That Santa doesn’t exist.

[Elf25]

When did your DCs stop believing in Santa and whilst they did believe what was your rhetoric about how Santa works? E.g. Santa brings presents but parents give him money etc..

I saw another related post and it made me wonder what people do..

I have an under 1 year end of so will be there soon

Santa brings a stocking and the other gifts are from the person who bought it.
The Santas at garden centres etc are actors who have been asked by him to spread Christmas cheer. This one is important as school often use staff that the kids know and recognise L.
My kids stopped believing around 6. They realised that if he were real poor children would be given loads and rich kids a token because they don't really need it.

We also did this. Father Christmas was never a real person, physically coming down the chimney, he is just the spirit of giving and kindness.

Ds2 told me last year when he was nearly 9 that he knew the truth about santa so that was that.

Santa only ever brought stockings here and the stockings are only filled with small stuff. A book is probably the costliest thing in there.

All proper presents are always from proper people.

We still wait til they are asleep before hanging them on their doorknobs though.

Father Christmas brings any presents that we buy for our dd - usually a stocking and a main present. Everything else is from family. We don't really say anything else, just that FC is coming and then that he has been. I won't go out of my way to trick her into believing longer if she starts questioning it when she's older, but nothing will change as it will still be from him!

We never lied to our DC. We told them the truth which was the story of St Nicholas who gave gifts to the poor children at Christmas. So now at Christmas we honour him by giving gifts to our children (and each other). They’ve actually recently found St Nicholas tomb in Turkey so that is a nice add on these days.

But yes, we decided early on that having a massive lie isn’t the best way to keep your child’s trust as they are likely to realise you have made a mug of them exactly when they are being more independent and only a few years away from being a teen.

It never spoiled the “magic” of Christmas. In fact because they knew we bought the presents there were none of the difficult conversations my mum friends had in regards to their DC asking since they were super duper good all year did they think Santa would bring them the £400 Millenium Falcon Lego set like their (dripping in money) classmate Timmy got last year? And Little Timmy is a bully, so obviously if my DC doesn’t get this Lego set he’s going to think Santa thinks he’s naughty compared to Timmy!

Mine were about 9/10 when they stopped believing. I think there had been some discussion at school the year before but DD’s friends were all the oldest siblings in their families and their parents were keen to keep it up as long as possible so the friendship group still believed even if some of the other kids in the class didn’t.

We were lucky enough to go to Lapland the year before and get another year out of it too. One of the best experiences of all our lives! We used to do stockings and big present from Santa and then a few presents from us.

My two are only little and only DS4 is old enough to understand so can't answer how long they believe for. But in our house Santa brings the stockings and one present. The rest is from us. They're wrapped in different paper and santa goes all out with big ribbons and bows 😂 when I was younger santa brought everything but mum and dad sent him the money for it all!

Also Ds1 was always very pragmatic about him. His belief since toddlerhood really was that santa is just a job title and that during the rest of the year he's just some grandad living a normal life and maybe he even shaves the beard during the summer.

That the job gets passed on: when one santa retires another is recruited, a bit like MI5 I guess.

He's real! Of course he's real, how dare you suggest otherwise. In our house he brings a gift that is asked for (ds7) and something he knows would be liked (everyone else). He brings us me big Lego sets if we've been especially good 😃 This year I'm hoping for the Home Alone Lego set. The adults buy the rest of the presents and he puts all the presents together on Christmas Eve and puts a small gift in stockings. The big (in size) presents from him go under the tree and are always wrapped in different paper.

When dd was smaller (and now even though she's a young adult and doesn't actual believe but we play the Christmas game) Father Christmas only brought one gift. Not always the biggest or most expensive, but one she'd have been asking for, was best the top of her 'wish list' etc.

it arrived on Christmas morning all set up and ready to use or okay with, with evidence of some elf magic dust still there.

All other gifts came from me and Dh, and other family/friends.

The Christmas fairy delivered a Christmas Eve parcel each year (arranged by my mum) with new Pjs, a sweet treat and maybe a small other gift such as a film to watch, a book ti read or similar.

In our house, santa/father Christmas looks after all the presents and can then decide if the kids have been good enough! This is of course backed up by the amount of presents that suddenly appear under the tree yet (because of mummies expert hiding skills) have never been found before then!!
You can keep the magic going longer that way as when they can read the labels, there is no suspicion raised!
I think it's unfair of parents who say the 'big' present is from santa....what if I can't afford the latest games console or ipad or fancy bike? Does my child then feel they haven't been good enough to deserve something like that?
My eldest was 9 when she found out from a friend amd was mortified and so upset....luckily she has younger siblings so can keep the magic going for them.

My dc is 11 and hasn't said that she doesn't believe. I've said some things to her and her friends about 'Santa' to see their reaction but they acted as if they still believed!

DD1 was 8 with her first Christmas with us (adopted).
She came with a convoluted story as to how they moved a lot so Santa didn't used to find them . Then 2 Christmases in foster care where they got masses of Santa presents.

So we rewrote the story - presents in foster care were to make up for the missed ones. Now stocking would be filled overnight and all big presents were from family. Keep it simple.

With DD1 & DD2 we never actually said stockings were from Santa we just talked about them being fllled. Culture filled in the rest. We told both towards the Easter of their y5 (starting with Easter Bunny that we had never done, and the very forgetful tooth fairy) so they were well prepared for Xmas in y6.

Three dc and for us Father Christmas brings the stocking and one thing they’ve asked for. Everything else from the people who actually bought it. I believe children need to say thank you for their presents - my friends dc think Santa brings everything and they never say thank you to anyone - really winds me up!

I just told my daughter the story of St Nick, we had a lovely book written about him, so he is always still referred to, she is 18 😁 she knew I dropped the presents overnight in her room from about 9.

Well, where I'm from the santander actually comes over and distributes the presents (as in a neighbour or a hired dude comes over in a santa costume). I stopped believing around 6/7. My nephew1 at 7 and nephew2 at 11. But we stopped with the santander visits when nephew2 was around 7 and from then on santa left presents outside. The narrative has always kinda been ever since the kid is old enough to have any suspicion that parents buy the gifts and santa brings them.

What can that bank not do!

My brother disproved him at the age of 3. His teacher had told his that Father Christmas flew through the air on his sleigh. My brother told my mum that it couldn't be true because there's no friction in the air for the reindeer to push against!

My 3 year old announced at dinner the other night that Father Christmas was just a story!

Father christmas fills stockings in our house, and it's not high value items, its more traditional - consumables.theres always raisins, an orange/satsuma, nuts, chocolate money, sugar mice, candy cane. Then its things like a card game, a book, some sort of craft item like glitter glue sticks or metallic pens, something noisy/musical (harmonic, duck whistle)a
then little funny bits like lego or playmobil figurines, some socks. One year i put inflatable globe balls in. Another year little torches.

In our house he brings the stockings.

Mine are 4 and 6 and believers.
In this house Father Christmas brings all the presents that we give them.
The presents from friends and family are from friends and family.
It's how mine and also DH's family did it.

We always used generic wrapping paper for all of our gifts which were labelled from us and one that would be beautifully wrapped in father Christmas paper. It would have ribbons and bows so it stood out and the label would have a picture of Santa.
We would use swirling/ calligraphy writing that just said to first name,surname and leave the rest to their imagination.

Santa fills the stockings and brings one main gift.

Also i don't really like the kids asking for big specific stuff as it just leads to unrealistic expectations or disappointment. In our house, in your letter to FC you write that you've been good/kind, and ask him to fill your stocking. You don't demand bikes/nintendos/expensive crap.

Mine are 13 & 10, they're not stupid, of course they've worked it out. But when asked directly, I simply smile, and ask them if it's worth taking the risk of not believing. I've never been sat down by my parents and told 'the truth' and I'm 47!