Kind of an odd question, I know. But my 8 year old still believes in Santa, and we still have not had "the talk" with her about where babies come from.
Which did you learn first?
Kind of an odd question, I know. But my 8 year old still believes in Santa, and we still have not had "the talk" with her about where babies come from.
Which did you learn first?
Wait . . . what do you mean "[B][FONT=Comic Sans MS]there is no Santa Claus[/FONT][/B]"?!?
TREASONOUS!!!!
There may be no sanity clause, but . . . [quote]We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:
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 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 external 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 you 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 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, 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 lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
-----------------
"Is There a Santa Claus?" reprinted from the September 21, 1897, number of The New York Sun.
[/quote][SIZE=1][URL="https://www.nysun.com/editorials/yes-virginia/68502/"]https://www.nysun.com/editorials/yes-virginia/68502/[/URL][/SIZE]
And I think it was the baby-thing first, even though it was less of an issue since I was the youngest child in my family[SIZE=1] (so nobody had to explain why Mommy's belly was getting more bloated than a stuffed Thanksgiving turkey)[/SIZE].
I think babies.
My parents were hippies and very ... progressive. 1968's Time-Life [I]How Babies Are Made[/I]? My parents bought it! I read it. Precocious 3-year-old me was reading.
Some time between that and when I started kindergarten (about a year later), I "scientifically" figured out that Santa was a huge lie. Yes, he may have been based on a historical person, but red suit, reindeer, naughty/nice list, chimneys, global delivery, etc.? All a parents' conspiracy. I confronted my mom, and she caved, admitting the whole charade. I made a lot of enemies in kindergarten that December, because I yelled to the class that Santa was a lie.
I was forced by the conspiracy to publicly recant a few days later so kiddies wouldn't have tears in their cocoa.
Santa, I found a toys r us sticker on some legos I got from Santa maybe 5 or 6 at the time. Didn't really bother me as presents are presents.
Discovered dad sneaking out to the tree about midnight on Christmas Eve when I was six and we had company over so my temp bed had a view of the hallway. I felt so bad I pretended to be asleep so as not to upset him. He's very old now and he still doesn't know about that night.
Babies. Stupid classroom film when 12. I didn't want to attend as had zero interest but TPTB didn't care.
I always knew that babies came from ladies bellies. I don't remember ever thinking anything different.
Never believed in Santa, learned about babied from a biology textbook when I was 8 or 9.
Definitely Santa. I figured it out on my own when I was six watching a Christmas episode of [I]The Addams Family[/I]. The show's premise was that Santa didn't really exist, until at the very end when he makes an appearance (surprising the adults). This made no sense to me if the old elf was real, so I came to the conclusion Kris Kringle didn't exist in our own reality, either. I wasn't upset by this epiphany, BTW, but felt like I moved up a notch on the maturity scale (besides, I was still going to receive my Christmas presents :)).
The "talk" came up when I was 11 when my classmates teased me unmercifully about my lack of sex education one day at school. I was the oldest of my siblings and at a time when the TV wasn't filled with that type of stuff (the mid '70s). Needless to say, I got my father to bring me up to date that very night.
[QUOTE=ed2962;4016243]I always knew that babies came from ladies bellies. I don't remember ever thinking anything different.[/QUOTE]
I think everybody knew that when I was a kid, ed. It was the how that some of us were cloudy about.
When I was really young, like 4 if I'm not mistaken, my Nana told me there was no Santa Claus. Her reason being she didn't want someone taking credit for the gifts she bought.
[QUOTE=MyriVerse;4015918]I made a lot of enemies in kindergarten that December, because I yelled to the class that Santa was a lie.
I was forced by the conspiracy to publicly recant a few days later so kiddies wouldn't have tears in their cocoa.[/QUOTE]
I had to recant myself after I mentioned it nonchalantly at the dinner table in front of my younger brothers. My father brought me out of the kitchen and told me it was okay I didn't believe anymore, but not to deprive my brothers from believing in St. Nick for a few more years. Completely understanding his thinking (and feelling like a big boy in the process), I went back to my seat at the table and notified my siblings I was only joking. Fortunately, they believed me.
[QUOTE=ZeonsSilverStar;4016395]When I was really young, like 4 if I'm not mistaken, my Nana told me there was no Santa Claus. Her reason being she didn't want someone taking credit for the gifts she bought.[/QUOTE]
In our family, Santa would sometimes drop off presents for us at the houses of relatives and my parents's friends (the gifts being "recommendations" from the latter). This way, both Santa and the purchasers of the presents would get equal credit in our eyes.
[QUOTE=tib2d2;4015809]Kind of an odd question, I know. But my 8 year old still believes in Santa, and we still have not had "the talk" with her about where babies come from.
Which did you learn first?[/QUOTE]
I know all about the Stork. But what do you mean about Santa not existing????
[I learned about Santa first].
The truth about Santa came first. Never had "the talk" about where babies came from, I learned that on my own in my early teens.
I knew about babies some time before the age of 6 - my parents had a book explaining it.
Father Christmas came a couple of years later.
[QUOTE=The Darknight Detective;4016382]Definitely Santa. I figured it out on my own when I was six watching a Christmas episode of [I]The Addams Family[/I]. The show's premise was that Santa didn't really exist, until at the very end when he makes an appearance (surprising the adults). This made no sense to me if the old elf was real, so I came to the conclusion Kris Kringle didn't exist in our own reality, either. I wasn't upset by this epiphany, BTW, but felt like I moved up a notch on the maturity scale (besides, I was still going to receive my Christmas presents :)).[/QUOTE]
I think this is the best way. There are so many clues in the world around you - like many of the jokes in Elf, the lyrics to I Believe in Father Christmas and I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause. When kids are ready they start spotting the clues - and when they aren't ready, the clues wash over them.