Santa

Whats you opinion on him? Do your kids still believe?

My kids still do and I think it is a great bribery tool to get things done!!! I think he is a good thing to still let the kids believe in him althou I think this will be the last year for Andrew.

Weird, I was just thinking about this while bringing the washing in!

One of our family member's don't 'encourage' santa because of the whole 'don't talk to strangers' thing and then some parents push their kids on to santa's lap and make them talk to him etc etc , it was also the whole thing about parent's 'lying' to their kids about this fantasy person and then finding out he's not real.

Now I don't entirely agree with not believing in santa because i've never heard of a kid finding out that he isn't real and then turning to his parents and saying 'you lied to me!' but I don't think we'll go overboard with it either with the photo on santa's lap etc etc. As a kid, I loved the mystery and excitement of having santa come down the chimney and eating the milk and bickkies I think it's good for kids' imaginations, I mean it's no different to fairy tales is it?

It really made me think though about whether to go into the whole santa thing with DD when she's older and how far we would go with it. I think it would be sad to cut him out altogether though. Just my thoughts anyway

"if you don't believe you don't receive"....... I fondly remember mum telling us 4 that as kids.... coming back to haunt her now... 40 years later and we are still all true believers!

And he still comes... :) And mum spends all day on xmas trying to work out who has bought her santa pressie.

We used to have fun leaving reindeer prints and poo on the lawn at the farm for my city cousins.

I grew up not celebrating xmas (due to parents religion) and DH did. So now we have our boy, we have talked about what to do, but I am anti santa. So I don't think we will tell him about santa. We will celebrate xmas ie gifts etc.
I guess because I never believed/celebrated I don't see what what the big deal is with him. Its kinda weird. But each to there own.

I think Santa is harmless fun. Likewise I never got upset when I found out Santa doesn't actually exist (I like the 'you have to believe to receive' line!). With our kids we make sure they realise that the big pressies come from us (or from friends or relatives etc) and the little pressies that appear in their stockings overnight are from Santa

My daughter is starting to not believe in him, although at times (if she thinks it will get her presents ) she says she does.....
I think the idea of Santa is great and hes welcome in our household for many years to come.
Christmas is (apart from the religious side ) really for the children, and children deserve to have magic in their lives for as long as possible

TheKelly wrote: I think the idea of Santa is great and hes welcome in our household for many years to come. Christmas is (apart from the religious side ) really for the children, and children deserve to have magic in their lives for as long as possible

Absolutely agree with this

My childhood memories of xmas & Santa always felt magical & fun & we try & make the same feeling for our kids. I don't know if DS1 still believes & I am sure some kids at school have put him right but he has not said he doesn't believe. I was the youngest in our family & they kept the illusion of Santa till I was old enough to want to stop & that is what we will do.

DH is from Holland so he had Sinterklaas on the 5/12 & we do that for our kids also. So DH did not do xmas like us till he came to NZ.

I love xmas & hope we have Santa for many yrs to come.

One of the best things about being a parent is joining in on the magic of being a kids at xmas. It is the warmest feeling ever.

We love Santa here!!  I agree totally with Jazzy, Christmas is so much fun now that we have the kids