When Do We Tell Them About Santa?

I have been wondering lately if most parents tell their kids the truth about Santa.

Should we just play along with the idea of Santa until one day our child finally asks about jolly ol' St. Nick or when the neighborhood kid finally spills the beans (or they see a post pop up on their parents' e-mail that reads, "When Do We Tell Them About Santa?)? Should we really allow our middle school child to still believe?

Now, I have been contemplating this dilemma for some time now and have been asking around about this concept of telling your child about Santa and parents seem to agree they are mum on the subject with their kiddos. It seems odd to me to see a five foot boy weighing about 120 pounds still believe in Santa. Our children could be learning about the "birds and the bees" in school, but yet they still believe in a bearded man who comes down their chimney every Christmas and stuffs their stocking with everything they have been wanting. Don't you think that once that boy or girl finds out about Santa that he is going to feel a bit silly that he or she believed in that jolly old man for so long?

My husband and I agreed a long time ago that we would not play up Santa in our house. The kids hear all the songs about a man in a red suit coming down the chimney on Christmas Eve, but we never put out carrots for the reindeer or ask if they are excited about Santa coming. But we also did not give any hints that he was everything but real either.

Two years ago my oldest son figured it out. He was eight years old. (Click here to read last year's blog post on the story). At that time, my son agreed that he would not be the one to tell his friends and brother about Santa who all still believe. At first he was quiet about it and never said anything about Santa, but recently he has been playing it up and getting his younger brother all excited about St. Nick.

(Side story: every year Santa puts panties or a bra in my stocking. One year I accidently pulled it out while my boys were watching. From now on my youngest just cracks up that Santa put a bra in my stocking - although he still believes in Santa, he just can't understand why Santa would put a bra in my stocking.)

This year, our youngest put a note in his stocking. He never mentioned that he was going to do that and we were both surprised on Christmas Eve to see a piece of paper sticking up out of his green and red velvet stocking. It read, "Dear Santa, All I want for Christmas is to have a chance to be like you. Love, Samuel"

Santa wrote back, "Dear Samuel, Thank you for the kind note. You already are one of the most generous boys on my list. Keep up the good work. S"

Later, while opening our presents, our eldest came across a package that read, "To The Smith Family, Love S." Inside the gift was unexpected: another Wii controller and The Best of the Muppet Show. I was surprised too.

After opening up such an appropriate gift to the Smith family, my oldest son exclaimed, "Wow, Santa showed up big this year."

We were going to tell our youngest after this Christmas about Santa, but he is such a believer that I think it would just break his heart.

So, if you have older children, when and how did they find out about Santa? If you have younger kids, are you going to play along with the story of "Santa" or are you going to tell them the truth early? If you don't have kids, do you play along about Santa with your nieces and nephews?

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