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.

DS started to question it at 8. Then at 9 or 10
we said Santa only delivers to the babies and the parents get gifts for the older kids. Tbh I’ve never actually outright said he doesn’t exist but he knows as he hands his list straight to me 😂 He’s almost 12 now and will still leave a mince pie and carrot.

My DC are 19 and 13, they both still claim to believe in Santa so I don't actually know when they realised the truth.

My dd (12 next month) worked it out about 5/6. We’ve never said “FC doesn’t exist”. She just knew. She’s an actress and has enjoyed the play that we do every year. She’s the same with the tooth fairy, even wrote her a note one time. Even now the molar goes somewhere outside her room with the comment “mum, I’ve left the tooth here where the fairy can find it!”. We do stocking big here. Everyone (even pets) gets one and we all thank FC and ask each other what we got even though we put it there.

My ds is 10. He still believes. I’m not being that naive parent. He really does. He’s not that good an actor and he’s on the spectrum so he takes things at face value.
Not for much longer though. In the past week I’ve been asked about how he does it? Why isn’t he getting old? Will the elves deliver pjs this year etc etc? He also told me a boy in his class told him it was a myth. But this year he will believe!! And I love him for it!

I would say about 8 , may of even questioned at 7 and older one once he knew still kept it up for younger brothers sake as even as a child knew this was right thing to do

Snap @YolandiFuckinVisser my dc are 12 and 15 we have never had 'the talk' nor have they ever questioned it...I still sneak around on Christmas Eve once they have gone to bed it just gets later each year

I don't have my own children, but when I was in reception we did a project on 'Fantasy' and the teacher told us Father Christmas was a myth. I remember being very upset at the time but I must have got over it by Christmas because I was back to believing by then. Even when I listened to 'Superfudge' on audiobook when I was 7 it didn't really sway me. I suppose by 9 I was 'wanting' to believe rather than truly believing, and by then I noticed my big sister thanking my parents for her presents, and twigged that the handwriting on the labels was suspiciously similar to my mum's. It was the year I was 10 though and I caught my dad eating FCs biscuits when I came down for a drink before bed when I absolutely 'knew'. I cried for ages when I went back to bed because that last drop of magic had been lost. That week my dad had a big work crisis and was exhausted, and actually fell asleep before delivering pillow cases etc. Somehow subconciously I realised this and had to have 'a tummyache' at 4:30 in the morning to rouse my parents. I just thank God that didn't happen when I was younger, as it would have broken my heart to wake on Christmas morning to find He hadn't been!

I don't for a minute regret the whole Father Christmas thing though, or resent my parents for 'lying' the way some people do. To me Father Christmas isn't a lie any more than Harry Potter or Frozen is - sometimes you just have to suspend disbelief.

Mine never believed no matter how hard we tried. Although from 4 she would pretend for others if I told her they still believed because she didn't want to destroy their magic ✨

DS is 12 he still wavers a bit. I'm an excellent liar though.

My DS was 9 last Christmas when he asked me outright and I felt I couldn't lie - he was devastated!! My dd1 is 6 and has told me the Santa we go to see isn't real and has questioned me about how on earth he gets round the world in one night etc, dd2 is 5 and fully believes and won't question it for years I doubt!

I still believe why rob oneself of that pleasure? Never understand the type of child who takes pleasure in loudly declaring Father Christmas to be a fiction. And...?

WHAT! please don't tell me he isn't real....😂

My DC's all still believe and they are in their twenties.

I do think perhaps they know something I don't - but just don't want to tell me😉

In fact, in their teenage years I spun the story even more...and to my own advantage. As a single parent, buying and wrapping my own expensive presents from 'Santa' was enough to convince them for a couple more years.

They knew they hadn't bought GHD's, electric rollers, a Lumea....😂 so Santa must have done. 😉

My eldest was 11 and told me just before bedtime that his tooth had come out. I had no money on me and he was going up to secondary the next term so I told him there was no tooth fairy and he asked if that meant there was no Santa so I told him the truth. I asked him not to tell his still very much believing 10 year old brother as he’d enjoyed still believing in Year 6 so if the younger one still believed I wanted him to have his last year too. He did tell his brother, who told me and I said anyone was allowed to believe or not believe in what they wanted. I was then asked if I believed so I said, ‘yes, I believe in the spirit of Santa’ and he was satisfied with that and still believed for that last year.

The younger one actually went to secondary believing and I spent a couple of weeks thinking ‘shit, I should have told him, I hope it doesn’t come up and he gets bullied’ and then one day he said ‘Mum, do you believe in Santa?’ So I said no and he was a bit shocked but not upset.

I do think they were a bit old, but they are both a bit immature and the eldest has slight learning difficulties. When I was a kid I found out the truth when I was 9 in Year 4 and by the time I was in Year 5 none of the other kids in my year believed apart from one or two slightly immature kids.

My mum said that when she was a child parents told their kids at about 7 if they didn’t already know. She was one of 4 and said her mum let them all have their 7th birthdays then told them pretty much straight after.

Are we supposed to pretend the Easter bunny and tooth fairy exist too?

My daughter is 4 and knows fairies arent real, and we've never mentioned the Easter bunny. I hope I wont be in someone's bad books because my daughter told their kid the tooth fairy didn't exist

We still talk up Santa to our boys, now aged 16 and 14, but its long since become tongue in cheek. We all enjoy the tradition, so they pretend to still believe and we pretend we don't know they've stopped believing. It just makes Christmas a bit more fun. When they were younger, and asked direct questions about whether Santa was real we told them he was as real as they wanted him to be, and that if they wanted Santa to keep bringing them presents they'd better keep on believing ... though with a twinkle in our eye of course!

Met my adopted ds when he was in year one so five nearly six. He certainly didn't believe then. Pretty soon no one in his new school class believed either. He was absolutely beside himself that any of them still believed. Sorry

@KitKatastrophe if you don't want your DD to believe in any of them that is fine. But yes. You do need to quickly realise likely all the others kids will any your DD will not be popular with both the kids or parents (for the sheer damn effort we put in) if she says anything. She needs to let others believe and keep quiet

Most kids start wavering from 7/8, its then up to the parents how they play it. But I think if your kid leaves primary school still believing you need to have a word quick. I just dont see how they can be growing up and having sex education in Yr 6 and still believing in Santa

I was 8, however most children in my family were around 10. I’m sure my 11 year old sister still believes a bit

I still believed til I was 9 when my mum told me - my younger sister who was 7 had already worked it out for herself and I remember having impassioned arguments with school friends that he must be real...😂 I think I just really wanted it to be real!

My oldest told me at 6 (and year 1) that he thought it was people’s parents, but I said to him he doesn’t come if you don’t believe “can he see inside my head?” “No” “ok, I believe”. But then he did appear to “forget” again for a few years.

My second was definitely over it by 7, but he’s just very sceptical by nature. I have a six year old right now, and she still believes ardently- but very firmly knows that fairies / unicorns etc are bullshit, so it can only be a matter of time before she cottons on.

The three year old doesn’t really get it yet!

Dd10 has been happy to chuck her teeth in the bin as the ‘tooth fairy doesn’t exist’. I have told her Santa is a super spreader and he will be not allowed in our house (we’re in Tier 3) so the job of delivering presents will be left to us. She won’t believe me but she can’t go to secondary believing. How many more hints can I give??

My youngest is just turned 9 and still appears to believe - I fully expect it to be the last year that she does though. My older dd twigged at about this age, My DS was a bit older -probably 10-11

I think I twigged at about 10. First, I had a younger brother and I didn't want to spoil it for him. After that, my mum was always "Father Christmas won't come if you don't believe in him" until I was about 21, so my brother and I always maintained that we did believe even though didn't to keep Mum happy (and maybe cause we liked the presents too)....

My 11 year old (just) asks me and I say the same as I did to her older sister; for me as a grown up, believing in Father Christmas is about believing in magic and a time of year that is special and different to any other time of the year. I see no need to ever say that he doesn’t exist, to be honest, even as a 51 year old, I still love looking up at the sky on Christmas Eve. Why would I ever want to take that away from my kids? Of course they know I provide the presents but what’s the harm in a little bit of hope that something magical happens on that night?!

The big one started asking awkward questions age 7, she wanted to believe though. I think she was 9 when we had the chat. I told her it was a huge responsibility, because she was growing up and now she had a part to play in keeping the magic alive for others (aka her little sister).

DD2 is 8 and hasn’t questioned once. She fervently believes. But by next year I think peer pressure will mean she starts to realise 😢