle being left in the woods by their dad) or that made her think we should let her do something she couldn’t (like take an animal home from the zoo!). But then in Reception she came home declaring Father Christmas was real. By 5 she was back to not believing.

As a teacher, it always makes me laugh when I read the KS2 science and history assessment criteria (creating and testing hypotheses, evaluating scientific results to draw conclusions, basic rules of physics, using a range of sources around a historic event to check the validity of a viewpoint, all of the questioning they should do), then looking around the class at Christmas time and realising that some of them are still unquestioning of the magic of santa getting around the world in a night, carrying unlimited presents and getting into houses.

In my experience, in a year 5 to 6 class (age 9-11) a few of the most immature children (and I don't mean that in a negative way at all, just the 'younger' ones) still believe completely, a few are very vocal about absolutely not believing, and the rest are somewhere in the middle and might desperately still want to believe but have their doubts, or just keep quiet with a bit of a knowing look.

It makes me really sad that she might not believe soon 😢😢😢

I was 7 but kept the presence going because I had 4 younger siblings. When children in our extended family realise he’s not real we tell them that we are all a Santa to someone else and we can all make Christmas special for someone else and they get excited about being a Santa for someone, not by leaving presents but by doing something nice for someone, a random act of kindness.

My son was 9 but he said he was doubting for a couple of years.

^To clarify, i dont mean I'm laughing at the children believing - realised that might be how it sounded. I mean I'm laughing at whoever wrote the KS2 assessment criteria who think I'm going to get all of these children to reach those levels of critical thinking, when they are still children who believe in magic.