So many Santas!

[littlemisssunshine81]

When I was a kid you’d go and see one Santa’s grotto if you were lucky. Now it seems they are everywhere and there are a couple of Santa’s we go to visit because the overall attraction is lovely and the kids really enjoy it. Till now they’ve always been too little to notice that there are several Santa’s but now DS1 is asking if that’s the real Santa or not. What do you tell your children? I’m thinking that there is only one real Santa and the others are his helpers (but we never know who is the real one)....also, does everyone’s children believe that the Elf (on the shelf) has a direct line to Santa?

We ve seen 9 santas this year, previous years up to 13!!! My two are 9 and 11 now but they ve realised for quite a few years the ones we see aren't the real santa just his helpers. Up until two years ago they believed the one we see fly off around the world on xmas eve was the real one (we've done the same thing on xmas eve since 2012) but now they don't think he is either. They do genuinely believe in the real santa and that our elf reports on their behaviour every night :-)

Yep santas helpers. Everyone knows the real one has gold boots ;) dd still believes this at 9.

Even in the 1980s I had decided that shop Santas were not the real Santa and just men dressing up - possibly due to the inadequate costumes available in the 1980s

Didn't mean I didn't believe in the real Santa, just that he was magic and couldn't be seen and those you saw at parties/shops/on TV were not him.

Saved my parents a fortune in trips to grottos.