need advice! My 10 y.o. son found my dd's biggest Christmas gift! ( Santa warning, censor!) About This Page:

[MsODancr]

I am so upset... I was downstairs on the computer at 11pm, and he was supposedly in bed, when he came down and said he found her Christmas gift, it was the biggest one, and it was supposed to be from Santa!!! ( a Little Mermaid beauty table thingie) Ugh, I am so frustrated. I yelled and screamed at him, ( luckily, my 5 y.o. was sound asleep, so she knows nothing of this) and told him that he was in huge trouble, and shouldn't be going through my things. ( it was hidden pretty good, so he was definitely snooping.)

He just caught the bus to school, and I know he is on the borderline of not believing, but this is so frustrating. When my 13 y.o. realized that I am Santa, she just kept her mouth shut. ( smart girl)

Any tips or suggestions?

Thanks.....

[img]/ubb/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

[maggieworkman]

No tips. One time my girls and the neighbors were playing hide and seek in the basement and one of them found the gifts. Luckily they were wrapped. One of the neighbors told everyone that the parents are Santa. Luckily my older DD convinced my younger DD and my niece that those were gifts we were sending to Florida for my other nieces and nephews.

So I have been there, done that.

Do you open anything on Christmas Eve? Can you make that from mommy and daddy??

Your 10 yo is probably on the border of believing anyway (especially if he was snooping). But at least make sure he doesn't tell your younger one. In our house we all "pretend". I still say, "Be good or Santa won't bring you any gifts." The girls all "know" now, but they still go along with it. It may change, though, when my Dniece finds out. Then they will all "know".

Maggie

[krisk11]

I guess it's time to tell him the truth and tell him to keep his mouth shut to his little sister.

[loobyoxlip]

I would say Santa gave you the $ and you bought it. Santa's magic bag can only hold so much, so he asks us parents for help with the bigger items [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[DrDolphin]

I like Tina's idea!!

My niece just asked my sister about Santa...

[NanaTink]

[ QUOTE ]
Your 10 yo is probably on the border of believing anyway (especially if he was snooping). But at least make sure he doesn't tell your younger one. In our house we all "pretend".

[/ QUOTE ]
[img]/ubb/images/graemlins/yeahthat.gif[/img]


My kids have still never told me they don't believe...and they are 25 and 24! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/rofl2.gif[/img] I have a shirt that says "If you don't believe in Santa, you get Underwear" that I wear every Christmas Eve!...Now we begin again with DGD! I can't wait! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smileysanta.gif[/img]

[jams67]

I tell my kids there are many children in the world that Santa helps so he called me asking if I could help him. I try to make a big deal about Santa calling me asking for help and pushing the goodness aspect. I do tell them though they have to get their list approved by Santa though, so they do visit him and tell him what they want. Now if I could just get the Santa in the mall to go along with it.

Julie

[RobDVC]

To put our kids off the trail, we started a few years ago putting gifts under the tree from Mom&Dad to them before Christmas along with our gifts to each other.....
I'm already prepared for when Joseph figures it out.....
I'm going to tell him "If you ruin Santa Claus for Nicholas, I'll ruin Christmas for you."

[Happymommy]

My 6yo found all of our gifts last week (I wanted to cry and throw up at the same time). I was running around last week (while 6yo was in school) and I had to run in my closet to get my jacket (I have a baby guard on doorknob so they can't open). Anyway while grabbing my jacket my 3yo was running around, and I had to go grab him (and forgot to close the bedroom door. When my 6yo came home he went upstairs to play and my cousin called and I was talking to her. He came downstairs and said "mommy your closet door was open and I saw everything in it"-- I literally almost threw up.. Luckily after interrogating him fairly gently, I realized everything was a few toys (that really excited him) in one open bag-- luckily two of them were for my nephew anyway. Now, everything was in bags and all of the bags literally closed up and heaped one on top of each other-- I know he didn't go through the bags. I kept asking him what did you see?? What did you see? He saw one open bag-- it had a few presents in it. I explained that not everything comes from Santa, mommy and daddy like to give them a few presents too when we see something we know that they would love (just like grandparents and aunts and uncles give presents). I explained that those presents were from mommy and daddy, and I shouldn't have left that door open. And he got a big smile and said-- don't worry "I didnt' see a thing." Honestly all the other bags were closed up and one on top of the other, I'm really certain he didn't see anything else (including the two scooters in back of all of the bags). He asked what was in the other bags and I explained its all of the presents were giving to his grandparents and aunts and uncle and cousins (luckily there were a few of those in the front and I pulled them out and showed him)-- he was pretty satisfied with that. I wanted to cry because I thought I ruined everything, but you would not believe the relief I felt when I realized it wasn't as bad as I first though. Next year-- back in the attic. But I wanted to keep everything in the closet so I could wrap a little at a time rather than bringing everything down after they're in bed on Christmas eve and staying up until 5am wrapping.

[Teresa]

Tell him. At 10, he probably already knows anyway. My kids all figured it out by 8. It was tough when the last one stopped "believing", but that led to a discussion (just last year, btw) about how there's a little Santa in all of us, that's the feeling you get when you give someone a gift and know that you picked it out with them in mind. That's Santa.
A friend of mine has done a very elaborate job of not letting her kids know. different paper for Santa gifts, Santa's name tags are print-out labels, Santa gifts have ribbons and bows, mom and dad's don't. Worked really well - too well. Her kids were in their TEENS and still believers. Caused quite a few fights at school. They finally had to tell them because of that (and it gets exhausting to keep up the pretense for that many years)

One thing - if you do tell him, reassure him that it won't affect HIS gifts in any way. Found out last year that my then 7 yr. old had known (or at least suspected) for 3 yrs. She was afraid to tell us, because she figured we'd not give her as many gifts. I'm glad she didn't tell.
They'll still get gifts from Santa. And, in our house, they also get from The Easter Bunny, Jack Frost, The Tooth Fairy, and Bigfoot!!

[eff051102]

Good luck in dealing with your 10 y.o.!

My mom would tell us that if we went snooping and found anything....that present went back to the store the next day or was donated to another child. It stoped the snooping let me tell you.

[KrisLuvsDisney]

A friend of mines daughter did this same thing this past Thursday night. She had ordered her an American Girl doll, the bed, bedding, and clothes and her DD found it all! Her DD is 9 and she considered telling her DD that she and daddy were Santa [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/eek.gif[/img]

I told her to please not do this as her DD would definately tell my DD. My DD is 10 and still believes and I want to hold on to that as long as I can! I told my friend if she did tell her DD the truth, I would deny it so the Santa part of Christmas is still "magical" for my DD! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502yes_prv.gif[/img]

[Grammy Grumpy]

Act surprised but tell him that Santa has to "stage" some gifts over his route and that he will be there to put them under the tree on Christmas Eve!

[dejavu]

You could change things up a bit and not have the biggest gift be from Santa. We've always had several gifts from us to each child, and then one nice gift from Santa. But if there is something special they really want, it comes from us.

[JaimeandChad]

I have always told my kids DD 3 and DS 6 that Santa is able to give all the gifts in a single night by making sure Mommy and Daddy have exactly the money for exactly what they want. It doesn't sound right here, but actually it is more of an answer to how can Santa do all of this in one night. I say well Santa works his magic by relying on Mommies and Daddies to actually get the presents and wrap them (Also to explain the same wrapping paper) Santa can make sure everybody gets their one present from Santa. So Santa works his magic by giving Mommy and Daddy extra money.

One of my closest friends has never let her child (11)believe in Santa. She has always said that would be lying and she never wants to lie to him.

So now that I've bored everyone. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/fairy2.gif[/img] on what you decide to tell your DS. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smileysanta.gif[/img]