did anyone's parents never pretend about santa?

[CyranoJones]

Despite my mother's best attempts, she could not get me to believe in Santa. However, I did choose to believe in the Easter bunny...go figure!

We didn't do the Santa thing with our daughter.

 

[Nuts4Disney]

In our family, Santa has always been the Spirit of Christmas...& I will always believe in Santa, the Spirit of Christmas.

But you are not alone, SPAGo 98. We have friends who are "Christians," who do not celebrate Christmas with Santa, or Christmas trees either. There are many philophical points that we do not agree with, but we respect our different views & move on from there.

Happy Holidays!

 

[Girls Scout Leader]

Seaspray:
Same senario here. Doubt that my kids would ahve believed anyway. They should have been from Missouri..."show me".
Always the cynics.

 

[luvdzny]

Nope - Santa never came to my house when I was young. We got plenty of presents, but none from Santa. I don't think it was a problem though 'cuz I still have lots of great Christmas memories. I grew up down south, and St. Nick never came to visit us either. Maybe it was because there was no snow.

 

[scarlett873]

i still get gifts from santa!! and i'm 29!!!!

my parents have always been really big into the whole santa thing. i remember being younger and getting the santa presents every year...and then when i hit that age where i began questioning the existence of santa, my parents pulled one over on me that took years before i realized what they had done...it was christmas eve and i was about 6 or so. my mom came into the bedroom that i shared with my sister, who was about 2, and dragged us out of bed. she told us to be really quiet and that she had something to show us. so we snuck out into the hall and peeked around the corner into the living room. dad was sound asleep on the couch, mom was right next to us, and there was santa by our tree pulling presents from his bag!! i'm telling you, i was so convinced at that point that it took me quite a long time before i realized that the man that night by our tree was my step-grandpa.

after that, my parents never really told me officially that there was no such thing, but one year, when i was about 14 or 15, i started helping them put out the santa presents after my brother and sister had gone to bed.

i am now 29, my sister is 24, and my brother is 22...we still gather at mom and dad's on christmas eve...we put out milk and cookies...go to bed...never falling into a deep sleep...and wait patiently for the CD to kick in, signaling that it's time to get out of bed...and that "santa" was here. "he" turns on the same CD that he has for about 20 years now...we wait until the 2nd song, to make sure that "he's" had enough time to leave and then we go out into the living room. there are so many presents!!! i know now that there is no such thing as santa claus, but on christmas morning, we are all believers in our house...we've converted our spouses into the tradition too and they just eat it up...

i can't wait to pass on the tradition to my children someday...i'm sure that i'll end up with the same story that i was told when i was younger...santa is just way too busy to deliver all of the presents to every single child in the world, so he brings them to mom and dad for safe keeping and they put them out for him...

 

[Serena]

I've told my kids the truth, but we choose to continue to believe in Santa and mom(me) is one of Santa's elves.

It's one of those "Don't confuse me with the facts, I'm happy."

 

[Saphire]

I was another kid that was really disappointed when I found out the truth, what an awful feeling! So, we never told our kids the elaborate lies that inevitably go along with Santa. What we do is celebrate an eternal joy, one that is 'real' to us, about how God himself came to earth and lived among us. Children can understand this simple and amazing story too. So although Santa isn't a part of our Christmas story, we can still feel wonder and joy at the precious gift God gave us at Christmas.

 

[WDWHound]

I was a steadfast believer in Santa as a child, more so than almost any other kid. When I was in kindergarden, they wanted Santa to come in to give us presents. Well, apparently the big guy wasn't available, so they asked for a parent to volunteer to dress up as Santa and fill in for him. Unbeknownst to me, my father volunteered for the job.

So, there I was, sitting at my little desk in kindergarden, when in walks a jolly fat man (the fat added courtesy of a pillow) in a big red suit shouting HO HO HO. I bought it hook, line and sinker. I was yelling "It's Santa, It's Santa!!!", while everone else was saying "No its not, its just your father!" (LOL!). My Dad got a big kick out of that. He told me many years later that I was the only one in the class who didn't recognize him that day.

I was lucky to have a father who would take a morning off from work to be Santa for his son. I may not have recognized him that day, but it has become one of my foundest memories of Christmas and my father.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

We still do the Santa thing and probably always will. Our motto here is "if you don't believe, you don't receive"
So ask my 11yo dd if she believes .

 

[Keli]

We never taught dd about Santa at all. I think I would handle things differently now but at the time dh and I just didn't want christmas to be all about the santa thing so we didn't tell her that side of it. She knew that there was a fairy tale involving him and that mom liked it when she would sit on his lap for a picture but there were no presents under the tree from santa and she didn't expect any. One year when she was five she started asking me "Is Santa real?" Since she had never really understood the whole santa part of christmas someone had tried to explain it to her. I knew she didn't really think it was true but I wouldn't confirm anything. We lived in MI at the time but were in KY visiting for the holidays. She put out cookies and milk for santa "just in case". When she got up in the morning the cookies and milk were gone (thanks to grandpa). She kept saying "He must be real, he ate the cookies!"

 

[aprincessmom]

My parents did for me. I do for my DD. She's been told the real Santa isn't in the mall or at other places because he's busy getting the toys together...they people she sees out now are a special troop of Elves that Santa sends out.

And she does believe it. Last year at this time we were at WDW and went through EPCOT. We stopped and listened to the different story tellers in each country tell about their holiday traditions. We got to Canada and they had Father Christmas, the most amazing looking Santa you've ever seen. Picture every illustration you've seen of the "jolly elf" and that was him...decked out in flannel and red velvet, not even sweating in the 90 degree heat.

He called on the children by name (much to their surprise -- he listened as the parents talked to them and asked questions, calling them by name). When one little boy asked is he had gotten the cookies he left out for him last year, Father Christmas said "I think they were the chocolate chip ones, right James?" The kid almost wet his pants because they were.

At the end, the children were invited to line up and have pictures taken with Father Christmas. DD stumbled over to me awestruck and said "Mom, I think he's the real thing...this isn't one of those elf guys. He's REALLY Santa."

And every kid who walked away from there felt the same way, no matter what age. He truly was magical.

I think that's the most important part of the Santa myth...the magic that it creates in your heart, no matter your age. It's very sad to lose that magic in your heart. I haven't lost it yet and I hope DD never does either.

 

[doxdogy]

A friend of ours told us his Santa story on Thanksgiving. One year his ex-wife rented a Santa suit for him to dress up in and put presents under the tree. The plan was to get his daughters out of bed as he was leaving. He would then climb over the fence into the backyard and then climb into the bedroom window and get under the covers after removing the Santa suit. There was only one little thing that went wrong in his plan. When he jumped over the fence, he landed on their dog that was in a sound sleep. Needless, to say the dog wasn't happy and he had a hard time convincing the dog that he wasn't a burglar.

 

[disykat]

I do Santa the way my parents did. They didn't go out of the way to convince there was a Santa, just let us believe. The stockings were full every Christmas morning, but most of the presents were out ahead of time and the giver was identified. If we asked questions they said "what do YOU think?" and let us reason it out ourselves.

My nine year old doubted for several years until he finally came out and asked for confirmation. He didn't seem TOO dissapointed but he did say "Well, that kind of takes some of the fun out of it, doesn't it?" Now he thinks it's fun pretend for his brother.

Like others here our family celebrates the holiday as a religious holiday so the focus has been on that with Santa as a side benefit.

Our kids believe in the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy too. I'm curious if any of you do one without the others?

 

[WDWfanatic288]

my grandma's friend's husband did but that's it!

my dad doesn't look like Santa and I can't see my mom doing it!

 

[Val]

In our family, when you have the gall to "stop believing" we recruit you to become an official elf. Elves help keep magic alive for the younger sibs and still allows the older ones to participate in all the fun.....My DH and I currently have two elves and 2 true believers. The elves help out, sometimes a little too much. Two years ago my DD elves convinced my DS (now about to turn 7 on Sunday!) that Santa watches you all the time to see if you are being good. My DS woke up in the middle of the night in mid December screaming "stop them, stop them, the elves are everywhere. I can't take the pressure!"......needless to say our dear elves had to tone it down a little!

 

[Kallison]

When my oldest DS was in 4th grade my Mom was really worried that he still believed and the kids would make fun of him. I kept hinting and hinting that maybe we were Santa, finally after Christmas, he said "You know Mom I haven't believed since 2nd grade, how dumb to you think I am". Which of course led to him telling his two younger siblings. Seem they had many lively school bus debates on the way home from school. So those of you who feel you will be heartbroken when they don't believe, chances are they have already caught on. My one neighbor insisted her son still believed last year in 2nd grade (on the same bus). Of course my son told me they had discussed it and decided not to tell his mother. It was fun, we used to put flour with sparkles around the fireplace for Santa's magic snow that never melts from the North Pole. I still put out milk, cookies and carrots. I'm sort of relieved though they know the truth, the whole charade gets to be a hassle. I can also explain why you have less packages because they cost more.

 

[Tuffcookie]

What, no Santa Claus??? Next you'll try to tell me that's not the real Mickey Mouse and Minnie at WDW!

TC

 

[ASFCurly]

My Mom, brother (20 yrs), sister (15 yrs), and I (23 yrs) still believe in Santa, we even leave out cookies and milk. I love the magic of the season, and to me Santa personifies that.

 

[ByTheSea]

I still believe. My DS (age 8) really believes. Unfortunately, some of his friends don't. He told me he feel's sorry for their parents, since they don't believe in Santa, their parents go out and actually buy presents for them!

As far as my parents go, Santa still fills a stockings at my parent's house for all us grown kids and the grandkids too!

 

[pollyanna]

The year I turned 13 ,Mom let me stay up and attend Midnight Mass with her. I felt SO grownup. Then when we got home she asked me to help put the presents out,,,HELLO!...I was Still trying to believe, and that certainly "blew it"LOL! .