Is my kiddo too old for Santa?

[luv]

My kiddo is 8 (hard to believe, right?) and in 3rd grade. I feel like we could get by with the Santa thing one more Christmas, but I don't want to be the parent taking the big kid to see Santa, ya know?

Our Santa tradition includes:
Going to see him
Me sending a letter from Santa with a Certificate of Nice List shortly after visit
Leaving milk and cookies with a thank you note Christmas Eve
Having one Santa gift Christmas morning (the one thing he asked for, which is never too expensive or too cheap)

What do you think? Tell him the truth now or give him one last Christmas with Santa?

[ptlyon]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

See? Now this right here is the benefit of "Daddy speaks Elf"

Nobody else in the house does. So I'm the go-between for the children, Truman the Elf and thus ultimately Santa.

So dad tells Truman what he's going to get the kids and Truman tells Santa. So if they get a little more or a little less from Santa than other kids have, it's because Santa has only so much capacity at the workshop, knew they were getting good stuff from mom and dad so he had to adjust his labor accordingly.

"Well yeah, you didn't get an iPAD from Santa and little Stewie down the street did because Santa knew that mom and dad were getting you a bicycle and so you were in pretty good shape for Christmas already..."

And yeah, that'll fall apart if/when they ask little Stewie what his parents got him to go with the iPAD and it turns out he got an Apple Watch, but they're kids - they have the attention span of a gnat. They'll forget to ask once you've put the pin back in the grenade.

And when they don't...well the jig is probably up anyway.

It pretty much sorts itself out.

That's brilliant.

If I had kids I would use this scheme, but add in some nightmare before Xmas parts

[DJ's left nut]

The real issue is that the oldest has access to the house iPAD which my wife, for reasons that defy my understanding (I'm sure she has some) has linked her text messages to. Which means I'll inevitably mention Santa on it one of these days the oldest is doing her little ipad piano lessons or something and that'll be that.

Or I'll ask my wife to show me her tits and that'll be...awkward.

But I'll muddle through. I'm pretty good at making stuff up.

I speak elf, afterall...

[Mephistopheles Janx]

I was 4 years old when I caught my parents putting presents under the tree.

In pure kid fashion I was *PISSED*. I yelled at them saying that Santa wasn't real, slammed the door to my room, and cried on my bed.

It is kind of funny now because I very vividly remember the feelings I had that day it took hours to coax me out of the room to open presents.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by ptlyon

That's brilliant.

If I had kids I would use this scheme, but add in some nightmare before Xmas parts

It's been a hell of a get out of jail free card.

Keeps them from telling Truman stuff they don't tell us and then getting wound up if/when they don't get it.

And by making sure mom DOESN'T speak elf, we've protected the sanctity of the language. Dad was sworn to secrecy and can't even tell MOM about it. So when the kids want to know why they can't learn it, mom steps in appalled that i won't even tell HER. And now dad's the target and again, whatever issue we've run up against has been forgotten.

It comes in handy a couple times every year. No earthly idea how we came up with it. I think I was just screwing with the oldest when she was a wee one (because that's pretty much the only fun thing about being a parent to a sarcastic goblin of a 2 year old; kid could roll her eyes out of the womb) but it's evolved over the years into a truly genius, if completely accidental, plot device of sorts.

I highly recommend it. You'll use it more than you think.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Mephistopheles Janx

I was 4 years old when I caught my parents putting presents under the tree.

In pure kid fashion I was *PISSED*. I yelled at them saying that Santa wasn't real, slammed the door to my room, and cried on my bed.

It is kind of funny now because I very vividly remember the feelings I had that day it took hours to coax me out of the room to open presents.

I found the presents hidden in the closet under the stairs. To be fair to my parents, it was the dark spooky closet where they hung bags of onions and garlic and what not so there was no reason for me to go in there. I never really did.

But I was bored. And so I did what kids do, which is just find ways to cause trouble. And there they were.

I elaborated on the story a bit with my kids and said it ruined Christmas for me because I already knew what all my mom and dad presents were so there was no surprise. So I've cautioned them against looking (though they can't reach the string to the attic and know I'd pretty much murder them if they went up there anyway; it's nothing resembling safe).

Seems to have done the trick.

[BWillie]

You should never lie to your children.

[ptlyon]

Originally Posted by Mephistopheles Janx

It is kind of funny now because I very vividly remember the feelings I had that day it took hours to coax me out of the room to open presents.

Guess it's better than the "F ya" and light them on fire in the front yard tactic

[ptlyon]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

I found the presents hidden in the closet under the stairs. To be fair to my parents, it was the dark spooky closet where they hung bags of onions and garlic and what not so there was no reason for me to go in there. I never really did.

But I was bored. And so I did what kids do, which is just find ways to cause trouble. And there they were.

I elaborated on the story a bit with my kids and said it ruined Christmas for me because I already knew what all my mom and dad presents were so there was no surprise. So I've cautioned them against looking (though they can't reach the string to the attic and know I'd pretty much murder them if they went up there anyway; it's nothing resembling safe).

Seems to have done the trick.

Man, you love Xmas. That's awesome because I do too. The GF says it annoys her but I know deep down that's one of the reasons she loves me (or at least puts up with my shit).

Xmas was always awesome because of how much mom put into it and loved it as well. Rubbed off on me I guess. I still believe Xmas is when miracles can happen.

[Mephistopheles Janx]

Originally Posted by ptlyon

Guess it's better than the "F ya" and light them on fire in the front yard tactic

That would have actually been very much in line with my father.

Looking back... I don't know what was in the air because he didn't put a hand on either me (for waking up early or crying) or my mother (for being too loud and waking me up) that day which would have been the typically expected result of things going wrong for him.

[Pitt Gorilla]

Originally Posted by threebag

I let mine go as long as they could believing in Santa. I never changed my game. I still push the Santa is real card, only now I express it as “The Spirit of Santa”. I even have my grands write me a list as a “Letter to Santa”


Some of us still have Hobo Spirit 22

Pretty much this.

[wutamess]

Do like the rest of us horrible parenting parents do. Let the kids at school make fun of him until he asks you for clarification/validation. Then brutally, let'm have it. You've bought all the gifts, paid the bills, etc.

Strip ALL that credit from an imaginary figure. Let him know it's YOU who did it all!
lbvs.

[ThrobProng]

Originally Posted by BWillie

You should never lie to your children.

I wouldn't go that far, unless your goal is to raise a ****ed up individual.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by ThrobProng

I wouldn't go that far, unless your goal is to raise a ****ed up individual.

Yeah, unless you wanna be universally reviled, occasional dishonesty is appropriate for ALL age levels...

[Rain Man]

I pretended to believe in Santa until I was about eight just because my mom seemed to be a hard core believer. I had no idea how she couldn't figure out the obvious, and didn't know how to tell her.

The weird thing is that I saw some women's magazine on our coffee table at some point that had a title-teaser about "How to tell your child that Santa Claus isn't real". That pretty much put to rest my final suspicions. I guess she never read the article.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Yeah, unless you wanna be universally reviled, occasional dishonesty is appropriate for ALL age levels...

"Mommy and daddy were just wrestling."