[ChunkyChook]

Another thread got me thinking about Santa being a lie and it not sitting well with some people.

Curious if any families dont do Santa or the Easter Bunny etc because it is lying. If so do you make up for it and buy a few extra presents or give them tooth fairy money from you instead?

[baddmammajamma]

We don't do them because my now 7-year-old daughter figured out the drill at a really young age (and is only too happy to tell her little brother the truth). Once the Santa myth was cracked, it wasn't hard for her to figure out that the other players didn't make sense either.

Our kids still get treats on Christmas, Easter & when they lose teeth, but we don't attribute them to fictional characters.

As I mentioned in the other Santa thread, we promote Santa as a spirit that make people feel good about giving to others (my daughter is the one who came up with this, and we have just run with it).

We have lots of fun and magic and special moments in our family despite the lack of Santa in a starring role.

[Sinister Bonnet]

When my older kid was 4, he set up a Santa trap on the roof with the help of his father.

He concluded that Santa was a fraud. We never did the Easter Bunny at all. Teeth equalled money with no help needed from the fairy.

[Bluenomi]

We don't do Santa. Mostly because DH doesn't believe in it and I'm not fussed either way. DD still gets the same amount of presents as she would, they are just all from us.

We don't bother with the easter bunny either, her eggs are from us and we haven't gotten to the tooth fairy stage yet.

[MakeLoveNotBacon]

Look I don't mean to be rude but I find these questions very puzzling. We are not some weird cult with special rules (don't forget about monthly meeting BMJ, I think you're leading this month )

What do you think we do OP? Christmas and Easter are just not about the Bunny and Santa. What do you do when your kids find out about Santa and Easter Bunny? Stop buying them presents , or scale it down? Don't you still buy presents and Easter eggs? Then there is your answer - so do we.

[BadCat]

Yeah I don't quite get these qestions either. You do what you choose to do. No rules either way.

We did all the characters but we would have done the same gifts and goodies with or without the characters.

[baddmammajamma]

We are not some weird cult with special rules (don't forget about monthly meeting BMJ, I think you're leading this month)

Shhhhhhh! Don't blow my cover. I am trying to masquerade as "just another mum" on EB rather than the freak cult leader I truly am.

[ChunkyChook]

Madame Catty I'm not sure what you do, that's why I ask.I meant it more for people who just dont do it from day one. How to you explain santas at shopping centres to a 2/3yo? Oh thats a santa, he's fake. Some children believe because their families want them to?

I suppose our presents got scaled down....I'm in my 30s and santa still swings by mums place every year

With the tooth fairy I guess we had lost all our teeth before we realised. But was curious if you have a little 'thing' or the "Oh wow you lost a tooth" attitude but no money etc.

I dont think you are rude, or a weird cult!

[Roselet]

We haven't had to implement it yet (bub is under 1) but intend to avoid lying about Santa. The difficulty is how to not ruin it for all the kids whose parents are happy to lie to them. I hopped on this thread hoping some of you who have been down this path can give some good ideas / advice on managing that one. (I have this image of a scary angry mum furious with my because my little one told her little one that Santa is fictional, and getting screamed at over it).
Bunny and fairy are easier I think as they are less of a massive public fantasy. Plus easter in our house will be pretty church focussed rather than chocolate focussed. (please, lets not get into a discussion about the fictionality or otherwise of religion, my husband would agree with you and we plan to introduce both sides of the coin to our children and allow them to make up their own minds, just as my parents did with me.)

[MakeLoveNotBacon]

For Santa at the shop, I say it's a man dressed up. He's 5 and hasn't asked a lot of questions about Santa - it was only once he asked about two years now I think. I expect he will ask more this year.

He did loose a couple of teeth recently and we did the money thing and made a big deal out of it because it was the first. I told him some people believe a special fairy comes and gives you money for your teeth, but some people think it's mum and dad doing it. I asked him who he thought did it, and he said mum and dad. I think he did ask me what I thought, and I said mum and dad too. It was still a special time, a real milestone, and we made him feel important.