My kiddo is 8 (hard to believe, right?) and in 3rd grade. I feel like we could get by with the Santa thing one more Christmas, but I don't want to be the parent taking the big kid to see Santa, ya know?
Our Santa tradition includes:
Going to see him
Me sending a letter from Santa with a Certificate of Nice List shortly after visit
Leaving milk and cookies with a thank you note Christmas Eve
Having one Santa gift Christmas morning (the one thing he asked for, which is never too expensive or too cheap)
What do you think? Tell him the truth now or give him one last Christmas with Santa? [Reply]
My wife handled the situation perfectly with our kids. When the question was asked her answer was he'll stop coming if you don't believe in him. That stopped them asking. To this day, even though they are adults they still get one present from Santa. [Reply]
I'm probably going to get hammered for this. But, I never did Santa with my daughter. I have never been dishonest with her in any way and I felt that telling her Santa was real was violating her trust. She's 19 now and knows that everything that I have ever told her and will tell her is the truth. Our family was mixed. 2 of my sisters did Santa, the other 2 didn't. When one of my sisters told her son the truth about Santa, he actually said to her, you lied to me all this time? She was devestated about that. I was glad that I never had to have that moment with her. I'm not going to judge anyone for choosing to do Santa. That's up to them as a parent. I'm just telling how I did it. She and I are both happy with the way that it went. [Reply]
I let my kids believe until they figured it out. I think my youngest was 10 but suspect his older (by 2 years) brother probably rolled on us prior. But he's such a sweet kid he went along with it for a few extra years. Your son will be hit with the harsh realities of the world soon enough, let him have his fun as long as he can. [Reply]