Poll: What will you tell your kids about Santa?

[Thedutchjelle]

We don't have Santa over here so I have no problems with telling anyone that he's fake Christmas for the non-church goers here is mainly visiting family and having a nice dinnner. And the Christians go to church I guess.

 

[GentleMad]

Of course I would tell my children that Santa's real. Santa Clause is a very important role model to show kindness and respect towards all walks of life as he gives gifts to every child on earth. Never telling your child about Santa is like never telling them fairy tales like The Three Little Pigs or Cinderella and them never knowing the moral that they learn for said stories. I'm a 17 year old male and I know Santa doesn't exist, but I believe in the foundations he was made on, and I believe that my future children should believe in them as well.

 

[Mister K]

"PEOPLE MUST START BY BELIEVING IN SMALLER LIES TO LEARN TO BELIEVE IN BIGGER ONES. HONOR, JUSTICE, THAT SORT OF THING"-Death of The Diskworld.

 

[Rawne1980]

We have 5 kids in the house of varying ages. The older ones obviously know the truth but the 2 younger ones still believe.

The eldest was planning on spoiling Christmas last year when she wasn't going to get what she wanted and threw a tantrum when she was drunk (she was 19 people, and we live in the UK, she's old enough to drink ... we don't throw beer down our toddlers). My wife blew up at her.

My kids haven't had a lot of great Christmas times, mainly my fault (I was in the army for years, I was rarely home) and last Christmas my mum died (which is why my step daughter didn't get what she wanted) so my wife and me like our kids to get what joy they can.

If that means going along with a lie then that's what we do.

 

[Spade Lead]

Personally, I think Saint Nicholas has a place in the nostalgia that Christmas tends to bring and would probably let it go on for they're toddler years up until around 5 or so, you know before elementary school. At that point, they would be at an age where understanding the differences between the real and the fantastic is important. What about you guys?

Oh and before you start typing, no religion jokes about telling kids about a "benevolent imaginary man", please. It isn't funny if it's predictable.

I also use him as an excuse to extort my kids. They were always asking when Christmas was again, and I would tell them it was not going to be for another 11 months, and they wouldn't get off it, so I started telling them that Santa didn't like hearing that little kids only cared about getting presents, and that I would be meeting him for lunch, or finishing up monthly behavior reports.

"You had better behave, Santa's monthly behavior report is due at the end of the week and I haven't completed it yet."

"The Six Month evaluation is due this month. you better behave if you want Santa to bring you any presents this year."

I make it seem like part of the reason I am busy on my laptop is sending Santa his monthly or quarterly updates. It actually worked, because the kids had a spurt of behaving very badly, and I could always use that line about progress reports being due to warn them that they are getting out of line. My girlfriend loved that idea when I first used it, and she couldn't believe that I came up with it all on my own.