Tell him the truth now 8 19.05%

Give him one last Christmas with Santa 29 69.05%

Gaz (yes, I'm old school CP) 5 11.90%

We have always just had 1 big present be from Santa. I can see how it would be different if everything came from Santa.

Still....Keep the dream alive as long as possible!
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Even if they question you can tell them that as long as you believe there is a Santa. There is a Santa, it's YOU! Once they know there is no longer a Santa, then the presents come from Mom and Dad. My kids, raised and out, appreciated this and understand why we never told them we were Santa until they were older, they relish those Christmas mornings, as did we, the parents, because they are never as magical again once Santa is no longer part of the tradition.
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It's been a long time since we've all hung out. :-)
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1. Tell him Santa informed you that he won't be coming to your home ever again because he doesn't bring gifts to very bad children.

2. Take credit for the presents you would've previously said were from Santa. Tell him you bought extra presents because you think your son is the best kid ever and Santa is an asshole.

3. Now you are the hero and Santa is the bad guy. Merry Christmas!
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You seem fun.
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My daughter is 10. I threw a pretty big fit that we needed to calm it down on the Santa stuff because she was over the top all about it.

So we talked to her about it. Here’s a rough iteration of how it went.

“Honey you need to know Santa isn’t real.”

“Oh I know. I just didn’t want to stop getting presents.”

:Facepalm:

We kinda toned down the over the top stuff but they’ll figure it out. Wife even started dropping things like not disguising her writing on the presents from Santa vs us.

I felt like shit lying to the kids, but they figured it out.
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I will say that this is kinda why our kids don't get the 'big gift' from Santa.

I always did. If I got a bicycle or Nintendo or whatever, that was the Santa present.

But it occurred to me that these kids all tell each other what Santa brought them. What...Santa just doesn't like poor kids?

"Oh, Santa brought you a Nerf Football? Huh...he brought me hoverboard. That's weird..."

So our Santa present is usually in the $50-100 range; a little more expensive than some kids may get, but not so much that 6 year olds are going to notice a difference. The bikes and giant lego sets and remote control airplanes and what not - those come from mom and dad. When the oldest got her hunting rifle, Santa didn't bring that shit - I did.
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EXACTLY so.

My god man, do you really not remember being 10 at all? I think I kept it up until I was about 12 for the very same reason - fear of losing the Santa present (and as said previously, my Santa present was the big one).

It's not gonna happen that way, but THEY don't know that.

Yeah, of course that's the case. My kid's whip smart, intuitive as hell and bone-dry with her sense of humor and ability to infer. I don't believe for a second she doesn't know.

I made some remark last week about not being able to speak dog when the dogs were being assholes. And the boy says "wait a minute, you can speak to Truman (our elf) and said that the Dogs tell him what's going on when you're not around - that can't be right!"

Out of nowhere she says "Yeah, dad speaks Elf and Truman speaks dog. So sometimes Truman translates but he's not here to do it now so the dogs don't know what dad's trying to tell them..."

Shit, that's WAY quicker on her feet than I was. There's just no way she came up with that but doesn't know that Santa's not real.

But I'm not gonna beat her over the head with it either.
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My kid was about that age when, right after Xmas passed, he asked if it was all made up, so we asked what he thought. He had it figured out that it was us, then a second later said, 'So the easter bunny and tooth fairy, all fake too?'
Yep, sorry bud.
a minute later...so God is made up too then?? lol Told him he'll need to figure that one out on his own later on.
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Durrr. How's Santa supposed to deliver your daughter a rifle when he's just been through California?
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The thread started out with all the right answers. Let him play along for as long as he'd like. Let the magic of xmas persist for as long as the child wants it to.

He's in the 3rd grade. He's been hearing, "Santa isn't real" since kinder. So...he knows...
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Absolutely.

This is a small thing in the grand scheme but it is an aspect of innocence lost once the truth comes out and once it’s gone it’s gone.
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This. At 8 years old you're already in school with a bunch of batshit crazy kids the say all kinds of things.
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We do this, too. Call me selfish, but I want him to know the pricy stuff is what we worked hard to afford for him. Still, some of those Transformer action figures can be quite pricy, too. This year, he's been hinting at a skateboard, so that will likely be the Santa gift this year. Otherwise, he's due for a new tablet and charger, so that will definitely be from us.

We try to have him ask Santa for whatever we know we can get him that's not expensive. Last year, it was a Fortnite action figure. It was kind of hard to find, so I ordered it early. When the time came to see Santa, he said he was thinking of asking him for something else. Normally, that wouldn't be a problem. You know how hard it was to talk him into sticking with the original idea? Whew!
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There was a bratty little girl at his daycare when he was 3 or 4 that nearly ruined it for him. Smoothing that over was pretty tricky.
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