I didn’t let my kids believe in Santa

We’re all just the stories we are told and the stories we tell.
We can be a Grinch, or a Scrooge, or Santa.
We can give or take.
It’s all pretty simple stuff.
And telling kids bedtime stories of little red riding hoods, 3 little pigs, or Snow Whiite has never really hurt anyone. Leaving a quarter under a pillow in place of a lost tooth. An Easter basket of colored eggs or a stocking full of candy canes has never hurt anyone either.
Bring the evergreens in the house and have a cup of good cheer.
Banish that December chill.
Celebrate the longest night of the year (or day as it were, in the distant South).
Sing songs. Make merry. Believe what you will and don’t give a flying flip what others believe or not… but do be giving of yourself to those around you.
Whether or not you give anything to the kids in your circle is down to you. And nobody can judge you on the merits of your giving as long as it’s all good and means no harm. No harm will come of that, surely.
 
At no point in my life did I believe some guy delivered presents to every home in the world in one day. And shimmied down a chimney to do so. I was smarter than that the day I had my first thought. My parents did not have to make such a call.
 
Wow... This thread is bringing me down🙁

I am an atheist who loves Santa Claus and Christmas. For me Santa brings magic, wonder , and love to the season no matter your age.

Our family will be celebrating on Christmas eve. The youngest in our expanded family is 15yo so we know that Santa is a metaphor for love of family.

Many of our presents under our tree are from Santa. We know what the meaning of Santa Claus is for us :)

As an aside, I learned that my parents were Santa when I was around 6 years old. Fortunately, I didn't suffer PTSD and disillusionment. And I was not angry that my parents "lied" to me about the "false" magic of Christmas and Santa Claus.
 
heel79 said:
Well he is an old white guy. So there you go.
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Not everybody thinks that way about Southern Europeans. He was a Greek who ended up in Turkey.

Had a reputation as a hothead.


Yes, according to a popular legend, St. Nicholas (the historical figure behind Santa Claus) slapped the heretic Arius in the face at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD because Arius denied the divinity of Christ, though modern historians and theologians view this story as a myth that emerged centuries later to highlight Nicholas's zealous defense of orthodoxy, not as historical fact.
 
finesse said:
Not everybody thinks that way about Southern Europeans. He was a Greek who ended up in Turkey.

Had a reputation as a hothead.


Yes, according to a popular legend, St. Nicholas (the historical figure behind Santa Claus) slapped the heretic Arius in the face at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD because Arius denied the divinity of Christ, though modern historians and theologians view this story as a myth that emerged centuries later to highlight Nicholas's zealous defense of orthodoxy, not as historical fact.
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CFordUNC said:
How come? Seems like harmless enough fun for what amounts to a precious little amount of time in the grand scheme of things!
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I think you can know Santa isn't real but still have fun with the idea of Santa, without lying to your kids for years.
 
Telling your kids there is no Santa>>>>>>>>>>>>Telling your kids there is a Santa past the age where the vast majority of other kids would laugh at your child if if he/she said they still believed

BTW, your kid doesn’t believe in Santa after grade 3 (at best) and is just humoring you. I had a conversation at Thanksgiving with a mother in my wife’s extended family who was holding off on telling her son- who is 14.
 
ChileG said:
Telling your kids there is no Santa>>>>>>>>>>>>Telling your kids there is a Santa past the age where the vast majority of other kids would laugh at your child if if he/she said they still believed

BTW, your kid doesn’t believe in Santa after grade 3 (at best) and is just humoring you. I had a conversation at Thanksgiving with a mother in my wife’s extended family who was holding off on telling her son- who is 14.
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Okay, yeah, that is definitely absurd! Age 14 is wayyyy too late to be believing in Santa Claus haha. I figure it has a shelf life up to around 7-8 years old or so max. Maybe less. It's fun for me to do it right now with my 3-year-old but, yeah, won't be doing this anywhere close to a point at which it would be weird for him to believe.
 
ChileG said:
Telling your kids there is no Santa>>>>>>>>>>>>Telling your kids there is a Santa past the age where the vast majority of other kids would laugh at your child if if he/she said they still believed

BTW, your kid doesn’t believe in Santa after grade 3 (at best) and is just humoring you. I had a conversation at Thanksgiving with a mother in my wife’s extended family who was holding off on telling her son- who is 14.
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14? WTF!

I think kids know intellectually before they know emotionally.

But with the internet at their disposal they can find the irrefutable proof easily at a younger age.
 
ZenMode said:
I think you can know Santa isn't real but still have fun with the idea of Santa, without lying to your kids for years.
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I hear ya. I don't think it's lying per se, or at least not in a malicious or mendacious way, but like I say, I definitely respect the choice of those who decide not to indulge it.
 
The woman who told me this was wearing a TPUSA t-shirt at the time, so you can connect the dots here, lol.
 
CFordUNC said:
Okay, yeah, that is definitely absurd! Age 14 is wayyyy too late to be believing in Santa Claus haha. I figure it has a shelf life up to around 7-8 years old or so max. Maybe less. It's fun for me to do it right now with my 3-year-old but, yeah, won't be doing this anywhere close to a point at which it would be weird for him to believe.
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8 is still relatively young. That is when I found out after asking my mom, but years later my mom told me, in hindsight, she would have waited at least one more year before telling me.

My kids are 11 and 9 and we told them both this year. I think my son (the 11-year-old) had pretty much figured it out by the age of 8 or 9, but he played along. Granted, I still think there was something in him that wanted to believe. We told the kids because my daughter confronted us with the question a couple months ago. We figured if she really wanted to know, it was time to tell her the truth.

IMO there’s no need to tell them while they’re still young if they don’t ask. At some point they’ll probably ask and they will be an age where you feel good about telling them. Or they may never ask but figure it out for themselves.
 
CFordUNC said:
I hear ya. I don't think it's lying per se, or at least not in a malicious or mendacious way, but like I say, I definitely respect the choice of those who decide not to indulge it.
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Yeah, it’s definitely not “lying.” It’s having fun with kids when they are still capable of feeling the joy of believing in magic. No need to deprive kids of that joy when they can experience it. They’ll face reality soon enough and become jaded soon enough.
 
Icky Mettle said:
Yeah, it’s definitely not “lying.” It’s having fun with kids when they are still capable of feeling the joy of believing in magic. No need to deprive kids of that joy when they can experience it. They’ll face reality soon enough and become jaded soon enough.
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Totally with you!
 
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