Poll: What will you tell your kids about Santa?

[lacktheknack]

Just do to them what was done to me.

Me (Age 5): "Mom, who's Santan?"

Mom: "Santa? A guy who sends gifts around at Christmas."

Me: "But YOU do that! I just saw you put two more under the tree!" (We put gifts under the tree as we buy and wrap them, rather than stuffing them all under there on Christmas Eve.)

Mom: "He's not real."

Me: "He's NOT?!"

Mom: "Nope. No chimney climbing, no magic reindeer, no flying, no suit."

Me: "I guess not."

Mom: "Now, don't tell anyone else, OK? It's our little secret."

Me: "OK!"

And then Mom got a call from the school because I was sitting around saying I didn't believe in Santa. I was such a good listener. -__-

 

[lacktheknack]

Holy crap, half of you guys are going to have really depressed kids in the future. Let the kids have some imagination sheesh.

They'll be depressed if they find out they were lied to.

And trust me, there is NO buckling down a child's imagination. They don't need adult help with that.

 

[TheDrunkNinja]

I'm not going to tell my (hypothetical) children that Santa is real.

If they wind up believing in him, I won't tell them otherwise. But I'm not going to be the instigator.

Ah, sort of abstain from the whole process and let them decide what they want to believe on their own then? I can understand that. I probably should have thought of "just doing nothing" when I was making the poll options. Not everything has to come down to just yes or no.

 

[Marcus Kehoe]

Holy crap, half of you guys are going to have really depressed kids in the future. Let the kids have some imagination sheesh.

Not really imagination, your letting your kids believe in something that in no way is real. This isn't religion where talking about where it's supported by history, it's a lying to your kid's about the hundreds of dollars of gift's that the parent's spent there hard earned money on. The kid's should know it's there parent that bought the gifts not just some guy handing out the gift's.

 

[Aris Khandr]

I would tell my children the truth. Not because I think it is because they need to, but because it would really mess with the other parents. Yeah, I'd be one of those moms. No Santa, no Jesus, and I'll happily correct the schools when they perpetuate lies for the kids. While I don't believe in lying to kids, it's more to watch the parents that do squirm.

 

[Agayek]

I'm not going to lie to my kids, but I probably wouldn't correct them about it if they brought it up. If they act excited about it, I'd probably even play along, but I definitely wouldn't introduce them to the idea.

 

[Joccaren]

Presents would appear under the tree. I wouldn't tell my kids how or why, I'd let them come up with their own answer. If the come to Santa Clause, I'll let them believe that until their about 7 or so, the age that I learned Santa wasn't real. If they come to the conclusion that it was me who put the presents under the tree, then good for them. If they come to some other conclusion, then I'll let them believe that until about 7 years old.
No need to force any views upon them early on, and the conclusion they come to could tell me a bit about how they think.

 

[Mcupobob]

I don't get this "Oh I'm not gonna lie to my kids!" Whatever.

If I ever have kids I'll prolly do it to a certain age. My grandparents always went all out, the presents wouldn't appear under the tree till Christmas night. We would jump out of bed and and were allowed to open up the ones from Santa it was extremely exciting and memorable time in my childhood and I look back on it fondly. Come the night after dinner one of the kids was chosen at random to pass out the rest of presents after dinner. Anyways its not like I'm bitter or anything I just grew up and the magic was gone, but how hope to someday give that to my someday hypothetical kids. A sense of wonder and magic, then they will grow up find out the word is a cruel *****, but it doesn't have to be you could always spread joy.

 

[Little Woodsman]

When my parents told me Santa didn't exist I got mad at them, mostly because the idea of them spending money on things I probably didn't deserve broke me. Yeah the truth on a child could be a pretty scarring.

I told my kid that Santa is there for the children who don't have mommies or daddies.
She's always been aware that some kids have both a daddy & a mommy, (she only has me)
but she got really depressed when she realized that some kids don't have either.
I have the best kid in the whole freakin' world.
(I may be slightly prejudiced about that.)

Oh My God this. You are an awesome father bro.

I might go with this, or if they ever question me wether he exists or not i'll just tell them: "Whatever makes you happy, either way you're getting your presents if you behave" And then wink at my son/daughter...

I have to admit that I told her this partly because I didn't want her to expect more presents....and I believe
it to be true in it's own way. You see, the question arose as we were selecting a tag off of a "giving tree"
(if anyone here doesn't know, it's a way that some charities use to collect presents for underprivileged children)
(And I was making a lot more money back then, I haven't been able to do it for about 5 years now)
and to me "Santa" doesn't have to be the guy in the red suit. "Santa" could be me, or the giving tree charity,
or toys for tots, or the USMC toy drive--anyone who tries to give a child a better holiday/life...I mean, that's
the real spirit of christmas...isn't it?

 

[Lionsfan]

Kids aren't really well known for subtlety. If I tell my children that there's no Santa Claus, there's a pretty good chance they'll parrot my words to their friends. I don't want to ruin Christmas for the families who take joy in letting their children believe in Santa.

My best friend actually punched me in First Grade because I told him Santa wasn't real.

It wasn't like my parents just told me either, I just never believed in it all

 

[FalloutJack]

I will inform them that Santa Claus is a conspiracy of the NHK and then proceed to watch them as they try to figure out what the hell I'm talking about.

 

[Gmans uncle]

I will tell them these words exactly...

"So there's this dude, he chills out in Northern Greenland most of the time. Anyway he got into some bad shit a few hundred years ago so he went on a spiritual journey to the land of mist and shadows where he achieved nirvana, becoming a god-like figure able to live forever and cast spells to make reindeer fly and shit. Anyway, due to his poor skill in the real estate market, he's stuck with this remote joint far away from the civilized world and is unable to sell it, but that's cool with him because that way he can work in secrecy and avoid paying taxes or giving his workers proper unions. He works all year procuring or ordering off Amazon.com everything the children of the world would like for X-mas, 'cause it's the anniversary of him obtaining his power (some other dude who allot of people think was magic was also supposedly born that day, but we don't give a shit about that). He knows what you guys want 'cause he's loaded and can afford ridiculous numbers of covert ops agents who can circumvent every government on the planet to effectively spy on it's citizens without their knowledge. Anyway, he uses his magic to freeze time and deliver all that stuff to the children of the world over a span of a few weeks, but time is frozen see, so it only feels like one night to us. This is very hush hush and he puts on this alternate persona in the public media so as to maintain good PR."

I'm also telling them that Batman is real.

 

[JagermanXcell]

When my parents told me Santa didn't exist I got mad at them, mostly because the idea of them spending money on things I probably didn't deserve broke me. Yeah the truth on a child could be a pretty scarring.

I told my kid that Santa is there for the children who don't have mommies or daddies.
She's always been aware that some kids have both a daddy & a mommy, (she only has me)
but she got really depressed when she realized that some kids don't have either.
I have the best kid in the whole freakin' world.
(I may be slightly prejudiced about that.)

Oh My God this. You are an awesome father bro.

I might go with this, or if they ever question me wether he exists or not i'll just tell them: "Whatever makes you happy, either way you're getting your presents if you behave" And then wink at my son/daughter...

I have to admit that I told her this partly because I didn't want her to expect more presents....and I believe
it to be true in it's own way. You see, the question arose as we were selecting a tag off of a "giving tree"
(if anyone here doesn't know, it's a way that some charities use to collect presents for underprivileged children)
(And I was making a lot more money back then, I haven't been able to do it for about 5 years now)
and to me "Santa" doesn't have to be the guy in the red suit. "Santa" could be me, or the giving tree charity,
or toys for tots, or the USMC toy drive--anyone who tries to give a child a better holiday/life...I mean, that's
the real spirit of christmas...isn't it?

True.

 

[JagermanXcell]

When my parents told me Santa didn't exist I got mad at them, mostly because the idea of them spending money on things I probably didn't deserve broke me. Yeah the truth on a child could be a pretty scarring.

I told my kid that Santa is there for the children who don't have mommies or daddies.
She's always been aware that some kids have both a daddy & a mommy, (she only has me)
but she got really depressed when she realized that some kids don't have either.
I have the best kid in the whole freakin' world.
(I may be slightly prejudiced about that.)

Oh My God this. You are an awesome father bro.

I might go with this, or if they ever question me wether he exists or not i'll just tell them: "Whatever makes you happy, either way you're getting your presents if you behave" And then wink at my son/daughter...

I have to admit that I told her this partly because I didn't want her to expect more presents....and I believe
it to be true in it's own way. You see, the question arose as we were selecting a tag off of a "giving tree"
(if anyone here doesn't know, it's a way that some charities use to collect presents for underprivileged children)
(And I was making a lot more money back then, I haven't been able to do it for about 5 years now)
and to me "Santa" doesn't have to be the guy in the red suit. "Santa" could be me, or the giving tree charity,
or toys for tots, or the USMC toy drive--anyone who tries to give a child a better holiday/life...I mean, that's
the real spirit of christmas...isn't it?

True. No way denying that.

 

[Jamieson 90]

No you think I'm letting some made up guy get my kids appreciation for something I spent all year working for? No the presents are going to say From Mum & Dad, and our kids (speaking hypothetically here) will thank us for them and respect the fact we worked hard so they can be happy, plus there's the added benefit of them not being lied to as well.

 

[TheDrunkNinja]

I don't get this "Oh I'm not gonna lie to my kids!" Whatever.

If I ever have kids I'll prolly do it to a certain age. My grandparents always went all out, the presents wouldn't appear under the tree till Christmas night. We would jump out of bed and and were allowed to open up the ones from Santa it was extremely exciting and memorable time in my childhood and I look back on it fondly. Come the night after dinner one of the kids was chosen at random to pass out the rest of presents after dinner. Anyways its not like I'm bitter or anything I just grew up and the magic was gone, but how hope to someday give that to my someday hypothetical kids. A sense of wonder and magic, then they will grow up find out the word is a cruel *****, but it doesn't have to be you could always spread joy.

See, this is exactly what I think about the whole experience. It's a time of wonder that allows you to be hopeful and dream, but it is also a time that is fleeting and one that you will eventually grow out of on your own. There's no horrible moment of realization that embitters and traumatizes you from the whole experience. You just... grow up, and when you look back on that time, it's always with a smile.

That's just how I always viewed it since I never had those memories growing up.

 

[cdemares]

I figured it out as a kid, because people talk. It was no big deal. People pretend things, even adults. I would tell my kids the truth because Santa is still fun anyway. It's a good-spirited collective joke, like news-radio reporting on Santa's progress on Christmas Eve. It didn't damage me to know about it.

 

[Terminate421]

I will tell them like my parents told me. But I will also mention that Santa pays attention to those who give more than they get.

When I believe it is time, then I will reveal the truth about Santa.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Yes I will tell my child Santa is real, and I'm willing to break into my own house to prove it.

They'll figure it out themselves. I don't want them to grow up jaded and cynical, I want them to believe what they believe because they know what they think, not because I told them so. I might leave the Santa costume somewhere they'd have to be really inquisitive to find.

I'm serious though. I will set the whole thing up like it actually happened, and my child will have a better Christmas than any other.

 

[Uszi]

I intend to tell my children nothing but lies.

That way, as adults, they will grow to be cynical skeptics, and distrust everyone and everything.