When is the best time to explain the truth about Santa Claus? Psychologists say that the best moment is between 7 and 11 years old, because that is when they are able to better understand the concept of the character, the intention and the reason for its existence.
In those years, there are many who discover it for themselves, but there are others who do not and their parents begin to fear two possible situations: they know it by classmates and feel disappointed or upset, or that the same parents explain and the child reacts badly equally. For this reason, a mother told a few days ago the curious tactic he uses to explain the truth about Santa Claus without breaking his children's hearts.
Are you ready to be a Santa Claus?
His name is Christy Hutchison and we have read your Facebook post on Scary Mommy. In it, this mother wanted to tell how they did it in her family, in what turned out to be a trick that many people like.
As he explained, in his family they decided that a simpler way to explain to children the truth about Santa Claus was to make them understand that this character is not a stranger who gives things to all children without more intention than to make them happy, but a way to talk about good deeds and the true spirit of Christmas.
If a child is already six or seven years old and is prepared, or if he begins to have certain doubts or ask himself questions, because of which he does not add some things, it may be a good time to start this technique.
For this, it is suggested to the mother or father that go for a walk with the child, to play, to snack, in order to have time to talk with him. Then he is told something similar to this: "This year you have grown a lot, don't you think? Not only are you taller, but you have matured a lot and it shows that you have a big heart. I can't forget that one time ... (and here as an example are some situations in which the child did something good, supporting a brother, helping another child, being empathetic, etc.) In fact, I believe that your heart has grown so much, that perhaps you are ready to become in a Santa Claus. "
In Babies and more, is there an age at which children should stop believing in Santa Claus or the Magi?Here the child will obviously be taken aback, totally out of place. That is when we continue discovering what the spirit of Christmas really is:
"It is very possible that you have noticed that the majority of Santa Claus you see are actually people who dress like him. Disguised people. Perhaps even one of your friends has told you that he does not exist. Many children believe that because they are not ready yet to be a Santa Claus, but you are. "
Giving the child the opportunity to be Santa Claus
The technique continues to offer the child the possibility of doing a good work, a gift to someone, to be Santa Claus. He is told that he would have to choose someone he knows, a friend or a neighbor. The mission is secret: that person should not find out, but the child should be able to find out what that person needs and then get it, wrap it and deliver it, so that that person never knows who gave it to him.
Because being Santa is not about giving away to get the gratitude of the other, but giving generously.
The mother says that her oldest son decided to buy from her neighbor, who often saw her barefoot, new shoes. He bought them, wrapped them and left them at his door. When he saw her walking with them he was very excited, so the mother reminded him that he could not reveal the secret because if not, he would not be a good Santa.
Over the years, her children chose new goals to prepare gifts and give them anonymously, and according to mom they have never felt cheated about Santa Claus because in this way they understood that their gifts did not really come from that great character dressed in red, but from other people who chose them as targets to whom to give something without them knowing.
What do you think?
I confess that it seems to me a very nice way to focus on Christmas and the moment of gifts, although if it is going to be done that way we would have to avoid overfeeding Santa's story. There is no point in telling the reindeer theme every year, the "go to sleep soon", "leave cookies and milk" and I don't know how many more stories, if then it is going to be explained that Santa Claus is really a way of naming the spirit Christmas
Maybe it could be done a little like we do in my house, which is a "Neither yes, nor no, not quite the opposite" (and I don't say it's okay, I just tell you how we do it). Santa Claus is coming, but we don't do much paraphernalia. They do not make a letter, they only receive what we buy from among those things that these days insist on having (come on, we filter from what they let us know), and We don't tell them the truth, we don't tell them the lie, basically because one year we realized that it was more difficult for them, especially for the little one, who is now 4 years old, to believe in the truth, than to believe in the illusion. And there are so many inputs they receive about the character in question, that if Dad says that is not true the most logical thing is to think that dad is mad at auction.
So we chose to play to do it, without creating a lot of lies or much mystery around. So, the day they see it smells weird and ask, we can tell them "What about you?", And pull the thread so that, if they want and are capable, they will discover the truth. This, or do what this mom does, play that they can be, if they want, Santa Claus.
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