as schools ended and a few of us on here myself included have kids that are leaving little school behind and moving up to secondary wanted to know if any of your 11 year olds still believe in Santa?

my son still Believes :-( i know its my fault i have kept the fantasy going i could say that he is young for his age its very true he is but thats not why he still believes as i had my now 22 year old still believing till he was same age and he didnt have any learning difficulties like my younger boy,
so wanted you CD'ers to tell me if your kids still think santas the one dropping those pressies at the end of their beds each year and if not what age did they stop believing and just How do you break that kind of news to the poor little ones :-)

They learn by osmosis - they don't need to be told. They still get presents left - outside their door if necessary - but they somehow know where they come from. By the time they're old enough to be told that Father Christmas doesn't leave presents for little boys who stay too late in the pub you can be fairly sure they know what you mean!

Well.....I told my daughter when she was in yr6. I couldn't have her being taunted for 'believeing'.
It was a very very sad day!
I had kept it going all the while with an answer an excuse for all occasions.
She was doing a project at school whereby she intended to prove to the rest it was true and he was real!
She came to me fairly upset, saying all the things she could find were proving the opposite and he was not real and could I please help her....was it true or not. :(
I had to come clean and she had me feeling so small  :(
She said she was disappointed in me! She trusted me and didn't think I would have let her down!   :(

I felt realy bad.......she certainly let me know I had really let her down with my dishonesty.
She is still only 13

Karen

I still believe in Santa.I want a pair of pink pyjamas this year if you're reading this,please,Santa.Thankyou in advance :)xxx

What  NO Santa? This news to me!! :-)

> What NO Santa? This news to me!! :-)

Of course there is,who do you think brings you aftershave every year?

Phew, had me worried!

you can be pretty sure that your son already knows.. regardless of learning difficulties..

My girls now aged 35 & 33, were still getting stocking left on their beds at 17/18 years old.. even after going to University.. its a ritual.. but a nice one..

I think they understood that there was no Santa by the time they were around 7/8 years old..

I suggested that I could stop leaving a filled stocking on their beds when they were around 14, which was met with open mouthed shock horror lol.. so we kept it going :-)

>I suggested that I could stop leaving a filled stocking on their beds when they were around 14, which was met with open mouthed shock horror lol.. so we kept it going 

Same here. The gifts change (condoms one year!) but the spirit remains the same.

Santa, if you read this, I've changed my mind about the pony ...... ;-)

I had kept it going all the while with an answer an excuse for all occasions.


yes i guess im doing this myself other kids have said theirs no santa to him and when he has asked i just say , that those kids that say that have stopped beliving and thats when santa dont come to them anymore ,
my 22 year old was dissapointed when he found out their was no santa even tho his stocking was still filled ever year,

and JG i love that word you used osmosis, i had to look that up its a new one on me and it sounds right lol,
think your all right that son probebley knows really but its me thats been keeping him thinking its true, :-(

what age did they stop believing and just How do you break that kind of news to the poor little ones.

I waited until they asked, we decided hubby and I that we wouldn't tell fibs to them if they queried his existance, my eldest asked the dreaded question at only 7 years old. :-( (Darn school kids!) My answer was that we believe what we want to believe and believing in magic is better than not, I said to him "Do you want to look out of the window and up at the stars and imagine Santa in his sleigh bringing your presents or do you want to believe that we put your presents at the end of your bed?" He said he wanted Santa, he never asked again, he entered into the spirit of Santa with all the same excitement of before, my youngest never did ask.

Once when we were getting the presents down from the attic, hubby dropped something with a thud, both the boys woke up (and they weren't young 11 and 13 abouts) and stood looking at us with half their presents coming down the ladder, "Caught you!" they said and I said that one of the raindeers had got their hoof stuck in the roof so we were having to help bring in the presents, they laughed and shouted up Hi Santa, do you need any help! we sent them back up to bed.

So, yes of course they know he isn't real, but even now we still do the cookies, milk and a carrot, it is tradition, we all still play along, if you can't have a little magic in your life..................

My 11 yr old knows there is no santa, last year (he was 10 yrsl old then), he came back from school and said all the kids say that santa isn't real. I told him they wouldn't be getting any presants for Christams if they didn't believe. My youngest was 9yrs at he time (he'll l be 10 next week), was disapointed, he said that he'd been arguing with everybody at school, he was the only one that believed in santa :(

Nieter of them were sure what to believe, so they googled for pics of santa - they wanted evidence, LOL. They found a couple of pics of santa flying through the air on his sleigh with reindeer. The youngest was then convinced there was santa, the eldest said the pics were fake!!

I don't know if they still believe now, but I'm not telling them there is no santa. My dad has never told me there's no santa & I'm coming up 32!!! My boys know that I will not tollerate lying, but I think they understand the difference with the childhood magic, I know I always did. They know there's no tooth-fairies, but i wont admit that either LOL.

> I still believe in Santa.I want a pair of pink pyjamas this year if you're reading this,please,Santa.Thankyou in advance :-)xxx

ROFLMAO!!!   :-)  :-)  :-)

> How do you break that kind of news to the poor little ones :-)

You can introduce him to the facts and tell him the story of St.Nicholas whose other name is Santa Clause.Tell him what a good kind man he was and left money and gifts of food for poor children,so they would have something nice to eat at Christmas time.Tell him that he was so busy that he asked lots of people to help him and now he needs mums and dad's to help and bring nice things for children.Tell him that Santa lives in Heaven now but all his helpers,like you,put out presents for him every Christmas.Tell him the reindeer are resting now cos Santa is in Heaven and doesn't need them.Tell him that he'll still have all the fun at Christmas that he's always had and he'll still get special presents.

i've never had to break the news to my first two boys, seems their friends at school told them and i kept the game going for a while but at a certain age they will just find out and be fine with it. think they were about 10/11 and even thoughthey are a lot older now i still put their stocking outside the bedroom door, it's all part of the fun of christmas.
as for my 7 year old daughter, she has learning disabilities anyway so think she'll believe for many years to come.

Why shouldn't he beleve? I beleve in Santa, and always will. I get loads of Christmas presents of him!!
Why have Christmas presents if you don't beleve! it is Magical, and always should be. Christmas is a great happy time for most, why spoil it. It is an unspoken word.
I have a daughter who is special needs now 25yrs old. She still beleves in word. Still gives a Christmas present list for santa, presents still left at the bottom of her bed. She loves her nices and nephews coming round, they all talk about Santa.
What harm does it do? there is so much unrest and unhappiness in the world. Let them enjoy!!!!

Denese

It is sad to have to tell any child there isn't any Santa, I would answer the questions truthfully. Just like I do when the grandchildren ask about Jesus!
Santa claus, this means "Saint Claus" and is short for Saint Nicholas, Saint Nicholas before he came a Saint was a bishop in Myra, (which is now Turkey) he was born around AD 270 and became well-known for giving gifts to the poor anonymously, (he never left a note or even wait around for a thank-you. He often slipped into their homes at night, leaving the gifts in shoes and stockings. So it says, He once took pity on a poor father and his three hungry daughters, he threw three purses bulging with gold into there home. What better person to distribute presents come Christmas, as a celebration of peace and goodwill. In Gemany he is called Kriss Kringle, the neverlands call him Sinter Klaas, All mean Santa Claus.
Denese

I know that there is Santa Claus I've been to see him in Lappland, how cruel to tell children he doesn't exist. NASA track him every year so he must exist-so I still believe in him !!

I think some children just transfer their belief in Santa Claus to the Bank of Mum & Dad! :)

lol right on that Lokis mum lol my 22 year old did just that,

I think some children just transfer their belief in Santa Claus to the Bank of Mum & Dad

So right Margot !

I found out at 12 after reading a question similar to yours in my mums womans own magazine :-)
I dont recall being surprised, just a little down that he wasnt real although i suppose i had my suspicions otherwise it would have affected me more.
I worked with someone who went to extreme lengths to keep her son believing (even at 14+ years of age). Its all well and good leaving crumbs on plates and half eaten carrots when children are younger but silly to continue as they get older. i wouldnt outright sit them down and tell them he WASNT real, i just wouldnt go out my way to keep the belief going when deep down they have probably stopped believing just not said it out loud

My 12 year old still believes but i think my 9 year old is questioning it .
I remember having a year of not being sure at the age of 12 and then just figuring it out , i never confronted my Mum she just knew i knew !
My hubby and i still do stockings for each other - that's the best bit as it usually goes downhill from there and i have to put on my ' just what i always wanted ' face !

i have to put on my ' just what i always wanted ' face

lol sounds like your talking about my kind of xmas lol

>My hubby and i still do stockings for each other

That's nothing - mine and I do our own because that way we'll get what we want!

Good old Father Christmas (we don't allow 'Santa' into the house! ;-) ) always gives me my next year's diary and the latest novel in the series I've been reading since the 70s.

> mine and I do our own because that way we'll get what we want!
>
>

Ah but , every Christmas we say that we won't spend a lot 'cos Christmas is for the children . So i stick with that but he can't so i get loads of goodies !!!!

i have to put on my ' just what i always wanted ' face

This was particularly neccesary one year when he bought me a Poodle figurine which looks more like an Afghan !!!
That was in its box in the top of the wardrobe before the kids had finished unwrapping their pressies and it hasn't been down since .  Every year he worries about what he has bought for me , so i say that as long as it is better than the Poodle he will be OK !

Moonmaiden,
I agree! we seen him in Lappland, Magical!!! his little helpers, Reindeers and Sleigh even the largest raindeer Rudolph, his Huskies. Wow!! Take everyone there, then ask if there is a Santa Claus!!!

Denese

when he bought me a Poodle figurine which looks more like an Afghan

lol ohhhh well Afghans are sweet toooo lol,

well I got a DEEP FAT FRYER one year :-O, and im not a chip lover,

and last year i got a bar butler yay!! holds six bottles of spirits it does,im not a big drinker either so that has not been out of the box yet my guess is it never will,
I NEVER have six bottles of spirits in the house at anyone time so why open it at all ever lol,

What no Santa!!!!!!!! dont tell my hubby, he still believes.... he gets up Christmas morning, all presents are wrapped, turkey in the oven,   tree decorated,  table set,  who else could possibley do all that ........only santa..LOL!

Sadly kiddies stop believing earlier and earlier  these days.. in saying that my two 29 and 24   still go through the ritual of putting the carrot /mince pie and whisky out for Santa on xmas eve...

I never told them ever that santa was not real, my son , when he was a round 9 , challenged me  about him... I just told him its up to him whether he believes or not, but be ready for the consequences, of not believing, NO PRESENTS!!!!!!!!  it was never raised again.

its good to keep the magic going, even if you know they know Santa is not real!!