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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]So we kind of punted on Santa. We are not religious and I hate lying to my kid. Also, my parents were VERY into Santa when I was a kid and it was not "magical" to me. It felt stressful and made Christmas into this big evaluation of who I am as a person. I don't have fond memories of believing.

However my DH adamantly did not want to be the family that told a 4 yr old (the first year she was old enough to get it, she's now 5) that Santa wasn't real. So we discussed it and decided on the compromise that we would tell her it was up to her whether to believe or not, and we would go ahead and do a few presents "from Santa" and she could decide. She openly expresses doubt but also sometimes is like "I definitely believe in Santa." She's excited about the idea of Santa but I also think she wouldn't be devastated to realize it's not real. It's like she's having fun pretending to believe in Santa.

In a weird way I think us being somewhat ambivalent is sort of a best case scenario, because she's learning that you can just choose to believe something for fun, which I think is not a terrible thing to learn. But we also aren't going all in on this elaborate scheme. She'll set out cookies and milk for Santa and we'll eat them, but if she asks us directly if Santa is real, we'll say "I'm not sure I believe it, but what do you think?" I get to be the doubter this way, but not forceful about it. DH encourages her belief more, and that's a fun thing for them to share.

I'm sure some people on here will decide this is terrible, but it's actually working for us and I"m happy with where we landed. Maybe she'll hate us later for not either making it into a more elaborate lie or alternatively just telling her the truth from the start, but I doubt it. [/quote]

We also kinda punted on Santa.  On Christmas morning there are presents under the tree - if they ask we say they are from us but otherwise they just open them.  I grew up with Santa but don't recall thinking it was particularly magical and think I learned pretty early it wasn't real.  I have wonderful memories of Christmas Eve with my family which was our more normal time to celebrate, have a good dinner etc.  [/quote]

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