At what age and how do you tell children about the truth of Christmas?

Clymene@lemmy.ml to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 110 points –

I'm writing this as someone who has mostly lived in the US and Canada. Personally, I find the whole "lying to children about Christmas" thing just a bit weird (no judgment on those who enjoy this aspect of the holiday). But because it's completely normalized in our culture, this is something many people have to deal with.

Two questions:

What age does this normally happen? I suppose you want the "magic of Christmas" at younger ages, but it gets embarrassing at a certain point.

And how does it normally happen? Let them find out from others through people at school? Tell them explicitly during a "talk"? Let them figure it out on their own?

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We used Santa (et al.) as an exercise in critical thinking. Outside of saying, "Yep, the Easter Bunny did it." we never directly lied about it. If they asked a question about it, we answered truthfully.

Child: "Whoa, how does he visit all those homes in one night?"

Dad: "It's impossible unless he uses magic."

C: "Whoa magic is real??"

D: "Nope."

They all figured it out on their own before they hit grade school.

That's what my parents did too. Backfired on them when I left religion years later lmao

They thought it was funny/cute when I tried to argue with other kids about it, but aren't so happy when I argue about religion with them now 😆

Wow, your parents raised you to think critically for yourself, then got upset when you thought critically for yourself? Lol

That being said, I'm glad your parents had their priorities in order

they weren't upset that I was thinking critically, but they're not happy I left the church. In their mind thinking critically points to the church. And I can be pretty argumentative when I disagree with someone and think they're pretty straightforwardly wrong, hence arguing about santa as a kid and religion with them 😂

But i'm definitely glad they did too