<p>My daughter (an only child) one night when she was pretty young asked me point blank is there a tooth fairy or do you bring me the money - since I never lie to her I told her it was me - she then said and you are Santa also. I told my friends who had kids the same age and they were aghast telling me that I had ruined her childhood and that I should have lied. But it was fine for my daughter -she was genuinely happy that her parents were the one who made those events special.</p>
<p>C’mon. In this day and age, any kid who professes to believe in Santa or the tooth fairy beyond age 7 or 8 is either humoring the parents or trying to assure that the bounty won’t be cut off. </p>
<p>I think from the time that first tooth fell out my kids knew that there was no fairy, and we knew that they knew, but we all adhered to a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for many years and enjoyed the gamesmanship of trying to sneak that money under the pillow undetected.</p>
<p>I never admitted anything to them. They believed until they weren’t quite sure…then tried to trick and trap to find out…then it just became funny.</p>
<p>When my oldest was three, we were talking about Santa, and I thought–this kid is so smart, I’m sure he doesn’t even think this is logical. So I said, “Honey, you don’t really think there’s a big fat man with a white beard who slides down people’s chimneys and puts presents in their houses, do you?” To which he confidently answered, “Of course not! He has a gray beard.” End of conversation.</p>
<p>My a never believed. I knew for sure when he was 6 and complied when we begged him to stop convincing his 4 year old sister who still believed. S said it just wasn’t logical </p>
<p>He also never believed in much, as my cynic. I am not positive when D stopped believing; she figured out details were irrelevant.</p>
<p>I think I figured it out somewhere between 7 and 9 I think. I tricked confirmation out of an older cousin when I told him I’d realized the tooth fairy wasn’t real by putting a tooth under my pillow without telling my mom first to see if the fairy would still come (having done nothing of the sort), and he said “you’re pretty smart, that’s what I did, too!” But I think by then I already knew and just wanted someone to confirm it.</p>
<p>I was not scarred or upset or anything when I realized it. My belief took it’s natural course and gently came to an end when it was appropriate. My mom said people who don’t believe in Santa don’t get any presents so I don’t know that we’ve EVER verbally acknowledged it! Mom still sneaks presents under the tree.</p>
<p>Funny story… when my younger sister and I were VERY young we used to always watch the Thanksgiving parade with my older sister, and when the clowns would throw candy into the crowd (or it looked like they did?) candy would <em>POP</em> out from behind the television for us to scurry and grab! It took us YEARS to realize my older sister was throwing the candy over her shoulder. She eventually assumed we had figured it out and didn’t do it one year and we were inconsolable that the clown magic didn’t work anymore. That one still makes me laugh every year… no clue how she pulled that off without us seeing.</p>
<p>When she was 12, I had to have a serious talk with D. She had been arguing with her friends at school that of course Santa was real - after all, NORAD tracked his progress! I guess we were good at pretending and she was wanting to believe. It was a very hard conversation.</p>
<p>My mom practically forced me to stop believing in Santa when I was 11. I’d mention something like “I hope Santa blah blah blah” and then she’d stop to give me this stern/serious look and drop some kind of hint. I’d ignore her, though, because I wasn’t ready to stop believing. </p>
<p>She finally dropped the bombshell at a restaurant. We were eating breakfast and after I mentioned Santa again, she said “oh harvestmoon, I’ve been trying to get you to figure it out for weeks. There is no Santa Claus.” And then I started to cry and it was embarrassing. </p>
<p>I still kind of resent that to this day. I was trying so desperately to keep that part of my childhood alive, and she just took it away. I just wanted to feel that youthful comfort and faith associated with it. It was a rough time in our family, and I needed something magical and warm. Of course I KNEW it wasn’t true and that it wasn’t possible, but I still fooled myself into believing it.</p>
<p>But that is life.</p>
<p>* Why can’t Santa afford to get them whatever they want*</p>
<p>My friend’s son asked this question after his mom had told him that an item he wanted wasn’t affordable. She then told them that after Christmas, parents have to send Santa a check, so that’s why that desired gift is too expensive. He was satisfied with that answer.</p>
<p>I don’t think that the whole Santa, TF, and EB stories are “lying”. It’s just clean fun. I think most/all kids are able to differentiate between “lying parents” and parents just participating in old beloved traditions. However, I think once a child asks if Santa is real, the parents should tell the truth. </p>
<p>I just don’t like the idea that some people are saying that the tradition is “lying”. When people plan a Surprise Party and have to “deceive” the Guest of Honor in order to get them to show up or not know about the party plans, I don’t think that’s “lying”. Lying is different.</p>
<p>My oldest was in second grade and was beginning to have doubts. That Christmas we went to FL to visit other grandparents and while there, Santa left a note with a few gifts saying that the rest were left under the tree at home. You could see on my son’s face that he was doubting this story. But when we had left the house, there was nothing there. I called my brother to go into our house and bring up the gifts from the basement and put them under the tree so that when we returned, and son walked in, there they were. He looked really confused and believed for just a little while longer. He then kept up the charade for his younger brothers until they had to face it. </p>
<p>My brother was the youngest of five kids. He wouldn’t have believed except for the fact that his four older siblings wouldn’t lie to him and we convinced him until he was at least 10. I think he loved every second of it.</p>
<p>DS was in second grade. It was in March, and one evening he was acting like a real A*S. We sent him to his room, and then I heard him turn on music (which wsa against the rules). I went in to talk to him about respect and he pulled me into the office, pulled the “Santa” paper from behind the door and declared, " I have been living a lie MY WHOLE LIFE!" He got over it and now we laugh about it.
He did say it was hard to believe that Santa would just ignore half his friends because they were different religions and that he only went to Christian, Pagan and Atheist houses. :)</p>
<p>I always told DD that Santa was a “happy pretend.” She preferred to think he was real.</p>
<p>I can’t remember exactly how old my oldest was when we told her (we had to, as it was getting ridiculous) but she seemed stunned. She wasn’t completely disappointed- just kind of amazed.
I asked her a couple of years later why she believed for so long in the face of all the evidence otherwise, and her reply surprised me. “I just couldn’t imagine that you guys (Dh and me) would get us all that stuff!”
Great. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>I do remember one Christmas when she was five and received blue nail polish in her stocking. She was so pleased because I wouldn’t let her buy any, even with her own allowance. I imagine that nail blue polish cemented the Santa belief for another couple of years, anyway.</p>
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<p>I only recall asking for one electronic growing up (a gameboy) because electronics just weren’t my thing. However, I do remember my parents telling me that Elves couldn’t make electronics and Santa could only bring what the Elves could make (books, small toys, clothes, etc).</p>
<p>Which made perfect sense to four year old me :). I don’t know if it would’ve worked as I got older lol…</p>
<p>ETA: And out of all the “lies” that people tell their kids, I don’t really think there’s any harm in this one. I think if the kid is thinking “I don’t trust you because you lied to me about Santa!” past some age, the issue is NOT that you “lied” about Santa… there’s something else going on. I do think there’s something magical about the idea of a man who gives and gives and gives just to see happiness in others.</p>
<p>^^^ I have never heard any adult, or kid for that matter, say that they felt they couldn’t trust their parents because they let them believe in Santa. But I have heard plenty of adults say they were mad when their parents told them “too early” that there was no Santa.
It is hard to get it just right, though, like most of parenting.</p>
<p>Never believed in the Tooth Fairy or the Easter Bunny. </p>
<p>But Santa. Santa is real. </p>
<p>I still go to sleep before midnight on Christmas Eve. Don’t want to be awake when he comes! :eek:</p>
<p>In regards to “not trusting your parents”…if anything I’m grateful for my mom instilling the Christmas spirit in me. I LOVE Christmas!</p>
<p>I guess I didn’t believe in Santa past age 6 or so.
My parents couldn’t afford much Christmas and it seemed odd to me that the kids next door had a room full of toys and I got pajamas.
It was fun believing in it when I did though & I remember my dad waking me up to look out the window because the radio said that they had picked up Santa’s sleigh on radar.</p>
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I think I know why emerald…</p>
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You weren’t sleeping! ;)</p>
<p>My kids never realized that there isn’t a Santa (fairy, bunny, etc.) What they realized is that MOM is Santa. I truly am Santa. And if I didn’t believe that, there wouldn’t be much of a Christmas at our house.</p>
<p>My older kids told the younger ones, so the older ones believed longer. I think my youngest daughter told her kindergarten class, “Santa is really your mom. . .”
I told her not to talk about it at school because some kids still believe. I don’t remember any sad moment of realization–they just figured it out. </p>
<p>When I was about 8, my twin sister and I were pretty sure there wasn’t a Santa, but we were still wishing there was one and looking for evidence that he might be real. Our aunt, uncle and older cousin decided to make it real for us (and our younger siblings), and drove 4 hours across the state to arrive at our house around 3 am. Our teenage cousin ran around the outside of the house, ringing sleighbells. My sister and I heard them. Oh, I remember hearing those bells and the brief, magical feeling of hope, of possibility–that, in spite of our doubts, there might really be a Santa! Then our doorbell rang. Sis and I ran to the door, opened it, and there stood Santa! Santa started telling us how he couldn’t get down our chimney, and immediately, my sister blurted out “HI, Uncle!” (she recognized his voice/accent.) Then our cousin came in with a bloody nose–he had run into a tree while he was tearing around the yard with the jingle bells. (Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer jokes followed.) Although sis had quickly ruined the whole show for our younger siblings, and our uncle was disappointed that he’d been recognized so quickly, this is one of our family’s happiest Christmas memories.</p>
<p>I was raised Jewish and attended a Jewish preschool. The first time I had substantial exposure to the idea of Santa was in kindergarten, and if I remember correctly, I couldn’t quite grasp what Santa was. However, when my youngest brother was four and I was ten, I convinced him that not only was Santa real, but he just didn’t like Jews, hence the lack of presents and visits. I don’t know when my brother realized the truth. </p>
<p>I still don’t understand what exactly the Easter Bunny is although I had to dress up as him for a volunteer event.</p>
<p>I found out the tooth fairy wasn’t real the night I lost my first tooth. My father made a bit too much noise entering the room, and woke me up although I pretended to be asleep. In order to keep the money coming, I played dumb for the next few teeth until I finally demanded the truth.</p>
<p>Based on where we lived I think I was 6 (maybe 7 - I’m pretty sure I was in 1st grade at the time so whatever age that is) when my mom told me the tooth fairy wasn’t real. I actually remember the scene of it so it was at least somewhat significant to me. I think I said something about the tooth fairy after loosing a tooth and my mom said something like “What if I told you I was the tooth fairy.” And I think I responded with something like “That’s fine. I don’t care.” I was smart enough to deduce that she “was” also Santa and the Easter Bunny and all too. It’s hard to say that far back but I don’t think I ever thought about or cared if any of those sorts of things were real or not, so I never really asked or tried to figure out or thought about it.</p>