How do I explain the different Santa's every year?

You explain that when she asks about it. Looks like you've got a year to not worry about it.

Maybe they don't get a new Santa at the White House every year. Maybe the same person has been playing Santa for a long time. If there is a different Santa there, how do you know she'll remember enough about his face from the age of 5 and 6 to say "this isn't the same person"? From what you said, it looks like the "proof" to her is more about the fact there was a workshop there.

The reason there is a flaw in her belief is because she (right now) believe in something that isn't real. It's inherently flawed because it involves telling her untruths to get her to keep believing.

If there were proof, it wouldn't be called "believing."

Are you saying the word believe means there is no proof?

I believe the planets in this solar system revolve around the sun, and that water and wind erosion formed the Grand Canyon. I believe water droplets in the air, and the sun shining on them at just the right angle, compared to where I'm standing, form the beautiful colors of a rainbow.

With my own kids, I went with the Santa's helpers explanation. As for her
assurance that she knows which one is real, I'd tell her I just didn't know.

I was about five when I figured out that Santa wasn't real. Since my parents were divorced that year, my sisters told me to fake believing that Santa was real when dealing with my father when having our second Christmas of that year.

huh, I understand what you're saying tsar.

When a child is ready to unbelieve, but has to fake it, that can be quite stressful to the child, for the sake of the parents, to make them happy and feel like they are raising a carefree, willing to believe anything child.

I think we adults have a built in forgetter as far as remembering how savvy little kids are, and how they are capable of putting two and two together.

No idea when I stopped believing in Santa or the Easter bunny or other supposed items. Maybe always. Of course when living over a synagogue it's kind of hard to sneak Santa in so that may have been the start of it.

As very young children grow, they become more keen in discerning fact from fantasy. They also develop constructs such as being skeptical. Having older siblings may hasten thinking such as this, and I find that sad. Most children under seven do not need a keen sense of skepticism; yes, soon, later they will.

Let him believe his heart; we do, let him. Is it that important to make him know that all goodness comes from God, and only God when he's just a toddler? A time will come when he 'bites the apple', and begins to know good and evil, (beyond right from wrong). Only by then will he grasp the construct of salvation. He already been to church, he's heard of Jesus; then it will be time to introduce him to Christ, the Redeemer.


Hey, if you don't want your child to believe in Santa, nip it right in the bud. Have him bah-humbug from the start, and denounce the commercialism from the get-go. But, IMO, that's no way to raise a Republican.