My kid and Santa (Spoiler Alert)

[NightWatcher]

My 4 and a half year old is starting to suspect something is up. This year the mall Santa looked nothing like the guy who had the job the past two years. She gave him the stink eye and asked probative questions the whole time.
She plays along, but I think she's seeing through the charade. We've never been big pushers of the Santa story, but treat him as a minor character who brings a gift each year, with the rest coming from family.

I'm glad she can see through BS, her critical thinking at this young age tells me there's hope for her.

I'm not going to lie to her, but my wife dislikes this as she wants her to learn about religion. I'm an atheist and get a kick out of her reasoning skills. She immediately could tell the Tooth Fairy was a crock, but went along for the pay out. I can't wait till I can start her training with me as the World's Youngest Private Investigator.

When did you or your kids figure Santa out?

[Laffy Kat]

1. You know it's hard to tell.

Because they all play along for a while. Both my boys were terrified of Santa and never wanted to sit on his lap. I may have one photo of one of them with Santa. I can't really remember ever truly believing in Santa myself, although I must have for a while.

[progressoid]

2. We never really did the Santa thing seriously.

There would be presents that said "from Santa" but it was done jokingly. Or it was done to make the gift anonymous. Actually still do that for adults sometimes. Or we'll say the gift was from somebody's pet!

[HeiressofBickworth]

3. My daughter turns 48 tomorrow

Every year for Christmas, Santa still leaves her something. It started when she was about 7 with a little box containing a single lump of coal. That's still in her stocking after all these years. Santa occasionally buys a "house present". This year, Santa is giving the kitchen 10 new dish towels. Her daughter is 20 and still gets gifts from Santa. No, I'm not granddaughter's Santa. Santa is a myth, but they like the presents anyway.

Many years ago, we gave up the family tradition of Santa bringing not only presents, but the tree itself. We always used to put the tree up Christmas Eve, but daughter loves the decorations so each year it goes up earlier and earlier. The Christmas Eve Santa started when my brother and I were little -- our mother figured it kept us from playing with the tree and/or messing with presents under it. It was a family tradition that we had to stay in our rooms until our father was ready with the camera. The prize was getting a shot of the look of amazement when we first saw the tree and the presents on Xmas morning. I did that with my daughter for a number of years, but she stopped being interested in that and wanted to participate in putting up the tree. Since her birthday is so close to Xmas, we always waited until after it to put up the tree. But that's all gone by the wayside as well. It went up last weekend and would have been earlier but they were in Disney World.

I guess it's up to the next generation to make its own traditions but perhaps Santa will stay a part of it. It's like a reminder of the childhood fun of the occasion.

[mnhtnbb]

4. I still--at 64--have a vivid picture in my mind of discovering--at age 8--that my dad was Santa

I sneaked out of my room on Christmas Eve and down the hall only to see my dad laughing as he was reading
my letter to Santa that was pinned in a tiny hole of the brick fireplace next to my stocking. It hit
me hard: my parents were "Santa". My mom was putting little presents in the stocking.