Believing in Father Christmas

[Miss-read]

What age does a child stop believing in Father Christmas.

[sunflower68]

My 8 year old has been told via his freind's teenage brother (thanks Ben) that it is all lies! However I think he is gonna keep the pretence this year, bless him. Like me at that age, I think he worries he may hurt my feelings and also wants the prezzies. How old are your children Miss-read? x

[divegirl]

Hi, my little girl is 9 and still believes!

Lisa x

[Beanmistriss]

I'm a support worker and I work with people with learning difficulties. About two weeks ago I had to break the news to a 25 year old. She said I'll have to do my list for santa soon. Ummmmm....... :/ Wrong, wrong, wrong!!!!!!!!

[ummmm]

About 4 if they have a spiteful older sibling!

[ummmm]

About 4 if they have a spiteful older sibling!

[cameo]

My eldest daughter, who is now 14, suspected something was not quite right with the santa story at about 3!!

She was (still is) a bright child and she kept on and on and on asking me way too many questions about him. I nearly caved in and told her but then realised that she would go to playgroup and tell all her friends and i would be left with a lot of irate parents to deal with!

By the age of 4 she knew.

We kept it going for longer with her sister. she found out when she was about 7.

[lynneylou]

my daughter is 13 and we will still sit and write our letters as a family in a few weeks. My other 2 daughters left home end of last yr and one in march and until then, they too believed at 16 and 18. It all depends on how magic you keep it i think!!!

[divegirl]

Beanmistress.... You say that the people that you work with have learning difficulties.... A very comendable job. As such though one would imagine that some of these people do not have the mental agility of their actual age....I am trying to be be PC here! So, what gives you the right to decide whether or not an individual should believe or not? If it makes the person happy....so be it! i am hoping that I've read your answer in the wrong context.

lisa

[saxy_jag]

I think it varies with the individual. With our family it's never so much been 'stopped believing' as changing the nature of the belief. Santa has become, for us, the personification of all that is good about Christmas, and of the belief that even the stingiest people can become amazingly warm and generous at this time of year.

[Beanmistriss]

Hi Divegirl, no I don't think you read it in the wrong context atall. The people I work with may have learning difficulties and may not as you say, have the mental agility of their actual age but they are adults and as such have a right to be supported to be able to be as much a part of society as you or me. If I were to go to work and say "well I actually do believe in Santa", people would think I was a bit mad, so I don't think it would help in a society they have to work so hard to be accepted into anyway.
Nothing gives me the right to decide what people should believe, but I think it would be irresponsible to let someone go on believing something into adulthood that everyone else learns as a child is not real. I am an atheist but support peple with their religious beliefs without prejudice. However I believe that if I were to go along with Santa being real that I would not be respecting them as adult people. It would mean I would not be seeing them as the same as you or me and that I saw them as some kind of eternal innocents or that for some reason they were not entitled to have the same information as we have. For someone who does my job that would not be an acceptable way to view poeple with learning difficulties. Hope that makes my position a bit clearer and you don't think I was just being mean :)

[divegirl]

Thank you for you answer....just can't believe he's not real.... ;o[....lol

[divegirl]

saxy_jag...think I'll have to agree with you.

Lisa x

[RATTER15]

Divegirl, dont you believe them, of course he's real!!

They dont know what they are talking about!!

[divegirl]

Thank the Lord for that Ratter.....knew I wasn't the only one!

Hugs and kisses to you and of course....Merry Christmas

Lisa x

[NiceHobbit]

I figured it out somewhere around the age of 7 because I noticed that "Santa" used the same wrapping paper as my parents every Christmas! I tried to bring it up with Mum when i was about 8, I told her about a girl in my class who'd said she'd woken up one year to find her parents putting her presents in her stocking. Well Mum was having none of that, insisted that this girl had obviously been so naughty that year that Santa had refused to visit her and her parents didn't want to disappoint her, of course he existed! I didn't believe a word of this but thought at the time it was easier to play along, I did this for another 2 years. However that year I was spending Christmas with a 6 year old cousin who still believed so I had to play along again in front of her!
I do have a story about that same cousin finding out he didn't exist but my relatives read this so I'd better not post it.

[bubblegum-31]

hi, i have four kids 2boys n 2girls my eldest is 9 and he still believes although he has asked alot of questions this year as kids in his class have started saying there is no santa, i dont want to tell him as i remember feeling gutted when i was young and i found out so i reckon this time nxt year he will know anyway as by then it sounds as tho its gonna be common knowledge in his class lol deep down i think that he knows its me that puts his presents out but he likes to believe, im happy enough with that

[Aprilis]

My daughter has just turned 9. She has had doubts about the existence of Father Christmas and asked questions that we have so far managed to deflect. But despite her questions, every Christmas Eve before she goes to bed she still puts out her glass of sherry or beer (or whatever), and a mince pie for Father Christmas and a glass of milk and a carrot for Rudolph. Then she watches as we sprinkle talc on the carpet in front of our open fireplace.

Once she is sound asleep out come Daddy's work boots and bootprints are duly made in the talc! The goodies are eaten and drunk (leaving just a little evidence). Also, one or two extra pressies are wrapped in different wrapping paper and left beside the fireplace.

She is up at the crack of dawn on Christmas morning to check for bootprints to prove that FC did indeed come down the chimney during the night! So far she has never failed to come running up the stairs shouting with excitement that he has...and to look what he left for her!

She is actually a bright child and could easily see past all this if she really wanted to, so we know that she WANTS to still believe. We are of the opinion though that this is probably the last year we will get away with this. So we have arranged a trip to Lapland as a special treat for her before the all innocence and magic is lost. We hope this means that she will have special memories of the time she rode in a sleigh to see Father Christmas and his elves at home and she still believed!

[MyfanwyCymru]

From Santa to St Nicholas. It's effortless! And he's real! His feast day is soon - December 6th. Read all about it on
dayhttp://www.anglicancommunion.org/stnicholas/in dex.html
Warm, generous, loyal - just like Santa!

[marwel7]

What do you mean - stop believing?

[gnome1999]

My daughter is 7 and still believes - I kind of still belive too. to anyone that says "It's just your parents" or what ever - I say - he might not visit your house - but he still visits ours! Of course he only fills the kids stockings with little gifts and sweets - no large expensive presents - he can't fit them all on the sleigh.