It’s that special time of year when kids of a certain age start asking some difficult questions about Santa Claus.
Who is this bearded present-giver? How does he get to every child in the world on one night? Where does he go for the rest of the year?
But the sad fact of the matter is, at some stage kids stop believing – and they usually require an adult to give them the answers they’ve been looking for.
So how do you tell a child the truth about Santa without totally traumatising them and losing their trust?
Mum Charity Hutchinson took to Facebook to share an idea she’d heard – and it certainly seems sensible to us.
“In our family, we have a special way of transitioning the kids from receiving from Santa, to becoming a Santa. This way, the Santa construct is not a lie that gets discovered, but an unfolding series of good deeds and Christmas spirit,” she writes.
They elaborate that if the child is six or seven and showing doubt in the Santa construct, they’re ready.
The writer suggests taking the child out to share the secret of Santa Claus. She then recommends you say this: “You sure have grown an awful lot this year. Not only are you taller, but I can see that your heart has grown, too. [Point out 2-3 examples of empathetic behaviour, consideration of people’s feelings, good deeds etc, the kid has done in the past year]. In fact, your heart has grown so much that I think you are ready to become a Santa Claus.”
“You probably have noticed that most of the Santas you see are people dressed up like him. Some of your friends might have even told you that there is no Santa. A lot of children think that, because they aren’t ready to BE a Santa yet, but YOU ARE.”
The premise is that you’re letting the child in on the secret of being Santa, and the idea of giving someone something they need and never telling them who it came from.
