Do your kids believe in SANTA CLAUS?

I am mother of five children aged between almost 39 and 14 and not once has it ever been discussed that there is no such thing as Santa Claus or Father Christmas because we all know that he truly exists!! I actually 'work for Santa' by helping him sending out personalised letters to children (and adults too) and have done for the last nine years. Many of my orders are to children who are beginning to doubt and I always send special letters to these children explaining how it is up to the older children and adults to keep the magic of Christmas alive. I often send a copy of the famous 'Letter to Virginia'- this is a letter that was published in New York's Sun newspaper in 1897 after eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor saying: [i]DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old. "Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. "Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.' "Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?[/i] This is the lovely answer that was given and which I still quote from today : [i]VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge. Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished. Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world. You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood. [/i] (Taken from http://www.newseum.org/yesvirginia/)

i tried to lure my kids in believing santa in their first few years of life. but it doesnt feel right for me... i dont know... maybe it is just not part of our tradition in our country.. i believe more about jesus mary and joseph... and during christmas, its better to give than to receive. so we wrap anything for everone.. :)

Well my two older kids know that Santa is their father and I. My little guy still believes in Santa though and I hope he does for at least a couple more years. I think most kids find out around 8 years old, because there is alway some blabber mouth kid at school who lets it out of the bag. I always said though if my kids had doubts and they asked that I would tell them the truth and I did with the older two. Hopefully we got a couple more years with the youngest. It works like a charm getting him to go to bed on Christmas Eve telling him if he is not asleep when Santa is in our neighborhood Santa will pass right on by our house.

My children are teenagers now. They are well pas the age of believing in Santa Claus. Christmas time was so much more exciting for them when they did believe. the innocence of children!

My kids are mostly into newer stuff now a days. They just thought of Santa Claus as a kids cartoon character like spongebob

yup! ofcourse i belive santa clause.. since i was a young until now.. i remember every i mean when the december come, we have a santa clause sack, so then every morning i go check it and it has a candy! yummy.. so then when i was grow old now im 22 now i realize that its only my parents who put that..heheheh but i saw the saint name nicholas and it was him the santa clause.. so i belive its true, but he ddint give us like candy or somethng.., but instead of he gave the prayers that we ask from him..

Yeah my 2 kids beleived in Santa Claus when they were still kids. Now that they have grown up, they still ask for their goodies and jokingly would say it's from Santa Claus.

When i was a kid I really believed in Santa Claus,my mother would guide us to make our letter to Santa for gifts that we wanted to received on Christmas and my father would told us that he would mailed the letter, it was really fun and exciting days of my childhood. Now I passed this tradition to my three kids, though they have lots of questions now, they still look forward every christmas eve for the gifts that they would received from Santa.

I am in India and we are not really into Sata Claus, but i was brought up with the magical sense of christmas carols and sata claus presents and i thought it was the best time in my life and so i do everything possible to create the magic for my 5 year old. Last year we bought him a 5 feet stuffed dog and had it packed and put it out in the attic, on christams eve we keep it near the christmas tree and wrote his name of the package. My son was very happy and surprised to see the gift and even wrote a thank note to santa. He is wating for his next year's gift and sata to come soon!!

my mother always told us the real thing about santa and his sleigh. by this, i will also tell my daughter the same thing. i dont believe in him but i value his character in Christmas. He surely make kids smile.

I remember joining my friend during Christmas time, and we watched all of the children open their presents. The smile on their faces are great memories. They would always do their best to make sure they got on the "nice" list. Hopefully I can spend some time with other nieces and nephews when it comes to that time again. Have a great day!