Asklemmy

Let it be an exercise in critical thinking. I knew from a young age that Santa wasn't real. Kids talk. Mom still gives us presents from Santa, 39 years later.

Are you referring to santa and elves or the birth of Christ?

My 5yo daughter appreciates santa et.al. as a cheeky fun fantasy just like the easter bunny and tooth fairy. I never tried to convince her that any of it it real.

We even have an elf on a shelf that she looks far every morning with great enthusiasm but if someone gets weird about she says “its just a toy ok”

By truth do you mean that Santa doesn't exist, that the whole Christmas celebration is an adaptation of Roman pagan traditions, or that Jesus never existed?

My kids have always known Santa wasn't real. We just nonchalantly talk about which adult is going to be santa this year. It's like playing pretend, and doesn't make the kids any less excited (but does remove the awkwardness of explaining why it's ok that a strange old man you don't know is allowed to come into the house while everyone is sleeping because he is giving you stuff, but other strange old men trying to give you stuff shouldn't be trusted).

For the telling other kids at school thing, my sister would say that it's not her responsibility to cover for other parents lying to theig kids. We would each be honest to our kids and let other parent handle their kids.

First, prove Santa Claus doesn't exist and then we can talk about your opinions.

As an ex-child, I figured it out on my own at the age of 6. You see, back then, our gifts would be given to us by a Santa Claus in a suit at our kindergarten, and the gifts would be what we wrote letters for with our parents. We would tell our parents, and they would "write" and "send" the letters. Then they would buy, pack, and label the present, and then bring it in to our kindergarten sometime earlier. On one of the last days when we break up for Christmas, the Santa would come to our kindergarten and we would take photos with them and our presents. After that, we would go home with the presents and get the photos soon. Now, as you can clearly see in the picture from the previous year, the santa has a very different beard and suit, far too different to be real. Alongside that, a roll of the same wrapping paper was hidden behind my parents' wardrobe, and last but not least, my name on the present was written in my mother's unique and very recognisable handwriting style. Not bad for a 6-year-old, huh?

Don't lie to your children about someone sneaking into the house at night while everyone is asleep, it's fucking weird.

It's just horrible to see secular people intentionally lying to their kids. It fosters mistrust. Sure, celebrate Christmas, and put the presents in the stocking and whatnot, make it fun. But to lie to your kids about who's doing it seems totally unnecessary and harmful. Same for the tooth fairy. Fortunately for me, my parents didn't lie to me about the tooth fairy. And I appreciate that.

Just don't play into it. My parents never did the Santa gifts thing from the beginning. All our gifts were from mom, dad, grandma/grandpa, etc.

I never got a "talk" that I can remember about Santa not being real, it just never was a thing.

No magic was lost for me or my siblings. Christmas was still our favorite holiday of the year. Still had tons of fun decorating, making cookies and gingerbread houses, making gift wishlists, going out to get a tree, putting up lights, getting up early Christmas morning to open gifts, etc.

Most magical time of my life personally as a kid during the season, nothing was lost by not believing in Santa bringing me presents.

Emphasize the important things about the season. It's about generosity, spreading joy to others, celebrating friends and family that we don't get to see often, etc. Don't make it consumeristic. I wish my folks had taken me and my sibs to help at some sort of community function around the holidays. Although as we got into our teens, we would do food drives and toys for tots, etc. Which was good.

The sooner you can tell your kids God's not real, the better. Just make sure you tell them it's not their job to explain that to their peers.

Unless you meant Santa. In which case the same applies.

Just let them figure it out. I planted walkie talkies in the living room to catch santa when I was about 9.

I think a key observation in my childhood, was that adults don't generally know what's best, or right, or even what's true. Intentions mattered more than some arbitrary 'correct' behavior. I figure all children work this out at some level, faster than we're willing to acknowledge :D

So I guess yeah, it is a bit weird, but that doesn't make it bad. Maybe the best we can do is suggest parents hold their children's best interests at heart, and do what's best for their specific situation.

I waited until he was 8 years old before explaining the horror of Satan Claws

Kids I’m really sorry to tell you this, but this year we had the earliest Christmas decoration rollout in recorded history.

Unless something serious changes, scientists are predicting that by the year 2050, Christmas will be year-round.

That’s why we need you to grow up to understand that Christmas is in December, and to wage war on Christmas happening in any other month.

If I had kids I'd just do what every parent I know including my own did and let them find out themselves. I feel like it's more natural that way.

Much like sex, drugs and Rock and Roll, let them find out about it on the playground like the rest of us did...

I'm seeing a lot of judgement on pretending Santa exists vs being 100% truthful with your kids. I don't think either way is a bad way, but don't judge others if they choose to pretend Santa is real.

With that being said, I do agree that if you are going to go with the Santa story, when the kid asks if they are real you should be truthful.

I just went through this with my 9 year old. She just came up one day and asked me if Santa was real and I told her no. There were a lot of follow up questions and it made her realize the tooth fairy, Easter Bunny, etc were the same situation. She asked me why we pretended Santa was real and I explained for us it was nice to see the magic that they felt from a stranger being kind just for kindness sake.

For me personally, I think it's a good lesson for kids to begin logically questioning their world and what they've been told.

We "believed" it until I was like 8. I didn't really believe it that long but played along thinking I could potentially be getting more presents if my parents had to buy gifts from themselves and "Santa".

Never, because Santa is the spirit of Christmas, and he is real. As long as someone includes a "from Santa" label on at least one gift, Santa's been there.

Nowadays, it's agreed in the family that stockings are from Santa.

As soon as you want. They usually only care about the presents anyway. Doesn't matter if it was given to them in a fat guy in a red suit or by their parents.

My dad used to dress up as Santa Claus and bring gifts to kids at the village's daycare... This required months of work from my mother to buy toy packs and similar stuff to separate into little assorted packages for the kids. This started before I was born, it was impossible to hide the fact from me growing up, and they never tried to pretend Santa was real, they just told me not to tell the other kids. I had no further questions or doubts to be assuaged.

We lived in a house without a fireplace and the whole thing made no sense to 5yo me.

You teach it as young as you can. Teach them to laugh at the pathetic, hate-mongering Christians and their silly traditions that make no sense. Encourage them to tell their peers the truth at school as well.

Kids talk at school. Ages 5 to 9.

Saw this on Reddit years ago, and it goes like: You had a great time thinking of Santa. Now you know the truth, and you are now Santa. Same as your parents. Don't ruin it for your siblings, let them keep the magical feeling.

My brother was straight up with his kids from the start. He didn't want some imaginary fat man taking credit for the thoughtful gifts he gives them.

https://youtu.be/BsR6sIsoWgU

Not sure if it will help, I was looking for another video about Santa specifically. But could not find it. In that video he says that he did not dismiss Santa's tales but also did not engage with it. And at a certain point question the tales and asked the kids how they know that's Santa who is giving them presents. Then the kids looked for ways to find out, and discovered themselves. (If I remember correctly)

I never grew up with Santa and don't plan on any kids of mine doing so if I become a mom.

We have always celebrated the winter solstice and Santa Claus with our kids and skipped the lie of Christmas all together.

I was 2 and a half and spotted that Santa was wearing my Dad's shoes. As I thought he'd killed my father and robbed his shoes I was upset and my parents had to explain that Santa wasn't some kind of murder hobo but that the Wellington boots that came.with the Santa outfit were too.small, so my Dad had to use his own. Never did me any harm.

I don't remember being told that santa existed, growing in a deeply religious family christmas was always about Jesus. Now I'm an atheist so I guess 16-18 when I found out it's actually a pagan festival that the romans ductaped Christianity to it

We always said Santa was a fun make believe activity, but then our house has a lot of fantasy media so what's one more myth?

My kids are of the age where they're starting to think critically about it. We've never directly lied and said that he's real and have instead answered their questions with a "do you think he's real?", and then they have a think and conclude that he is.

When they come to us with more of a statement than a question, for example "Santa isn't real, is he?", then we will let them in on the ruse.