How'd You Explain Santa???
Find a Conversation
How'd You Explain Santa???
| Fri, 12-16-2005 - 4:09pm |
Have a 10 yr old asking about Santa. How old were your kids when they no longer believed???
How do I explain it? My daughter is sure that "parents wouldn't LIE to their kids"!!!!!
What do I say?

Pages
Both my daughters were around 10 when they learned the truth. They started questioning in
When my now 11yo DS was 4, he wanted to put a video camera in the Christmas tree and point it toward the fireplace to catch Santa in the act on Christmas Eve. Fortunately for me, we were in between residences, living in a rented apartment and the videocam was packed away somewhere or in storage and I couldn't locate it. I've never had a discussion with either my son or my 14yo DD about Santa. I continue to go through the motions, sneaking around, hiding gifts, putting cookies and milk out .... the whole nine yards. While I seriously doubt either child believes in Santa the person, the doy, or at least seem to, believe in Santa the spirit.
Have you ever read this in it's entirety? You will probably recognize a sentence or two (it's very famous) but a don't that that a lot of people have read the whole thing.
The People’s Almanac, pp. 1358–9. (Originally published in The New York Sun in 1897.)
Dear Editor—
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O’Hanlon
Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
Dd was right about at that age. She simply didn't want to stop believing before then - when she would ask, we'd throw it back at her. If she said so-and-so said there was no Santa, we'd look at her and ask "Really? What do you think?" She and her dad used to build leprechaun traps every year right before St. Pat's day. The leprechaun always escaped, but left her a poem about how clever she was to almost catch him and there would be a small treat like some candy or a bracelt. In fourth grade right before St. Pat's day, she came right out and asked if dad was the leprechaun. We knew, by the way she was asking, that she wanted the truth. Then, in rapid succession they all fell: the tooth fairy, the easter bunny, St. Nick putting treats in the shoes, and Santa.
She's fourteen now and there is a small part of her still hanging on to Santa. She always pulls her polar express book out right around Christmas Eve and reads it to us. She said she still hears the bell.
jt
I just remember when I was a kid and I was LIVID when I found out in 1st grade that the Easter Bunny wasn't real - I knew he wouldn't leave me an egg I'd cracked and remembered from the year before. So I all out accused my mom of lying, and jumped immediately on the Santa and Tooth Fairy at the same time.
DS was 4 when he first questioned. Every year I was able to put it off by bouncing it back, "What do YOU think?" As he got older, when he asked if I believed (kids at his school stopped at about age 9; he's a year young for his grade), and I'd say, "He's in my heart." The Christmas he was 8, he asked again and I leveled with him, telling him the story of Saint Nicholas. He was terribly matter of fact with it and just said, "Oh, ok." He told me I'd made too big of a deal about it, being emotional when I told him and all!
Sue
What did I say?
I am sure she knows but she still plays along.
I was honest. The oldest got suspicious at three-he noticed EVERY inconsistency(why does Santa use the same wrapping paper as us)
I talked my way around it every year until the summer after 1st grade; some kids in the neigborhood told him there wasnt and I felt I had to come clean. The other two were clueless and it was 3rd or 4th grade. I felt when most the kids seemed to know, it was time, even if they werent asking questions(my youngest can be quite naive)
No hard feelings on any of their parts. I know I owned up to it being for me, not just them. Perhaps that helps?
Funny, because I just had this discussion with my 9 y.o. ds, my youngest. I was getting away with the "what do you think?" and "I want to believe in Santa Claus, its fun" for a while, but he kept on pressing. He would ask, "Is it you who puts out the presents?" I felt like I was getting backed in a corner. He finally told me "I know one person who won't lie to me." and he looked directly at me. What would you do? So, I started to say, "You're right, buddy, I won't lie to you..." to which he interrupted, "Never mind! I don't want to know. I want to believe!" Whew! Saved by the bell. One more year!
Now, my dd is still upset with me for "lying" to her about there being a Santa. I myself remember crying when I found out there was no Santa. Maybe dd is more like me than I realize. I wish I could break it to the kids in the "Virginia" way, but I was never that eloquent.
My oldest saw the 'tooth fairy' when the 'tooth fairy' forgot to leave his cash under my son's pillow in the night. So the 'tooth fairy' tried to sneak it in early in the morning and was busted!! He was probably 11. He asked, and we told him the truth, and he promised to not tell his brother. I truly think he kept that promise.
When my youngest became suspicious, we did what many of you do and and threw it back at him asking "well, what do YOU think" and when he'd say he did belive, we'd say, 'well then, it must be true'. As time went on and his questions became more specific, I used a similar tactic as many of you---telling him that 'Santa is Magic" or Magical.........meaning in our hearts, and the magic of Christmas........etc.......of course that made ME feel better, but he just thought santa was magic-----like an illusionist..........but neither boy was upset. My oldest was actually disappointed, but not upset with us for 'lying'. My youngest didn't seem to care either way.
We still get diffrent paper, and hide all the gifts until we put them out on Christmas Eve........it's tradition now more than Santa..........
My oldest came home and said his buddy at school rummaged until he found one of his gifts....an Ipod........and he downloaded a bunch of music on it, took it to school, listened to it, went home and put it back so his folks wouldn't know. I asked him if HE ever searched for presents. He said 'no..it kind of ruins it'. That made me feel proud. Of course, when we left the boys for several hrs on Fri. nite to shop my DH put duct tape up on the cabinets in the garage where we store the gifts to see if it was disturbed----just in case (he was mad at us for not letting him go out---so we thought he may retaliate) and it was left untouched..................which is good.
Shels
Lies !!
Blasphemy !!
LOL... HOW can you watch "Miracle on 34th Street" and ever think there is NOT a Santa Claus.. especially at the end when you see his little cane propped up in the corner of their new house..
Say it aint so... !
Seriously, when my kids were old enough to figure it out, they were old enough to hear the story of St. Nicolaus. Rather than describe a "mythical" made up person, I told them how we keep the spirit of Sinter Klaas and Nichalus of Myra and how he is not to be confused with Jesus. That seemed to alleviate any thoughts of us pulling a fast one over them.
Pages