to think that advertising for Santa Claus's on a big sign in a family restaurant is a bit out of order?

[McDreamy]

Went for lunch in a garden centre restaurant the other day with my friends and their children. There at the till on a big board was a sign recruiting Santa Claus's for their grotto (which is usually very good).

Luckily DD didn't see it as she would have been able to read it. Was thinking of dropping them a line to ask for a more discreet positioning of their Xmas request.

Don't be silly. Everyone knows that the santas in grottos etc are only the real Santa's helpers. The real one is far too busy to be in every shop at once.

oh how stupid of them!

where was it?

Like soupdragon, we know that the Father Christmas we see in shop srae only helpers. However I do think the sign was very silly of the restaurant. They could definitely have advertised the position more sensitively.

Not according to DD and her friend, they saw him together last year at said garden centre, (they also saw a couple of others but apparently he was the real one) - guess he's not available at the same venue this year!

I only believed that every Father Christmas I met was the real FC when I was really tiny. When I could read I was old enough to work out this couldn't possibly be the case, as SoupDragon says. But that knowledge still didn't shake my firm belief that there was a real actual Father Christmas living in the North Pole, if not in a Huddersfield shopping centre.

If she's old enough to read then she's old enough to be already having doubts about it. Flying reindeers, the sheer logistical problem of delivering all those presents in one night, houses without fireplaces...how long do you think she'll really believe it?

til 40, that's the rule

I'm in the "if old enough to read a recruitment notice then almost certainly a Santa sceptic" camp so yes, YABU.

Sorry but DD is a competent reader but still firmly believes in FC, tooth fairy, etc etc. When she starts asking questions then we'll have to talk about it but til now she is a believer.

I am fairly sure it won't last much longer as I'm sure they will discuss it at school and there's probably a few that no longer believe - I don't know, we'll have to wait and see.

dc 6.5 is a good reader but still believes in tooth fairy/fc etc

i hope she will believe for a while longer

tho she does know and understand that fc we see in shops etc arent the real one, and that he has helpers

my dad helps out as fc at out christmas party and last year she sussed him out as my dad and she thinks i am soooooooooooooooooooo lucky to have a dad who is a fc helper

she asked if her dad was one, and i said no - that helpers are special people chosen by the real fc

shes happy with that explaination

agree they could have advertised a bit more discreetly

SHIT. My girl is more naive than I could have possibly imagined. She is 8.4 and truly believes in Father Christmas (no Santa in this house) and the tooth fairy.

If they're old enough to read they are old enough either to be sceptical or else to figure out some rationalisation. TBH by 5 DD had noticed that the FC she'd seen last year wasn't the same one as this years and decided there was one official FC each year and the others had retired from the post.