Anyone besides me have trouble with the santa thing?

Discussion in 'Chatty Pad' started by kelley, Dec 3, 2012.

  1. kelley

    kelley Gets excited over little green things.

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    If it were just up to me, we would not even do anything santa-related at all, because 1) I want the focus to be on Jesus rather than on santa, and 2) I hate putting on the act to my kids about it. It really feels like I am lying to them. Well, technically not me because I just avoid talking about the subject all together. To me, its like telling them there is a real batman/spiderman/other superhero with impossible powers and expecting them to believe it. But Chris is all for santa and thinks I'm being a scrooge LOL. I'm okay with celebrating/remembering Saint Nicholas' generosity, but to say that santa flies through the sky and delivers presents to every child in the world on a sleigh with reindeer with the help of elves is just ridiculous to me. I mean, really? The kids have their stockings which magically get filled by "santa" on christmas eve as well as 1 gift from him. I know the kids are skeptical about the santa thing, especially the oldest few, and that is totally fine with me, whereas Chris wants to make sure they believe in him as long as possible. When I was a kid, my mom had a santa present and stocking for me, but I knew all along it was not santa but her that filled them.
     
  2. Heather Prins

    Heather Prins Heather Prins

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    yeah i do the Santa thing, but i don't really like it either.
     
  3. la

    la A closet sap

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    We never did santa growing up.. so I never did it with Connor. he doesn't care ^_^ I think it makes it easier to say 'no' too.. For instance.. he wants that 300 dollar death star lego set :p No. Mom can't afford that :p and santa doesn't exist so you don't get it kid.
     
  4. kelley

    kelley Gets excited over little green things.

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    Glad to know I'm not the only one! Chris seems to think it would take all the fun out of Christmas, but I don't buy it. I mean, they still get to do all the fun Christmas stuff, still get gifts, etc.

    La- that totally makes sense too - much easier to be able to explain why they can't have it!
     
  5. dailydwelling

    dailydwelling Confidently cooking and creating

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    I'm with you and my husband is like yours. I have been able to really downplay Santa's gift giving to my kids though. They get a stocking filled and one small gift from Santa. I grew up thinking that Santa filled our tree with tons of gifts (all of which my parents really could not afford) and practically got nothing from my parents.

    I really am tempted to tell one of my girls this year, but my husband doesn't want to. She is very literal about EVERYTHING and is always asking if different things are real or not. She cried when we told her that McKenna (American Girl doll) wasn't a real person, but a character. So, I just know she is going to be totally heartbroken when she discovers that Santa isn't real. I hate feeling like I'm lying to her. My other kids won't be so devastated, but I am not 100% comfortable with doing the whole Santa thing.
     
  6. nockosh

    nockosh googy eggs for everyone!!!

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    I'm one that loves the Santa thing, I think it is fun to add a little bit of fantasy to the kids lives and let them use their imaginations, but maybe that's because I'm a big kid at heart myself.
     
  7. nockosh

    nockosh googy eggs for everyone!!!

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    oh and I have to add that whilst I do love the Santa thing, he doesn't give the best present to the kids, we do that. Can't have him getting all the credit :giggle
     
  8. Mrivas

    Mrivas I know how to spit like a man

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    I didn't grow up believing in Santa cause when I was little he never came. My mom was really cheap and never wanted to spend money on presents, on her older kids, which were my older brother and me. But the younger ones had all the fun, she later started the holiday gift giving tradition. With my kids, I kinda want them to believe in Santa if they want but that the 'Santa' is not one with an infinite amount of money. They can only pick one present they really want, lol. But, I also want to teach my daughter the real meaning of christmas, and I just got her some books from the library today about that.
     
  9. emmasmom

    emmasmom emmasmom

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    Same here :)
     
  10. LeeAndra

    LeeAndra A total Betty.

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    I don't like Santa, either, Kelley. We have to have him, however, since my stepson still believes in him (and is really gullible when it comes to these type of things, so probably will until he is 15!) + my mother thinks not having Santa is next to starving and beating your children (and refuses to not have Santa presents at her house for the grandkids) + DH is on the fence abt it.

    DD is 3, so she now knows who Santa is from movies/TV/books, but still doesn't get the whole concept. I've managed to talk DH down to one present from Santa at our house + stockings. I was really hoping seeing as how SS is 10 and hangs out with older kids/watches teenage shows that he would no longer believe so that we wouldn't have to pretend next year when DD will finally be old enough to put it all together, but I think I'm SOL in that regard.

    I do my best to not emphasize him and not perpetuate the story. DD is already far too logical to really believe all that jazz, so I think we might have a year or two to pretend, but I can't imagine she will believe by the time she is in school.

    I understand why other people do Santa. It's just not something I want to do.
     
  11. la

    la A closet sap

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    connor is turning 9 in a couple of weeks.. I assure you he still gets super stoked about christmas lol
     
  12. kelley

    kelley Gets excited over little green things.

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    LOL I totally get this - I never want to give the kids their fave things from santa because I want them to know that I got it for them! I really really love shopping and giving things to the kids.
     
  13. gracielou

    gracielou Well-Known Member

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    I grew up with a huge belief in Santa. I can still remember coming home from a Christmas party one night with my mom and step-dad and him pointing out lights in the sky and saying we had to hurry and beat Santa home. I truly believed those "airplane" lights were Santa and his sleigh. I also remember how crushed I was the Christmas I came down the stairs and found Santa, aka- my mom, putting the gifts under the tree. When I started having children of my own I really wanted to play up the Santa thing because it was such a fond part of my childhood but my husband was the opposite. Even though he grew up with a big focus on Santa too, he wanted to teach our kids the true meaning of Christmas. We kinda met in the middle and did the Santa thing but tried not to make it such a huge deal but when my oldest 2 just flat out us if there was a Santa we were not going to lie to them and they asked pretty early on. I was actually kinda relived after I realized it wasn't going to scar their youth. Now we don't really do Santa at all and we still have so much fun with them. It has forced me this Christmas to get creative and find new ways of focusing on the true meaning of Christmas.
     
  14. yellowpeep

    yellowpeep Spaaaarrrrrkkkleeeee

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    This is a very interesting discussion! Our parents really played up the Santa thing when I was younger so it's kind of fun to carry on the tradition. But like many women here, he gets her one small gift and mostly stockings (eats the cookie and drinks the milk, too). When they're little, I really don't see it as lying. To me, it's playing upon the sense of magic that only exists when you're little and not yet jaded by the realities of life. To me, fantasy, imagination and magic are essential parts of early childhood and belief in Santa is part of it. The one thing we don't really do is use Santa to threaten her about her behavior. When I was little I remember finding it kind of disconcerting that someone could watch everything I did at any time of the day. I want Morgan to see him as a generous old guy who enjoys popping into homes and leaving something fun (like the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, etc). Not Big Brother. :)
     
  15. snaggletooth

    snaggletooth Minnetonka? Momma? Either way.

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    Yeah Santa got ruined for me at 5 years old and I am still butt hurt I didnt get the whole Santa deal as a kid. I will do the Santa thing for as long as my 7 yr old believes Santa can be in millions of cities in one night LOL I am not religious so really we only celebrate being together ( just US not my extended family or anyone else) and doing Santa for the youngest boy child.
     
  16. amyjaz

    amyjaz amyjaz

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    Yes! This exactly.
     
  17. Tree City

    Tree City Get a stepladder, I'm busy

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    LOL, that was us, too. My mom has the worst handwriting. THE WORST! So when "Santa" wrote "To Sara" in the exact same, left-handed chicken scratch as my mom, I knew something was up. ;) I didn't say anything to my parents, though, because I was afraid my stocking would stop being filled!
    I'm not a big fan of Santa because I don't want DD to only be Nice in order to get presents from a strange fat dude who sneaks into your house. (It's also the reason we don't do the Elf on the Shelf.) We talk about how Christmas is about Jesus' birth and being a good person to everyone. Family and Faith--that's Christmas. Santa doesn't give presents at our house, but DD does get a stocking from him. She's 5yo but I think this'll be the last year she believes in Santa--she's already told me "Santa isn't real, is he?" I think all the different commercials that feature Santa tipped her off. "Is that Santa? Is THAT Santa? Is THAT Santa?! Why is Santa selling cars?" ROTFL.
     
  18. Tronesia

    Tronesia Tronesia

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    I am not sure where my daughter got the Santa idea from because we never her told her there was a such thing. Her dad and I agreed that we work hard for the things we have and she should know the reward of that. I think somewhere between daycare and my older sister/nieces and a little of tv may have put the idea in her head. I still let her know that Santa can only bring what mommy is okay with him giving. So, we play along with her now...since she understands more but that's all I see it as. Playing pretend and a little of believing in the magic of Christmas. My parents had us believing and even when I told them I knew otherwise at 8 yrs old, I wasn't mad or sad about it. I thought it was neat they would go along with something like that just to see us all excited.
     
  19. heathergw

    heathergw Singing in the Neil mobile

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    I grew up with Santa, but we don't do Santa with our kids... I feel like Scrooge but my kids don't seem to complain we still do lots of fun activities like the polar express and seeing the lights and going to the zoo and all sorts of fun activities... they know about Santa but they are freakin scared to sit on his lap so they've just made it easy for us to not make a big deal of him and focus on Christ's birth... but we've also done other stuff like Hanukkah with friends too... we also take the month off of school and just have lots of fun and just let the kids guide how we celebrate the month...
     
  20. kim21673

    kim21673 I'm slowly getting there!

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    We go all out on Santa and teach the true meaning of Christmas too. I don't see anything wrong with having some Santa fun!! My boys are told that WE have to give Santa money to pay for the things that they want so they don't think they are getting everything under the sun. Until now, they never really questions who the gifts were from so we just left it as Santa brought them, without actually saying it. This year, though, we bought the three younger boys each an iPad and we will be giving those to them...not Santa.
     

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