Things to Tell Children Who Don’t Believe in Santa 

Every single Christmas, we get at least one email from a parent whose child is still very young, but who has stopped believing in Santa.  Often this is because of something that has been said at school, or by an elder brother or sister, or sometimes, because they have caught sight of their presents being delivered.   This article has been written in the hope of helping parents to combat the doubt which ensues.    We hope you find it helpful.   

Before you carry on reading, be assured... in one way or another everyone on the Interletter team still believes in Father Christmas! 

Question:  Why doesn’t Santa visit grown-ups?

Answer:  He does, provided they’ve been good of course!  And he still brings presents sometimes too, it’s just that they’re not the sorts of presents you can see.  For example, Santa might send them a happy dream as he flies over their houses on Christmas Eve, or he might sprinkle a bit of lucky fairy dust down one of their chimneys, so that at least one nice thing will happen to them over the Christmas holidays.  He doesn’t bring them presents they can actually see because a lot of grown-ups don’t believe in him and if they found a present at the end of their bed on Christmas morning, they would probably be frightened and think someone had broken into their house!  Santa would never want to frighten anybody. 

Statement: I saw the present Santa bought me before Christmas, hidden in my house.

Response: So what?  I expect that Santa’s storerooms were full and he asked one of the grown-ups in your house if he could put it there until Christmas.  He has a very, very large house up at the North Pole, but it isn’t infinitely big.  After all, think how many children there are in the world!  Sometimes he has to borrow a bit of extra storage space from anyone who’ll to let him have it.  Obviously, one of the grown-ups in your house has been kind enough to help Santa out. 

Statement: My brother/sister/friend says Santa doesn’t exist and that it’s just my mum or dad.  My brother/sister/friend has even seen a mum or dad leaving the presents out on Christmas Eve.

Response:  Well, really you should feel a bit sorry for your brother/sister/friend.  They’ve obviously missed the point and misunderstood.  First of all, they clearly think that believing in Santa is just about getting presents.  It isn’t, that’s just a very small part of what Santa does.  Secondly, even if we’re only talking about the presents bit, Santa often asks grown-ups who believe in him to help him out if he needs to, especially on Christmas Eve.  There are lots of grown-ups who even prefer it that way.  For example, imagine if your mum or dad had just got your house all nice and clean for Christmas and Santa arrived with his boots all covered in mud and snow.  Well, he always thinks of others you see, so if he could see that one of your parents had gone to that much trouble, he would simply tap on their window and hand the presents over, rather than leave puddles all over the floor.  In that case, it would be your mum or dad who actually put your presents somewhere to find on Christmas morning, wouldn’t it?  While Santa himself would already be outside taking off again with all his reindeer.