Santa Question

[hezreck]

We will be at Disney the first week of December. We are planning on spending part of 3 different days at Epcot. My question is this. Our daughter is 6, what is the best way you know to answer the question I'm sure she will ask. Why doesn't that Santa look like Santa? Isn't there only one real Santa?

I've been trying to think of the best way to explain all the different Santa's of the world. She has always believed that there is only one "Santa" and he goes all over the world.

Any help would be great. I don't want to spoil a little girl's belief in Santa at Disney World. Oh the humanity!!

 

[disney queen]

hhhmmm............maybe you could approach the santa issue this way. all the different santas is the way the people of the different countries perceive him. to fit into their culture, lore. there is only one santa, but maybe he could take on different forms for each country. good question. any more ideas?

 

[mrsschlep]

We tell our kids that Santa has many helper Santas because the real Santa has a lot to do to get ready for Christmas. Because we have Santa in our Halloween parade, at the malls, and sometimes in between we will see a couple more. They all look different and this approach seems to work for my kids. Good luck.

 

[suerob]

I have three little girls. I tell them that Santa has helpers that go all around the world to see the children and ask them what they want. The real Santa is out there too but no one knows which is the real one. Santa can't be everywhere at once, so he needs help. When you sit on his lap, it just might be the real Santa! My oldest dd is 7, so she's really starting to ask a lot of questions now. It gets harder every year!

 

[tarheelmjfan]

I always told my son the same thing, about Santa's helpers. He became convinced that he was actually lucky enough to finally see the REAL Santa. When he was probably 6, old enough to begin doubting Santa, we went to one of the local malls to have his picture taken and go through the formalities. After we had been shopping awhile, we passed back by the store where my son had chosen what he wanted from Santa. I couldn't believe our good fortune, when who did we see in the store looking at the very same things my son had asked for. You guessed it! It was Santa! He was even the first to see him, and was very excitedly telling us what he saw. That was a truly magical experience for us. Since then he has long outgrown the idea of Santa, but still gets something from him every year, and has never again said anything about not believing. Plus, I've always told him that when you tell anyone out loud that you don't believe, Santa quits coming. When he got old enough to really figure things out, he was also old enough to know not to tell Mom he doesn't believe. Sorry, I went way off topic, but I just had to share my story.