I think most parents have asked themselves if they should tell their kids the truth about Santa at some point and to be honest, there is no right answer to this question. This is one of those things that each family has to decide what they consider is best and what goes according to their beliefs.
For a brief moment I questioned if we should celebrate Santa Claus in our home. I wondered what would happen if we did and my kid found out later that he wasn’t real. I also wondered what Christmas would be like without Santa. I thought about my own childhood… In my family Santa came every Christmas, in person.
The night of Christmas eve our extended family would get together in my grandparents house, we ate, played and enjoyed our time together. At midnight you would hear bells ringing and soon after you’d see Santa walk into our driveway carrying lots of sacks with gifts. The kids screamed with joy and waited anxiously to be called upon on. It was magical. It was Christmas. It felt so real.
I remember being in school and hearing the kids say Santa wasn’t real but I knew he was because he came to my house every year.
When I was 10 years old I found out Santa Claus was my dad. I have no idea how they managed to keep this tradition going for so long without me finding out and I only found out because my great aunt told me not to tell her little grandchild that Santa was my father.
When I found out I was shocked but I wasn’t disappointed. Now I look back at all those Christmas with such joy and love. They were truly perfect for me and so magical. Santa kept coming to our house and still does.
Even though I eventually knew he wasn’t real it was still a fun experience.
The feeling I get when I think of Christmas is what I want my daughter to feel when she looks back at how our Christmases were celebrated.
Luckily my husband is also on board so in our household we make a big deal out of Christmas. The month before we talk about Santa and what we want from him. We write a letter with the toys we want and Santa picks it up at night while we’re sleeping. He also leaves us a letter letting us know he got ours and tells us how excited he is to visit us.
On Christmas Eve we will get together with my mother-in-law and my aunt and her husband for dinner, and then Santa will come to visit us with a sack of toys for each of our daughters. Santa is their father. It will be a magical night and all about the gifts Santa brings, about being grateful and about the joy of Christmas. It will be about family, about being together, about believing in the impossible, about love and it will be filled with laughter.
We also celebrate Christmas with my husband’s family, so on the morning of the 25th we go to my in laws were we give each other the presents we bought. I like it this way because my daughters won’t be overwhelmed with too many gifts at once, they have one night to unwrapped Santa’s gifts and the next morning to unwrap the gifts from us and our family members.
Is this the right way to do it? I don’t know but it is our way. It’s what makes us happy and how we want our kids to celebrate Christmas.
What will happen when my kids find out Santa is not real? It will be ok. We will explain to them what we did and why we did it. They will know it was out of love and they will know we wanted them to experience one of those things that is so magical about being a kid.
…and this is why we have decided not to tell our kids that Santa is not real. We will experience what to us is the magic of Christmas.
How do you celebrate Christmas? Do you tell your kids the truth about Santa?
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