To have thought that trips to see Santa wouldn’t end yet?

[redambergreen70]

On a Santa experience today with DD8.5 and DS5.5. It’s a fantastic experience, lots of activities and cost a decent amount of money.
We think DD is starting to have doubts about Santa but hasn’t said anything directly, however it’s quite obvious from today that this is probably our last year as DD seems almost a little embarrassed and too cool for it all.
I feel quite sad and maybe it’s naivety on my part but I honestly thought we would have another couple of years.
So I guess I’m asking, what age did you stop doing the traditional Santa visits and look at something more suitable for older children? And what did you do instead?

8.5?! 😂 I would expect 4 or 5 to be the cut off.

We went until DD was year 6 and DS was year 4, when she reached year 7 they sat me down and broke it to me gently they didn’t want to see him that year! We still do loads of festive stuff, theme parks, zoos, cinema, aquarium, skating, National trust places and light trails as at 15 and 13 they still love Christmas but are too old to see Santa.

9yo was lukewarm this year. Her elder sister was just along for the ride (11yo... she wanted to have fun with her sister despite not believing)

My 11 and 9yos quite happily visit Santa. I'm sure they know it isn't real, but that doesn't mean we don't enjoy a christmassy day out. We don't put a lot of focus on having to believe, though. They probably prefer the "pet a reindeer, decorate a gingerbread man" parts of a christmassy day though.

Other non-santa Christmas things we do are - see a panto, go ice-skating, do a Christmas lights trail.

We still do a Santa visit, and mine are 18, 15 and 10 😂 admittedly my 18 year old has a learning disability, which is the main reason we still go.

my 15 year old did go through a phase of being a bit above it all when she was about 8, but was quickly recruited into making it a fun experience for her siblings - she loved keeping the magic going for her older sister and younger brother.

my youngest is now 10, and can be a bit ‘over it’ all, but I actually asked 15 year old and 10 year old if they still wanted to bother this year (it’s not cheap!), as I could otherwise just take dd1, but got a massive protest and told in no uncertain terms that it was a family tradition and they definitely wanted to go. So we’re off next week…

Harsh! Do you have children?

Ours went along with it for the younger ones till about ten. The youngest chose not to go last year at age nine. So, eight was the last year.

Dt started questioning from year 1 and by year 2 did not believe.
Dc1 was told in year 5 by another child, he was devastated and had been oblivious prior to this.
Dc are all different but majority of dc ive known seem to be early key stage 2.

They were all told at 7 that Santa isn’t real.

We stopped official, expensive paid-for Santa visits around 7 iirc. But right up to the end of primary school, every single kid would queue for the Santa experience at the school's Christmas fair. It was super-cute - they got a good present so no doubt it was partly that, partly not wanting to spoil it for littler kids/siblings and partly because they still wanted a little bit of magic.

I had to go for a discreet weep when my hulking great P7 queued up for the last time!

My DD is 8.5 and I'm about 80% sure she knows but every now and then she'll say or do something and I think ah she does still believe... reckon this is definitely her last one of believing ☹️ xx

My DD 13 asked if we could go this year and she defo doesn’t believe. She loves a Xmas day out. My 11 year old doesn’t believe either. But my nearly 8 year old defo still believes as does DD2 so the older ones go along with it.

You can believe in the spirit of santa without believing he is a real dude

My dd is exactly the same age and I know how you feel. Im taking her to a winter wonderland type thing when I visit family next weekend. So will see what she makes of it. I know she'll love the fair rides and atmosphere but although i think she still believes, she's not interested in seeing santa anywhere, cause that's not the real one.

The visits probably aged 6 or 7, does not stop the appearance on Christmas Eve though.

My eldest is 9 - still believes. Lots of children in his class still believe. In fact I don’t know of any that don’t believe, and some are 10!

My eldest is 7 and I imagine a few more years yet. Plus I can't imagine her being happy us taking her little sister without her.

Who told them?

Mumsnet is so strange about kids believing in Santa. It's really not uncommon for 8/9 year olds to still believe in Santa!

This post makes me really sad.

Well DD7 wanted to this year, but then proudly proclaimed when we got there that it wasn't the real Santa as the elves looked too human. I don't think we'll go next year.
DS 10 has been playing along for a few years now.

Well, IME most kids actually still believe at 5,6,7 and 8.

It's more 9+ that is when they stop round my way.

Seems a bit miserable to think your kids only really believed for 2-3 years.

I’ve stopped for my 7 year old this year - she hasn’t even noticed/asked. I will still do her a pnp video. We have done panto, Christmas market, a couple of Carol concerts. It feels nice and festive same as other years and Father Christmas will fill the stockings on Christmas Eve as he always does.

My 8yo believes as do her classmates. however we don't do Santa grottos as they are a bit too obviously fake for that age I think.

It’s one thing for 8YOs to still believe in Santa, I think 7-9 is about average for figuring it out, at least based on the kids I know! It’s another thing to do the whole visit Santa thing which is usually geared towards much younger kids of more like 3-6 e.g. do some colouring with the elves whilst you wait your turn. I would stop once the youngest got to be 6 and do other Christmasy stuff like light trails, ice skating, see a show etc.

In my 8 year olds class most don’t believe. They’re happy to let their parents think they do though… they all told each other a few months ago.