Age when children no longer believe in Santa

[CurlyNo2]

My son is 6 and I am really enjoying this age and the magic of Santa and Christmas and it got me wondering how many more years do we have before he no longer believes.

What age was your child when they no longer believed in Santa?

How did this transition happen to your child and what was their reaction when they found out?

My eldest was aged 4 after she saw her dad pretending to be Santa at a local event. She recognised him immediately and started laughing. After that she refused to believe there was a real Santa.

Also not believing doesn’t have to stop the magic. Mine stopped at 5 but we still write letters to Santa and leave out treats and do stockings. Magic doesn’t have to mean fooling your child

There are very few good parts of parenting a child with autism, but this is one them! Dear God I'll take every minute. My DC is 16, nearly 17, and we have put a plate out , mince pie, carrot, Mum might have checked the apple brandy..,.

Dd realised around age 9 and ds is 10 and still believes. Think this will be the last year though, if not, we'll need to break it to him before he goes to high school.

Sorry but it’s not that they ‘believe’ - it’s more the age you can no longer deceive them with the Santa lie. I think it’s a complex combination of gullibility of said child and the parents skill at lying.

we can have that conversation if you want but you have to know that Santa doesn’t come once that happens-so do you want to continue this conversation? He said no 😂😂😂

thats really really shit parenting. Don’t you want your kids to be able to talk openly to you and trust you ?

None of mine believed past the age of 6, however Santa is not a big part of our Xmas magic. We never did the writing to Santa or the visiting Santa stuff.

We have lovely family Xmas traditions which don’t revolve around Santa bringing presents, I have much older teens now and none of them have ever been sad about the lack of a Santa in their lives.

I also don’t believe any kid over the age of 7/8 still believes to be honest. Kids all tell each other!

Both mine stopped this year 11 and 8. 11 year old we told at the start of the year as going secondary school. 8 year old started doubting last year and then this year questioned us and wanted the truth so we told him. Makes me sad as I thought we had another year or two. Christmas eve wasn't quite as magical tonight!

Same here @moggerhanger
Kids aged 12,14 and 16 just read them The Night Before Christmas.
12 year old wanted to leave a snack and a note for Santa. He's at secondary school and probably doesn't 100% believe but there's a little bit of him that wants to. 16 year old is the only one to outright say she doesn't believe.

Both the older two sort of kind of believed aged 12 too. Eldest wrote a secret note to Santa aged 12 asking for a dog she knew we wouldn't buy. But maybe the fact no dog appeared was her clue to stop believing....

Intrigued by the people who told their kids on some random day before they went to big school

How did it go?!!

Tooth fairies and the Easter bunny - never even bothered with those. There’s kids who really believe that an Easter bunny brings the same chocolate eggs they see in Tesco everyday?!

Two boys 11 & 9, absolutely believe, not a question. Reckon I’ll tell them before they leave for Uni

This. I’ve an age-range of eight years, and the heart is there for as long as the littlest believes.

Also, teens are mercenary as fuck.

I’m not sure when my two found out or figured it out as they never said. I think they were scared to tell me as they knew I still believe! However both pretend 110% to believe (at 20 and 17!!) and fully humour their mother in all things Santa related.
They have had a great day watching films, making a chocolate house and nearly killing each other playing throw throw burrito.

I absolutely believed until I was 10 and know my brother's did until a similar age, as did my friends. At 2 or 3 they don't even properly get it yet ! 4 + is surely peak Santa time?

Wait til you hear about the concept of religion!

Not surprised you felt awful. If he announced age 8 Santa isn't real, and you wanted to keep the magic alive, you obviously don't confirm he's right.

I considered the last magical Christmas to be age age 10... she is 15 now and told me she knew at 8 but played along (very believably) because she didn't want to disappoint anyone.

Mine are now 12 and 14. I don't remember exactly but they believed only for a very short time. They went along with it but they knew Santa can't be real from almost the beginning. Perhaps we didn't do a good job of convincing them but my kids were born cynical anyway ( they wouldn't believe in religion either)! But they still love Christmas and get very excited about it.... Santa is a very small part of the day.

DS is 9, 10 in January, and I very much suspect this will be the final Santa Christmas for us 😔

Dd is 16 so I assume she knows, but she would be horrified if I ever admitted it out loud.

Ds is 14 and I don't think he ever realised he was supposed to believe it was real. He's a polite boy though so always played along and wouldn't dream of saying it isn't.
Dd is 10 and believes with all her heart. She knows Santa isn't real for everyone but in our family he is.

We took our boys to Lapland last year to meet the real Santa.

It was in the middle of snowy woods at -25 so ds 10 still absolutely for sure believes but ds 13 I believe doesn't but is going along with it anyway.

I don't think there is any harm in them working it out themselves and I have no intention of telling them either as they will be happy to go along for the magic.

We have Dd and D son in law who live in our annexe who are expecting d gd in June so it will start again soon for us - yay!

I love Christmas 🎄

I told my dd when she was around 12yo, she absolutely believed in Father Christmas and was upset to find out it was me!

Hope they enjoyed their stocking 🎄 ❤️

Mines 11 and still believes !

I was surprised when she said she was doing a list and we have a 5m old so thought this was the last year until bubba is old enough ! Nope! She's at secondary school now also

I think she may have an idea so we haven't gone too mad but have still done stockings and will do anyway x

Merry Christmas!!

Two is way too old to realise.

My son knew in the womb. He was born clutching a tiny piece of paper that said "I know Santa isn't real'.

He's far more advanced than me. I remember the moment I realised it was all a lie at about 18 months. I was quite gullible though!

Hope everyone has a lovely day 🌲❤️