Last year we mentioned thinking it would be the last Christmas with the kids believing in Santa. This year we had an interesting conversation as my son lost his tooth in the hotel room on the way back from the States to PNG.
son - "well i guess tonight we find out if the tooth fairy comes to hotel rooms"
me - "do you honestly believe in the tooth fairy?"
son - "no, I haven't for a while but I kept pretending so I could get some money."
daughter - "but we believe in Santa"
son - "well I don't."
daughter - "well I don't think Santa comes to Americans but Raquel (finnish friend) saw Santa, and saw an elf coming into our house last christmas.
me - "you tell Raquel, the next time she sees an elf coming into our house, to call security. (jokingly)
daughter - "well, I'm confused because I know Santa isn't real but Raquel has seen him, so I think he's really real for Finland..... or it could be someone dressing up I guess like they do for Americans."
So we put it out on the line there, and the kids were fine with it. They understood, and weren't scarred or damaged about any lies. It seems they had taken Raquel's word over mine for quite some time now. (-;
Our explanation "Santa is a myth that children tell their kids to make things more magical, like the tooth fairy. If you didn't have any reason to look forward to loosing a tooth, then it wouldn't be very fun to lose one would it? And since it is part of the magic, we don't want to ruin the magic for other people by telling them about Santa and ruining it for them.... although apparently that wasn't a concern of Raquel's."
