Neighbour just told Dd Father Christmas doesn’t exist

[Grinchisbackbackagain]

Dd just went to her neighbour friends house, he’s a year older at age 8. She came back saying he said santa doesn’t exist and the parents do it and it’s just to get the kids excited 😔
I’m so upset, I didn’t work it out until a few years later and we love to do all the magical bits in our house
I didn’t know what to say and sort of denied it, I think she just knows though, feel cross!

I said his parents will give him gifts this year so it's not like he won't get any. Otherwise my ds would have been sad for him obviously. It did help that the boy was known to be naugthy in order for him to believe it.

Some children just are dislikeable little shitbags though and will take any opportunity going to prove it.

So a child is being reviled for telling the truth?

I had one of the mean kids say this to DD when she was quite young.

I just told her that it obviously means mean kid is on the naughty list and Santa doesn't come to his house so his parents have to do it all instead.

DD was happy with this answer and we kept the Christmas magic going for quite a few more years.

Is this a Mumsnet thing or are parents really this militant about the Santa myth in real life? I'm still in the nursery years so it's still parents trying out the Santa talk and smiling at each other when we hear the toddlers talk about reindeer.

Does it really get so venomous about kids who tell the truth to other kids when they go to school?

All this chat about naughty lists, spiteful 8yos and all that stuff seems very contrary to any sort of Christmas ‘magic’! Maybe if your reaction to this kind of thing is to tell your child their friend is naughty, won’t get any gifts, etc then you’ve possibly missed the whole spirit of Christmas thing somewhere along the way?

It's entirely a mumsnet thing. In real like most people are normal

I've never met any in real life but to be honest once you get to school there's always one bonkers parent in the class whatsapp group 😂Might not be a Santa fanatic though, could be meltdowns about party invites or getting too invested in playground fall outs.

I tell mine "if you don't believe, you don't receive." My older one certainly knows, but is happy to play along. The younger was told at school when he was 6 or 7, wasn't fully convinced now 9, but he may still believe. We'll keep playing.

What a nice gift from the NDN 3 days before Christmas, little git. I’d honestly be fuming, it’s either his parents don’t know he doesn’t believe or they haven’t explained he can’t ruin the magic for younger children.

Can you not do magic without the threats?

You read that as a threat; says more about you than me.

Sad that they had to ruin it just before Christmas. Though neither of my kids made it to 8, eldest was just too intelligent and worked it out, youngest developed a phobia of the big red man and refused to go to sleep in fear he would enter our house, so I told her the truth (I think she was 6/7. Christmas has been just as special, if not more since because we all pretend Santa is real whilst appreciating that I do all the hard work.

Yeah, there are always little shits who cannot wait to tell their classmates that Santa doesn't exist and I remember really hating her and her rodent face for ruining Christmas for me. I still remember the name of the classmate who told me Santa didn't exist and for years I wished for plague and pestilence to rain down upon her and her shitty family. I did finally come to terms with it when I was in my early fifties, and I got rid of the wax doll.

Just 7

I’m so envious that you were able to keep the magic going for so long! My 4 year old has recently figured it out by himself - he came to me and said „mama, I think Santa is just a human in a costume and not real”.

Mind you, we went to several Santa themed events this December and it was almost like a „worst dressed fake Santa” competition. Perhaps that didn’t help, he’s very perceptive. As we are a „no lies household” I didn’t try to persuade him otherwise 🤣🤣🤣

He’s home educated so he didn’t pick it up anywhere.

When I was younger a problematic classmate said the same to me. I went home and told my mum and she said “he doesn’t come to her because he doesn’t give presents to horrid kids” and it kept me content for another couple of years 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Yes that's really daft. Your beliefs are your beliefs. You can't police what other children say and make others feel bad. So how old were you when you found out? 11? Did you not know about basic physics? You are all insane in my opinion. This whole thing is completely bonkers, and the fact you are all trying so hard to lie to your children and make fools of them in the name of 'magic' I find really strange. Shame people think Christmas magic can't exist without lying to kids faces for your own gratification.

Tell his mum so she knows to tell him not to tell anyone else. She might he unaware he knows. Even if she is aware she needs to tell him to pack it in.

We had kids in my DD's class blabbing about this, and their parents were unaware and recounting to us the lengths they were going to to keep the magic going because little Tommy still believes. Like hiding the new bike round a neighbour's house, unaware their kids not only knew but was making sure other people's did too. I am a coward though and didn't spoil it for the parents, but you don't know if your neighbour thinks her kid still believes so you are freed of that guilt.

But why was it so important to you that he continued to believe?

My son had it sussed out by the time he was 5. He wasn't upset, I wasn't upset. He still enjoyed the anticipation of Christmas.

Definitely being unreasonable to text the mum. What are you going to say? Your shitbag son told my daughter the truth about Father Christmas. Please ensure you teach your son to lie in future.

if you are going to lie to your own child that’s up to you but you can’t coerce others into doing the same.

As a teacher, we have the yearly arguments about whether Father Christmas is real. I think by the time they are in KS2, all children who have been lied to should be told it’s make believe.

This is batshit

You can save this. My stock response to kids in my class when they come up to me saying someone doesn't believe in Santa is, "Sure some people don't believe in God!" (Catholic school)
Another good one is to say to her that Santa doesn't exist for your neighbour because they don't believe so their parents have to get the presents.

Yeah, Muslims, Jews, critical thinkers, children with a basic understanding of science. Horrible people. Not the mad women who insist on talking shit to their kids, and police other people's thoughts. They aren't the horrid ones at all.