5 year old doubting Father Christmas already.

[Rudolph98]

Hi all, I have two dc. A 9 year old that still believes and has asked questions but not doubted it. Probably be the last year for him.

Also Dd who was 5 in the summer and keeps saying she knows the mum and dads wrap them all. Not sure what gave her this idea. Maybe from school or something!

I keep trying to convince her that Father Christmas is real. In this house he brings a stocking and one gift so most of it is from us anyway.

Sounds silly but I just feel she’s too young to lose the magic yet.

I can only assume a child at school has said it. I’m always really careful, hiding presents, using separate gift wrap etc!!

Feeling sad 😞

My just turned 6 year old worked it out ages ago, he still likes playing along.

My DD told me that she didn't think Father Christmas was 'alive' when she was 4. I felt awful, like I'd somehow failed to facilitate her believing by making it magic enough for her . Anyway, I doubled my efforts and seemed to convince her to carry on believing in him. She's 7 now and still seems to believe (either that or she's a very good actress).

I find the thing that works best to convince her is when she asks me a perfectly sensible question like 'but how does he get into everyone's houses, even if they don't have chimneys?' and I say 'I honestly haven't a clue, must be some kind of magic because I can't see how he'd do it otherwise'. She takes that... If I were to make some obvious crap up, she'd see through it instantly and become very suspicious.

Stop trying to convince your child about something that isn't true. She's figured it out, good for her. It's not going to be "magic" anymore, she'll just think you're mentally ill if you keep banging on about it.

Honestly, the poor parents witter on about the Santa the less magical he becomes. Less is more.

Thank you all. My 9 year old does still firmly believe in Santa. But he also has autism and learning difficulties so he’s a little young for his age. So unsure when he will figure it out 😫 I think it’ll be worse to break his magic then for Dd to discover it herself!

I'd be more worried about the 9 year old who believes!

Sorry, didn't see your last post.

Respect how logical she is!
Also yes to telling her about St Nick and all the other kind people in the world who buy for children who aren't as lucky as your family.

I think my 4 year old knows and it makes me so sad. There is a lot of younger siblings in her class and two of them have told her it’s not real. My nephew was the most cynical, logical child and knew by 5 if not easier. She’s not like that so I’m just a bit sad someone else has shattered that a bit so early. I think she’ll want to believe and she loves role play so I’m hoping she’ll have enough belief to keep the magic for a while longer.

My 6 year old asked his big brother last week if Santa was real. The 13 year old handled it the same way I did with him when he was 7. Just asked him if he thought Santa was real and ds said no so he confirmed it.

I wouldn't want mine to feel like they had to pretend if they didn't believe. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with the whole concept anyway.

Yes, the old 'well children who don't believe don't get presents' - teach her to know which side her bread is buttered despite her excellent critical thinking skills.

She's a child with great critical thinking skills. She'll go far!

Yes to this ^^ my DD was 6, she was absolutely insistent that it couldn’t be true and reeled off a lot of well thought out reasons why it couldn’t be true. Some kids are just very logical and persistent with their questions.