The age-old conundrum — do you tell your young kids that Santa is fake or not? Every year kids age out of Santa on their own, but sometimes it’s a good time to let your children know that Santa is just a fun construct and gifts come from family and friends. However, some parents prefer to let Santa exist, but handle presents differently.
One Mom on Reddit wants her kids to only get small gifts from “Santa” and larger presents from family and friends.
However, she’s started a conflict with her family over her wishes.
“So I am a Mother of a six year old son and a four year old daughter, This year I want to only give a couple of cheap gifts as from ‘Santa’ for each child, the rest of their gifts will be clearly marked as from me, my husband, and other family/friends. My thought behind this is it’s not fair on kids whose families can’t get them big presents to hear of other kids getting big things from Santa,” the OP writes.
“This has caused an argument between my husband and me, and other members of the family are taking his side stating I’m ruining the magic for my children and that they don’t mind the kids not knowing what gifts are from them, I’m not against them believing in Santa and having that childhood wonder, but I don’t agree with it being more than a few small gifts…but I also don’t want to ruin their fun and Christmas. Am I the A**hole?”
What do Redditors think?
“No, you’re NTA. Santa doesn’t have to deliver a mountain of presents for the myth and the magic to come across to the kiddos. I agree completely that more harm will be caused by one kid going to school and announcing Santa brought him a PS5 only to make his friend who got a small toy and maybe some clothes wonder why Santa didn’t deliver equally,” said RoamingAmber.
“So true.. my son gets a stocking filled with little toys (probably $5-10 each totally maybe $30?) the rest is labeled from mum and dad. He also asked for socks and undies from Santa so that even easier! Lol We could give him expensive stuff from Santa but I read a post years ago about how a kid was asking his mum why Santa only gave him something like a board game or books or something small but his friend got a PlayStation? And that always stuck with me. I want to keep it as fair as I can. I’ve also been telling my son that Santa had asked us, Nana, granny to get something from the list etc.,” stated shambamalama.
“NTA. My kids are teens now, and we were literally having this exact conversation the other day. If I could go back in time, I would 100% never have the ‘big’ gifts come from Santa. They were always good with our ‘anything can go on the wish list but there are no guarantees what will arrive’ rule, but one year I commented that most of my youngest’s wishes were so so expensive and she said to me ‘that’s okay mama, Santa can pick from that list’ – she was 6! I instantly regretted the way we did Santa and we all agreed to doing it the opposite way when it starts all over again with their own kids lol. Plus, bonus, if Santa isn’t the one that brings the super duper fantastic gifts each year, it makes it much easier for them to accept his non-existence when that day comes (and trust me, THAT can sometimes be a whole different set of problems lol),” explained Pixiestar7.
“I’ve read a lot of stories from parents whose kids have come home saying that Santa got their friend/classmate ‘insert huge/expensive item here’ and why doesn’t Santa like them as much. It really sucks for the parents who can’t afford to ‘keep up with the Joneses.’ You do you, your kids won’t care who the gift is from on Christmas day. You’re a good mom,” said kimothy92.
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