Follow-up: For those with children, do you continue the ruse with your own children, or simply tell them it’s you who gives the gifts? Why or why not?

  • @superduperpirate@lemmy.world
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    275 days ago

    I think I was around 10 when I first realized it.

    What clued me in was my dad, whose favorite meal was a tuna sandwich and a diet coke, insisting that Santa didn’t want milk & cookies, Santa wanted a tuna sandwich and diet coke.

    • EleventhHourOP
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      95 days ago

      When I was very little, and we put cookies out for Santa, my mom would always let me eat one because she “didn’t want Santa getting fat“.

      My father happened to be on a diet at the same time. I figured it out when I was six.

      From that point on, my “punishment” was to be the chief gift wrapper. I suppose the one good thing that came from that is, after many years of wrapping gifts for my whole family, I am now an expert at wrapping gifts.

  • The Snark Urge
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    165 days ago

    My six year old has begun to plaintively declare his belief in both magic and Santa, unprompted. I think he fears children who do not play along are not as well rewarded.

    I’m the kind of parent who doesn’t tell their kids what to believe, but I also don’t bullshit him. “You believe in magic. So, you’ve seen magic?” I don’t know why he’d think he needs to pretend. Maybe it’s just that he isn’t ready to face facts. I don’t argue, I just try to make him think.

    • EleventhHourOP
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      135 days ago

      Congrats on teaching your kid critical thinking, but I must say, sometimes kids just want to pretend. It’s a thing they do, and I personally miss the freedom. I had to do that as a child. Let them dream.

      At the same time, I think it sounds like you’re doing a good job of planting the seeds of reason and logic that will flourish later.

      • The Snark Urge
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        55 days ago

        I’m not here to step on youthful wonder, it’s not my turf anymore…But I do feel a need to teach them that thinking involves more questions than proclamations.

  • shoulderoforion
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    145 days ago

    Being Jewish, we were told about this mishegas the moment we were able to hold cognitive thought

  • @Meltrax@lemmy.world
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    135 days ago

    I was a skeptical kid. A fat man making his way down every single chimney in the country in one night? No way. Never really bought into it.

    • Atelopus-zeteki
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      55 days ago

      Rational. But what if not all Santas are fat? And what if there are in fact many of them? Gets a whole lot more plausible.

        • Atelopus-zeteki
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          15 days ago

          Umm, yeah, that would be my man, Santa Jesse, not me so much. If you were searching, Triceratops Santa was me. I felt like I needed to up the ante, er weird the ante this year. One parent commented, “That’s the real OG Santa.”

  • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod
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    135 days ago

    I stopped believing around 9 or 10 but started believing again when I became Santa for my family.

  • @Sludgeyy@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    I was probably 7 or 8.

    I lost a tooth and put it under my pillow without telling my parents. Toothfairy never came.

    Didn’t believe in any of the mythical things after that.

    Edit: Oh and we play along. He’s 14 and definitely knows but the wife enjoys it more than he does. So he’s milking it and I applaud him for it.

  • @rhacer@lemmy.world
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    105 days ago

    What I wanna know is who are all these people claiming that Santa Claus is not fucking real!?

    Of course he’s real.

    • Flax
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      15 days ago

      Sorry mate, it was your parents who punched Arius in the face at the first council of Nicea in AD 325

  • Around 10, I think… My mother thought she’d tell me about Santa and sex all in one car journey. Thanks for ending my childhood in one fell swoop!

    Our kids always knew it was pretend so we all pretend together and everyone has fun. They never say anything to the believers or even the adults because that would ruin the fun. We do cookies and everything.

  • @ghashul@feddit.dk
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    105 days ago

    I don’t remember actually honestly believing it at any point. It was more like a fun thing in my family, and I was even Santa Claus myself for my little brother when I wasn’t that old.

  • @Dave@lemmy.nz
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    85 days ago

    We don’t lie, and talk about “who is going to be Santa this year”. Treat it like a game. I don’t think the youngest quite understands and we don’t purposely ruin it, but that the adults are Santa is openly talked about.

    Recently one of my kid’s friends got an elf on the shelf, and my kid asked what it was. I think that if other parents lie to their kids that’s for them to sort out, we can’t be expected to lie to our kids to keep up another lie. So I straight out told them what it was and that some parents use it to try to trick their kids into being good. They replied “can I have one?”

  • @IzzyScissor@lemmy.world
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    75 days ago

    When I was 6 or 7, I realized the neighbors (who were absolutely AWFUL) received more presents than my family did and the only difference was that their family made more money.

    I started thinking about all the kids in my class, and the ones that got the most presents weren’t the nicest kids, they were the ones with the richest parents. Then it clicked.

    • EleventhHourOP
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      35 days ago

      That’s a pretty depressing conclusion of your deductive reasoning for a six or seven year-old.

      Do you celebrate Christmas now?

      • @IzzyScissor@lemmy.world
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        24 days ago

        Lol, no.

        My husband and I agree that it’s just a marketing ploy and don’t typically exchange high-cost gifts. We’ll make food and enjoy the lazy day with a new videogame or puzzle, but rarely anything more than that.