Karen, my other partner in crime on Mom’s Point of View and my sister asked me a question regarding Santa ~ATTENTION DO NOT READ THIS IN FRONT OF CHILDREN!~ Sensitive topic involved and she even made sure it was only me to see the question before she asked me.

She asked me how we handle Santa? Lucky for me, well sad for me too, I don’t have to worry about that any more. This is the second year of all of my kids knowing the answer to the question is Santa real?

First things first is my kids know not to ruin it for any other children. I told them kids believe at all different ages. So no worries if your kids hang out with mine we got your secret covered.

So how do you know when to tell your kids the truth or do you even want to let them keep believing or even believe in the first place? Every family is different. Does it matter if your kids believe in Santa? Not at all. Just if they are non-believers please tell them to shhhhush and not spoil it for the kids that do believe.

I decided I wanted my kids to believe in the magic of Christmas! Even the big pudgy bowl full of jelly, jolly guy dressed in red! I grew up with Santa so I wanted my kids to. Sure some people think the worst thing is to lie to a kid about Santa. I don’t see it as that, I see it as believing in the magic of Christmas. Can a guy deliver all those presents in one night? Um of course not! Can a magician really saw someone if half? Uh if he can then I would be pretty impressed! So the magic of Christmas is like a big magic trick. I don’t really think of it as a lie. Even though as a parent you can sometimes feel terrible about Santa and telling your kids he is real. (I mean it is a lie.) In the end I think your child will understand the magic that they felt. I know all of mine did.

Santa, the man who gives the best gifts and parents get absolutely no credit at all for the amazing gifts. Honestly I am not sure why we made this the way things are. Maybe because we don’t want to spend so much money on our kids throughout the year. I mean we work hard for the money. Am I right? Maybe we just don’t have the money until Christmas but really why should Santa get all the cool points?

I honestly don’t think he should. I mean he could, but hey separate some gifts and make some from Santa and some from you. We did that for our kids. Yes we fell for the trap that Santa gives the best, biggest and coolest presents and as parents we just give okay gifts.

How do you separate them? Pick gifts from Santa, then ones you give to your children. For us we did it a few different ways. Some years Santa had his own special paper where he wrapped his gifts. Yes there was Santa on the paper. Those presents, whether wrapped or not, were put on the couch. Growing up my presents were not wrapped and were on the couch. We did that before with our children too. Then the last couple of years before my kids knew the “truth” we put everything in large sacks from Santa and our gifts were wrapped. My kids never really questioned why it was done differently.

So when and how do you tell them the truth, nothing but the truth? HMMM that can be a tricky one. Feel your kids out. As they age you’re more than likely to get a feeling if they believe or not anymore. Heck some kids don’t want to let you know they Found out a while ago. Unfortunately that happened to my youngest two. Why do I say Unfortunately? They got it spoiled for them by of all people, a cafeteria worker at their elementary school! People, people, people…adults should NOT spoil it for kids! Come on! Of course my boys saw how happy Christmas made me so they never told me the lady told them until I told my last kid.

My decision of when to tell my kids was when they were going into young women’s and young men’s at church. So they are turning 12. I know there can be more kids at that age who would laugh if you still believe at that age, so I wanted to wait until then to tell my kids. Each one of them already had an idea that Santa wasn’t real but they were not going to say that to me. I mean they each said “Mom come on we kind of figured it out with the Easter Bunny.” I mean you got me there. Someone dressed in a bunny costume!

So in the long run you decide what you want for your kids. We teased our kids when they would ask if Santa was real. We said when you stop believing you get underwear! Those looks on their faces were priceless! So that is my long post about Santa. Did I know it was going to be that long? Um NOPE! But congratulations if you read the whole thing! Love to you all this Christmas!

PS. This is the last photo that my kids took together with Santa