Well, we finally had to break down and tell Jillian the truth about Santa Claus yesterday. She took it better than we did--to us, it means our baby is growing up!
Our stance has always been that once she was old enough or smart enough to figure it out for herself, we weren't going to try to convince her otherwise. She is a pretty sharp 8-year old (going on 9, or maybe 90), and has been suspicious for the past year or so. She would keep pointing out disconnects in logic such as when we would tell her that magicians aren't really doing magic but then Santa could do magical things. Finally she asked us to level with her because she was certain that the Tooth Fairy and Easter Bunny were definitely not real, but she was "90% certain" that Santa wasn't real but she wanted us to just tell her the truth.
So, we had a nice talk with her not just about whether Santa was real, but also about the power of love and generosity, about traditions and belief, and about growing up, and having special memories and experiences. We also talked about how she shouldn't tell her sister Addie, so she wouldn't deny her the experiences she had, and so that she could one day figure it out for herself like she did.
I'd love to hear everyone's "the truth about Santa Claus stories"--how old were you when you found out, what was the experience like, how did you tell your kids (if you have kids).
Our stance has always been that once she was old enough or smart enough to figure it out for herself, we weren't going to try to convince her otherwise. She is a pretty sharp 8-year old (going on 9, or maybe 90), and has been suspicious for the past year or so. She would keep pointing out disconnects in logic such as when we would tell her that magicians aren't really doing magic but then Santa could do magical things. Finally she asked us to level with her because she was certain that the Tooth Fairy and Easter Bunny were definitely not real, but she was "90% certain" that Santa wasn't real but she wanted us to just tell her the truth.
So, we had a nice talk with her not just about whether Santa was real, but also about the power of love and generosity, about traditions and belief, and about growing up, and having special memories and experiences. We also talked about how she shouldn't tell her sister Addie, so she wouldn't deny her the experiences she had, and so that she could one day figure it out for herself like she did.
I'd love to hear everyone's "the truth about Santa Claus stories"--how old were you when you found out, what was the experience like, how did you tell your kids (if you have kids).
