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

DD is almost 9 and I'm pretty sure she didn't believe by last Christmas but she still plays along and hasn't asked me outright.
Santa brings everything here. I don't like the idea of him only bringing stockings personally, but I really wish we had gone with us sending him the money or something as it's very hard to explain why they can't have that super expensive gift otherwise!

Father Christmas brings one big present and stocking fillers (IF you are good) mum buys all the rest

mine are 14/18/20 and still swear they believe! (for the stocking)

I never taught mine about Santa though I said it was fun to pretend.

FC brings the stockings and one present from their list. I make the eldest, youngest 2 in a few weeks) write a list to santa and tell him santa will bring him one thing and he wont know which one.

Everything else is under the tree from relatives. We get him a separate present from us.

Santa/Father Christmas only brings little things in stockings, so you can’t ask him for anything big or expensive. (He doesn’t like greedy children.) Also he’s not strictly not allowed to bring puppies, kittens, any other animals, or real babies (a Gdd did once ask!) in case people don’t know how to look after them properly. Plus it’s much too cold for them on the sleigh.

Those are the rules that should be dinged in ASAP.

I never added a script. I just sometimes said “No Santa is not bringing you a battery powered ride on car and I’m not buying one either!” We also had a 3 gifts to put on your Santa list rule. Made it easier for me to get it right. Mini kid worked out he didn’t exist around aged 6 and I just agreed however we still fill stockings now she’s 11 - she just doesn’t write letters or leave out carrots anymore. We still talk about asking Santa for stuff, she just knows it’s me!

In our house stockings are laid out on the ends of beds on Christmas Eve, and FC comes and fills them with little gifts in the middle of the night. All other gifts are under the tree and are labelled from the sender.

Our DDs were around 8 or 9 before they stopped believing, although the elder was happy to keep pretending to believe until the youngest worked it out for themselves.

DDs are both teens now, but still lay out stockings for FC, however I no longer need to stay up ridiculously late to wait for them to fall asleep before filling them, as I'll just tap on their doors and say "Close your eyes and pretend to be asleep for a couple of minutes while FC makes his delivery!"

I'd keep the magic alive as long as your DC enjoy it, and as long as they know before starting senior school, as it seems to be a bit of a "thing" if a child still believes in FC when they start year 7 and can make them a bit of a target for teasing.

My kids have always been told to believe in the magic of Xmas not Santa per se. But we still done the whole santa thing.