I am struggling with this whole Santa business. As a kid I grew up on Santa, and I was not traumatized or at least I don’t think so when I found out he didn’t exist. My little brain always made me question his existence. But in our family it was so much fun to do Santa. Our tradition was all kids under the age of 16 had to go to bed on New years eve at about 8. This would give the adults time to put together gifts and have a few “drinks.” At about 3 am when the adults were getting tired of partying and all the toys were out they would wake up the kids. When I say wake up I mean wake up. I remember hearing jumping on our roof which I later learned was my uncle on the roof pretending to be Santa. My family would run into the kids room screaming “wake up wake up Santa is here!” We would dart out of bed and run as fast we could to try and catch him of course we never did. But those memories really stand strong in my heart. Here is my problem. I am trying to teach my children that lying is not good. My dad who was not a part of my life as a child, but now we are close. Believes that lying about Santa sets your kids up to except lies in the future. HMMM. He also doesn’t want anyone else taking credit for his hard earned money. HMMM. My hubby does work hard to provide. On top of that I remember my older son asking me all these questions about G-d, and in mid conversation said well is Santa real. HUH! We were just talking about G-d. SOOO with my daughters I haven’t done the Santa thing as much. But somehow Jayden has started believing without my help. She was ranting and raving about Santa and I said where did you get that information from she proudly said “on T.V” What do you do? We were in Lowes in line and Jayden is singing her favorite song “Santa claus is a black man” She is singing loud and proud. My husband almost had a heart attack, as everyone kind of stared at us. LOL. I said to him well he is. In our house anyway! I mean her daddy is in fact Santa. I want her to not only appreciate us, but I don’t want her to one day say you lied about Santa, or worse how do I know G-d is real. So many things. So I am questioning on if, when, and how will I break the news to her? How will my family feel? What new tradition will I set in place? So many things.
Santa Stuggles
Published by Tanyell
My name is Tanyell! I am a Masters Level Marriage and Family Therapist and Life Coach, however I am a writer and photographer at heart! My mission is to help people move beyond the walls in their life, start living outside of the box, and live a nontraditional life in order to reach their full potential and desires! Society has a way of wanting to put us all in these package little boxes and say that this is the only way to achieve happiness and success. We then find ourselves trapped in these boxes with the walls collapsing in on us, I am here to help you break free and get back to your happy!! I am a married to the love of my life, Lani, and together we have 6 awesome, unique, and nontraditional children along with one baby angel! I am an advocate for homeschooling, homebirths, natural births, breastfeeding, co-sleeping, cloth diapering, attachment relationships, attachment parenting, nontraditional living, and keeping your marriage spicy while maintaining your identity as a woman! View all posts by Tanyell
Tanyell Cole 
I feel your pain, Tanyell. I know that our family was a little in shock about our not doing Santa. I'm pretty sure they had never heard of such before. But now that they see that we have so many other fun traditions (like having friends over for caroling, baking gingerbread cookies, and going to community events), I think they see that Christmas is a load of fun without the lie. My husband and I fully intend to do the waking the kids up in the middle of the night thing despite our lack of Santa! Who says they can't get up in the middle of the night just for fun. And since he always works during the holidays, we have to do our Christmas a lot earlier so that daddy doesn't miss a thing. That's fine with me! Just makes the holiday last longer. I know that you will decide what is best for your family and I applaud you for questioning authority in hopes of doing the right thing for your children!
I understand what you are saying. For some odd reason AJ still beleives in Santa at the age of 12. I did not realize it until we were talking about flying home to Detroit from St. Louis. In the conversation he said \”when we were driving home last year on Christmas Eve, I bet Santa was flying over us.\” My mouth dropped opened. I immediately told him Santa is not real and that I could not believe that he still believe in Santa at 12. Of course him being the stubborn child with a mind of his own he tells me that Santa is real. I told my mother about this and she told me, she too, believe in Santa at the age of 12. I, of course laughed at her.