OK, so some of you are going to be all mad at me and think I’m ridiculous. That’s fine. I really don’t care if you want to tell your kids Santa is real. Parents get to do whatever they want. I have no grudges, I’m just sharing what I did.
I taught my kids that Santa was a fun pretend character — “There’s isnt a real Santa who lives at the north pole and comes down the chimney — but it’s fun to pretend — I’m really Santa”
I don’t think they missed out on anything and I taught them to respect other families who encouraged their kids to believe in the fictious character. My kids didn’t tell their friends, because I warned them. “Shhhh…. don’t tell your friends, their parents may want them to believe that Santa is real.”
We made cookies for Santa, addressed gifts from Santa and dad even dressed-up like Santa. He wasn’t scary like all those mall Santas. It’s good to pretend, but it’s pretend. It’s not real. Like that elf on the shelf game that families play during Christmas — It’s fun make-believe, but you won’t catch me telling my kids or grandkids that Mr. Elf goes to the North Pole each night to tell Santa if they’ve been naughty or nice. I’ll prentend with them, but I won’t try to convince them it’s real.
2 reasons I told my kids that Santa isn’t real
1. Â I don’t like to lie to my kids. I want them to believe me. When I tell them that God is real, I want them to know that I believe I’m telling them the truth. I want them to develop their own faith in God, which is somewhat mystical and difficult to believe. Many believe that Santa and God are both make-believe characters. I want to differentiate the two. God is real, Santa is pretend. The Elf is a toy.
2.  I was afraid of  Santa. As a child, I was afraid of Santa, afraid that he was creeping around my home in the dark, looking at me in bed. I pulled the covers over my head on Christmas Eve — Haunting memories. Some years later I found out he wasn’t real. Phew — no more Santa fear. I’m pretty sure I would’ve been fearful of that elf on the shelf too.
It’s kind of strange — We teach our kids to be leery of strangers. We’d never tell them to jump up on some stranger’s lap. We wouldn’t hand our toddler over to some stranger in a strange outfit for a photo moment.  But it happens all the time in malls around the country.
Here are some very unhappy children sitting on Santa’s lap. The first one is me. I was three. And I love that dress! Â Santa looks kind of scary though.
