When do you break the news to your kids? (Spoiler alert)

My parents never told me, but I got to a certain point where I tried to con Santa into proving his existence. Fortunately for little 6 or 7 year old me my dad was creative. I asked Santa in a note with his cookies to draw me a picture of my favorite reindeer and the next day when I woke up there was a picture of Donder/Donner on a scrap of wrapping paper. I ended up figuring things out on my own, but I get to look back at memories like this fondly, so I see no reason to "dream crush." Let kids use their imaginations for a while. Sometimes I think we are too focused on grounding people in reality =/.

when I don't know, but my 8 yr old step daughter already suspects there is no santa because she saw the Wii (santa present) before christmas and started asking a bunch of questions. I tried to play along that santa dropped it off early so we could look at it and decide what games to get her but then her mom sent her a present (2 weeks after christmas) and put Santa on it then told her it was from her. So there were more questions about it. I don't know what she thinks now. I guess I will just have to see when it comes back around. Good luck you'll figure it out or they will probably have a cousin or friend tell them. My cousin told me when I was 6 that it was all made up.

My kids figured it out a while ago. However, they haven't broken the news to me that they know. My oldest told her dad she knew what was up, but not to tell me. She told her dad she didn't want to break my heart.

So I make an even BIGGER deal about Santa and the Easter Bunny.

It's cute that our rolls somehow got reversed. The kids get all dramatic about it, too.

"MOM! Did YOU see the easter bunny??? I TOTALLY saw him out back!"

aww I wish I could meet my little cousins, they sound like awesome kids.

one of these days we're going to save up for a road trip to Florida. COUSIN MEET!!! Fiona has some cousins on her dad's side down there too she hasn't met.

There's a lot of awesomeness in our gene pool :flowerforyou:

LALALALALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU LALALALALALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU LALALALALALALALALALALA

Im a horrible liar so its hard for me to go along with the whole easter bunny tooth fairy santa thing. If my son believes I let him and when he asks me I try really hard to evade like hell, but children are curious creatures so they fig it out. lol. He's 7, i think by now he's fig'd out that mom and dad are those make believe characters.. and I love history and like teaching him actual history instead of made up stories.

I'll let my kids figure it out on their own but I do teach them to question everything and not to believe things just because everyone else does.

I am a big horrible liar! My son believed until he was 12. He wasn't just pretending, he really honestly believed. Why? Because he said "There is no way Mom and Dad could afford all that stuff!". My youngest is almost 9 and she still believes. I don't think I will be as lucky with her believing for so long though. I think this might be the last year because she is just a completely different kid than my son was. She questions EVERY SINGLE THING ON EARTH.

We make the biggest deal out of Santa, the Easter bunny and the Tooth Fairy. I am so excited to hide all of the easter eggs tonight after the kids go to bed. And then I will write a long letter to the kids that detail how many eggs are in each room and how many are in the yard and so on. Of course this is all from the Easter Bunny! I even buy a kit to make "bunny prints" and stamp them all over the carpet and furniture! It is so adorable!

I will cry when my youngest stops believing. Santa and the Easter Bunny were such a huge part of my childhood. HUGE. And they are for my kids too. I don't see a thing wrong with that.

And unlike a lot of others I flat out lie to them when they ask. Of course they are real! How else would you get all of this stuff?! :happy:

My parents told me when I was about 10 or 11 I think. I told them yea, I already knew that. My cousin and I put it together when we were about 9.

You don't. They will figure it out eventually. Let them have the magic for as long as they can.

I don't. They usually figure it out on their own. My 11 year old hasn't told me yet that she knows better, so we just keep pretending. Its fun

I don't have any children yet but I will be doing this when and if the time comes!!

My mother always told me "When you stop believing, you stop receiving". Me and my brother found out about Santa when we noticed our bikes had dirt on the tires. Either way my 14 year old sister still believes only cause she knows if she questions it she'll get nothing from "Santa"

Why tell them? Children will eventually find out for themselves, the magic is in the imagination. I have three siblings, (14, 12 & 6) aside from the youngest we all figured it out at various ages but kept it a secret so as not to spoil the fun. I've known there's no Santa for over a decade yet after helping my mum with everyone else's presents, I still go to bed before mine are put out!

In this situation, what is anyone gaining from the truth?

My brother and I were young enough to still get gifts from santa, but each year we would go on a "hunt" for our toys and play with them, close them up again, till the next day. mom never used wrapping paper. we'd act surprised on Xmas day, and we never told mom. I never told my daughter those things existed, and she knew all along I was giving her gifts at those times, but I told her for certain at 6 or 7 that santa didnt exist in that way. i think she told her children at around 5 or 6. they said they didnt think it was real anyway.

I agree, let them figure it out on their own. Children are growing up way too fast these days, let their little worlds be magical as long as you can. I have a daycare so I made my children still talk about Santa long after they "knew" so as to not spoil it for a younger child. I still put from Santa on some of the gifts under the tree and make them a stocking. That's for me because I think it's fun.

I got it on my own