Elf on the Shelf <\/a>a couple days ago, and had mentioned my own experience with my kids: \u00a0the middle one figured out that Santa wasn\u2019t real on his own, the older one was a bit too credulous and had to be told, and the youngest found out before his classmates because the aforementioned middle child was old enough to figure out Santa, but not old enough to understand \u201ckeep quiet about it for your brother.\u201d <\/p>\nMy view has always been, in general, that once begins asking things like \u201chow does Santa deliver presents to all those children?\u201d or, more awkwardly, \u201cwhy did that TV commercial\/church announcement ask us to donate Christmas presents to poor children? \u00a0Won\u2019t they get presents from Santa?\u201d the jig is up. <\/p>\n
But lately I\u2019ve been reading articles (no, I don\u2019t have any links, but you know you\u2019ve read these articles, too) about the how and when of children figuring this out, and it feels like more and more parents are determinedly attempting to keep their children \u201cin the dark\u201d for as long as possible. \u00a0It seems to me that the parents who insist on this are often the ones who don\u2019t offer their children anything else to believe in; that is, they\u2019re secular families who only play Santa at Christmas but have no religious beliefs \u2014 but that might be a gross generalization\/completely wrong (and, of course, plenty of secular families are determined that their children believe in nothing supernatural at all, ever, and many families of all stripes are now increasingly worried about \u201clying to\u201d their children).<\/p>\n
The other thing that irks me is messages like \u201cSanta Claus is real because: True Spirit of Christmas.\u201d \u00a0How about, \u201cwe pretend Santa Claus brings the presents because we know that when you\u2019re little, you can\u2019t understand about a gift exchange, or how much presents cost, or that parents can\u2019t just buy everything you ask for, so it\u2019s better that you think they magically appear.\u201d<\/p>\n
How about you? \u00a0Will\/did Santa Claus visit your home?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
not for elementary-age children, and certainly not for adults. I griped about the Elf on the Shelf a couple days ago, and had mentioned my own experience with my kids: \u00a0the middle one figured out that Santa wasn\u2019t real on his own, the older one was a bit too credulous and had to be told, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[107,104],"class_list":["post-146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christmas","tag-santa-claus"],"yoast_head":"\n
Santa Claus is for preschool children<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"not for elementary-age children, and certainly not for adults. I griped about the Elf on the Shelf a couple days ago, and had mentioned my own experience\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/12\/santa-claus-is-for-preschool-children.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Santa Claus is for preschool children\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"not for elementary-age children, and certainly not for adults. I griped about the Elf on the Shelf a couple days ago, and had mentioned my own experience\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/12\/santa-claus-is-for-preschool-children.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-12-24T03:24:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-02-25T05:28:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/12\/santa-claus-is-for-preschool-children.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/12\/santa-claus-is-for-preschool-children.html\",\"name\":\"Santa Claus is for preschool children\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-12-24T03:24:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-02-25T05:28:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\"},\"description\":\"not for elementary-age children, and certainly not for adults. I griped about the Elf on the Shelf a couple days ago, and had mentioned my own experience\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/12\/santa-claus-is-for-preschool-children.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/12\/santa-claus-is-for-preschool-children.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/12\/santa-claus-is-for-preschool-children.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Santa Claus is for preschool children\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jane the Actuary\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Santa Claus is for preschool children","description":"not for elementary-age children, and certainly not for adults. I griped about the Elf on the Shelf a couple days ago, and had mentioned my own experience","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/12\/santa-claus-is-for-preschool-children.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Santa Claus is for preschool children","og_description":"not for elementary-age children, and certainly not for adults. I griped about the Elf on the Shelf a couple days ago, and had mentioned my own experience","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/12\/santa-claus-is-for-preschool-children.html","og_site_name":"Jane the Actuary","article_published_time":"2014-12-24T03:24:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-02-25T05:28:38+00:00","author":"Jane the Actuary","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jane the Actuary","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/12\/santa-claus-is-for-preschool-children.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/12\/santa-claus-is-for-preschool-children.html","name":"Santa Claus is for preschool children","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-12-24T03:24:00+00:00","dateModified":"2015-02-25T05:28:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a"},"description":"not for elementary-age children, and certainly not for adults. I griped about the Elf on the Shelf a couple days ago, and had mentioned my own experience","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/12\/santa-claus-is-for-preschool-children.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/12\/santa-claus-is-for-preschool-children.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/12\/santa-claus-is-for-preschool-children.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Santa Claus is for preschool children"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/","name":"Jane the Actuary","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a","name":"Jane the Actuary","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jane the Actuary"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}