Santa

Ruby has midwinter Christmas at preschool today so after sending her off with her santa hat on it has got me thinking.....

For her last two Christmas's we had decided we were never going to teach her that Santa was real and that she would get presents from friends and family and not from Santa. I wasnt planning to explain to her that Santa wasnt real, just never tell her that he was if that makes sense.

This year she will be two and old enough to understand and now I am wondering if it is the right thing to do

I know it is only June still but Chrismas will come around soon enough

Any thoughts on this greatly appreciated

We don't do Santa.
Firstly we celebrate the birth of Jesus and secondly people have gone to alot of effort and put alot of thought into getting the kids gifts and I would rather take the opportunity to teach them about thankfulness and appreciation rather than a non-existant fat man in a red suit

We believe in Santa in this house Thats half the fun of Christmas for kids when they are young.

I reckon Santa is one of the most exciting parts of Christmas as a kid. I still remember one Christmas eve the news was keeping track of where Santa was. They had a map of the world with a sleigh on it and after every story they would do a Santa update. When his ETA was about 10 minutes away (He'd just done Sydney lol) I ran off to bed giggling because I knew he wouldn't come if I was still awake

Christmas talk already...geez

I had always intended on not doing the whole Santa thing, but it never really worked out that way.
Unless I completely removed my girls from society they were quickly going to get caught up in the whole thing, its hard to aviod it when you see him in malls, on TV programmes, books, christmas parties... he's every where around Christmas.
And when Keira started telling me she needed to make sure santa had cookies and milk when he came to visit, I just couldn't break it to her that he wasn't real.
My Pop has always dressed up as Santa at Christmas. Arrived in some ridiculous fashion ( like a blow up boat which got stuck in the middle of a lagoon...). And given out presents. We all know that it is my Pop but Keira still tries so hard to believe it is really santa.

One day I know she will figure it out for herself. I remember being a child and figuring out, and realy it wasn't that much of a big deal.

It is fun to pretend, to keep that innocence, I wish I still believed in Santa!

my parents always felt like they did not want to lie to us...so when we asked questions they would tell us the truth.
In holland an even bigger character is 'sinterklaas' he looks almost the same (not fat).
In the early days parents would say he and his helpers would take you away if you were naughty...so lots of kids were more scared than anything else...I think sinterklaas is based on a bible character and the story just got bigger over the years...doesn't have much to do with the bible story anymore I think...

The difficult thing though, with it being so big in holland and all the other kids thinking he was real...well, we were not supposed to tell them. So I used to think it was so cool that I knew and the other kids didn't.. I still enjoyed all the special occasions when he would show up and hand out presents...i didn't care he wasn't real...Just always wondered who it was behind that white beard...hahaha

don't know if that was much use....

edited to add:
cool jazzy...we must have posted at the same time...we're still thinking about whether or not to do sinterklaas as well as christmas....i like the whole shoe thing, hahaha

Edited by Chops1975

With our kids at a catholic pre school and school, they tend to keep santa out of it til the last week or so, however its impossible to hide from no matter what you want to do.
WE got an awesom ebook form the christian book shop that was a very basic story but at the end said we celebrate Jesus birthday which is why we give presents to each other, to show we care. While you might keep Jesus out of it too, it was a good way of simplifying the gift thing.
The important thing, i think, is that people who tell their children there is no santa (and you've said you just aren't going to introduce santa) remember that others children do believe and their little one might spoil the fun a wee bit for some of the others.

I cant wait to have kids because they make xmas so special! i dont think it is lieing to kids just pretend

Good thread, I don't know what we'll do although I had thought about not doing it, it's going to be everywhere and I suppose that is the 'fun' part about it as a kid until you learn hes not real!

I knew the tooth fairy wasn't real when I lost my first tooth and heard my grandparents arguing on what to give me

Flake wrote: We don't do the Santa thing, but my mother does for the younger brothers, so I let Santa visit Nana's lol.

My cousin does this as her boy's birthday is Christmas day, he has his Birthday at home in the morning and goes to Nana's for Santa.