Santa Claus

This also illustrates to me that the belief has little to do with what the parents say, and that even outright saying "not real" doesn't mean much. This is a societal myth.

santa claus - Page 3 - MotheringDotCommune Forums: "I also felt lied to as a kid about Santa, so decided long before having kids that I wouldn't pretend he was real. Really, I think there are LOTS of reasons not to do Santa, and I could never do it. That said, my four-year-olds completely believe in the guy. This is despite the fact that we've told them it's just a story people like to tell/a game people like to play. This is despite the neighbor kids telling them, 'you know Santa's not real, it's just your parents.' This is despite the fact that they've never been given a gift 'from Santa,' and that we don't even celebrate Christmas. Their best friends believe in Santa, so they do too. They tell us that we're wrong, that Santa *does* bring them presents, and that we've just been tricked into thinking that we got the presents (we give them presents on the solstice). LOL. What more is there for us to say? We certainly aren't going to play the Santa game, but if they want to believe in him, I don't think there's any way for us to stop them. We'll just have to wait until they're old enough to realize how he's logistically impossible."