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Joined: Jun 2008
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This is going to probably seem completely weird since I have read that most gt kids start asking questions about Santa Claus really early (3, 4, 5) - those that celebrate modern christmas anyway. DS8 is still a believer, so I am beginning to worry about next year for a couple of reasons. I think 4th grade is probably when almost everyone will no longer believe in Santa, but he might yet. Also, he is a really really honest kid and I don't want to turn up a big fat liar.  It's not like he hasn't asked about it, but I guess I've been a bit too firm and convincing in my explaining about the story of the real man we now call St. Nicolas and how the traditional ideas of Santa Claus have grown from that. Anyone else wondering about what to do on this? What do you say when kids finally really figure it out? Any severely disappointed kids? That is what I am trying to avoid.
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Chris,
I was a gifted child, and I never quite stopped believing. Even after I was told it was my parents, it was so much fun to really think some amazing person came down and left presents that I didn't want to spoil it. As an adult, I still get all excited about Santa, even knowing that I buy the presents.
I'm not sure what I would say, but I do think that if he decides to continue to believe despite his friends saying that Santa's not real, it won't do him any long-term harm.
Lya
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Hi Chris, We have the opposite problem, DD6 has taken it upon herself to "enlighten" the other first graders about "the secret"! Thank goodness for caller ID, I've been screening my calls! I did struggle over this too. Especially because DD6 started asking last year and I remember how disillusioned I was when I got the facts about Santa as a child. I know lots of gifted kids figure it out early, but I certainly don't think it's an acid test for GT status.  When my kids asked, I just asked them lots of questions, like, what do you think? Then I let them talk it out. If it seemed like the really wanted to believe, then I just told them I agreed with them. When DD6 basically broke it down for me as if she was setting ME straight on the deal, I had to giggle a little bit. I did tie my explanation to our family's spiritual beliefs and the ability to believe in things we can't prove. I told her all parents give their children this little gift of belief each year when they are children. That way, when they grow up they can have an easier idea of believing in things that might not seem possible. I little cheesy, I know, but it seemed to satisfy her. I also suspect some older kids put on a good show when they know because they feel if the parents find out what they really think, they won't get as many gifts under the tree.
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Somewhere over the last 2 years, GS9 made a gradual switch between believing, and playing along with the myth of a Santa Claus. Read this, and I think you'll know how to approach it. Newsman Francis Pharcellus Church wrote The Sun's response to Virginia.
Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.
"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?
"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."
VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
Last edited by OHGrandma; 12/04/08 08:18 AM.
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((wiping away a little tear)), Awwwwwww, thanks for posting that! I'm going to read it to DD's when they get home.
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Wow, thanks all! those are great responses, I feel much better.
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My DS4 is planning on staying up all night this year to see Santa. I was more worried a couple years ago, when we first read Santa Mouse. There was a line in it like "and i believe in Santa too, don't you?" That was the first inkling that some people didn't believe in Santa, and DS wondered about that. And his first Easter bunny experience was someone in a really bad costume, so he started out not believing in the Easter bunny. But I think gradually we convinced him, and now he believes! I remember when I read all that stuff about GT kids not believing in Santa when they were young, and I thought "oh, OK, I guess maybe DS isn't all that gifted." 
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I did tie my explanation to our family's spiritual beliefs and the ability to believe in things we can't prove.
I told her all parents give their children this little gift of belief each year when they are children. That way, when they grow up they can have an easier idea of believing in things that might not seem possible.
I little cheesy, I know, but it seemed to satisfy her. I think that your explanation is great and if it is cheesy than I guess I like cheese.
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Joined: Sep 2008
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We took a picture of Santa's leg and boot as he ascended up the chimney one year. DDs are still thinking about that photo!
My dd9 is in the "unsure phase, but reasons that there is no way "Mom and Dad have enough money to buy the cool stuff we get every year!) lol
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We took a picture of Santa's leg and boot as he ascended up the chimney one year. DDs are still thinking about that photo!
My dd9 is in the "unsure phase, but reasons that there is no way "Mom and Dad have enough money to buy the cool stuff we get every year!) lol I got the similar set of pictures when I was young. I was convinced of this "proof" for some time. Then once Christmas I sat on the front lawn and scanned the skies and never saw Santa.
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