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So.....how do you all handle the very tricky Santa situation?? My 6 year old is on the fence.... All questions point to disbelief.... "how come there is no North Pole flag in my flags of the world book" "why don't people just go to target, if Santa goes there?" and on and on......
I want to keep the magic alive!

DS then 5 when asked what he thought about Santa...

"I choose to believe!"

I think that is what is happening here.... Time to bust out The Polar Express!!!!

My DS8 says " While you know I don't believe in Santa, I'll say he's real if I get presents from him under the tree still. I wouldn't want to get less than my little brothers just because I don't believe in Santa " lol Same goes for the tooth fairy...if it means he'll wake up with a buck under his pillow, he'll say anything

DS7 adamantly doesn't believe in the tooth fairy. ("I know it's you, Mom!") That doesn't keep him from enjoying the experience of putting a tooth under his pillow at bedtime and getting a dollar in the morning.

When he was three, and asked whether fairies were real, I said they aren't (take THAT, Tinkerbell!). Like a good giftie, he extrapolated that to the tooth fairy.

We're Jewish, so Santa isn't an issue for us.

I am pretty sure dd5 has figured it out as she's hesitant when she speaks about Santa. However, we took her to see Arthur Christmas last week - it's a new English movie, I assume it's on in the States? It gives a wonderful account of how the current Santa (there is of course generation after generation of the Claus family...) gets the job done - complete with a ninja elf army and ingenious gadgets. Dd LOVED it.

We saw Arthur Christmas last week too and I enjoyed it much more than I expected. The part I really liked regarding the Santa issue though, was Arthur's determination to get the little girl her gift and says several times, it doesn't matter who brings it, it just matters that every child gets a present from Santa. I thought that was a very clever way of putting it.

DS8 is still dedicated to the idea of Santa, although I fear the days are numbered. He said to me the other day, "You know how I know that Santa is real? Because we can see him from the satellites." NORAD has a website that "tracks" Santa that I showed him when he was little. The fact that he was searching for evidence suggests to me that perhaps is on to it but doesn't want to admit it. But now I have two myths to deal with: Santa and the idea that one can trust information that comes from the government.

When I was a child I found my Santa letters packed in a box in the garage. I was probably 7ish. But I never told my parents I found them and continued to pretend for several years after that. I just loved the Christmas magic and still do!

With two older siblings, my youngest never had the whole believing in Santa experience. The year the movie Elf came out, he was still pretty little but loved the film. The next day we were in the mall, where he spied Santa with a row of kids lined up to sit in his lap. Before I could stop him, my son pointed at Santa and blurted (quite loudly), "You are not the real Santa. You are a fake! You smell of beef and cheese!"

I will never forget the looks of horror from parents as they clapped their hands over their kids' ears.

I think we sowed seeds of doubt in quite a few kids that year.

Although we didn't have Target when I was a kid, that concept is what did it for me - obviously Santa's elves couldn't make the exact same gift basket I wanted at the store. If your DS is figuring out that "Santa" goes to Target and there's really just an ocean under the North Pole, I say it's time! I remember being quite proud of myself for figuring it out. And the magic of Christmas was still there, even though I no longer believed. My DS6 quizzed me about the tooth fairy (I can tell he knows deep down it's not true), but as I quizzed him back, it became obvious that he DIDN'T want to know the truth. So I didn't tell him. It sounds like your DS really wants to know the truth; he can still have magical Christmases even without Santa.

It is funny to me, though, how often they avoid asking the question straight out. They ask all kinds of other questions, but lots of times don't just come out and ask you "Is Santa real?" This suggests to me that they do want to keep it going.

My DS5, however, has already straight out asked me about Santa (in the middle of Arthur Christmas actually!) but I just avoided the question for now. Not sure what I'm going to do with that one because he is my overly imaginative kid who has on occasion worried me that his fantasies are so real to him he can't tell the difference. Lately, though, he has started asking about whether (usually scary) things are real as a way, I think, to ground himself. I unequivocally denounce vampires, zombies, and werewolves as made up stories because he was terrified. He was also completely freaked out about leprechauns at one point (which are creepier than they are given credit for!) In this context, the whole Santa question is more complicated for me.