Every Christmas is different for your child, from the first fascination with the twinkling lights to the inevitable doubting Santa’s existence. Being aware of the different milestones will help keep Christmas a magical time for parents and children alike.
Christmas milestones for the under fives
Everyone loves Christmas but there is no doubt that it’s the children who make it magical and from their very first Christmas, they start on a series of Christmas milestones.
Baby’s first Christmas is often more exciting for parents and family than it is for baby himself. It’s a time when parents can relive the excitement of their own childhood and splash out on loads of toys and Santa-styled babygros. Baby is more interested in reaching for all the glittering baubles and scrunching up the wonderfully crinkly wrapping paper.
By years two and three your toddler has developed a keen sense of what’s normal and there is absolutely nothing normal about sitting on the lap of a total stranger who is dressed in the strangest red suit with a long white hairy thing on his face. In cases like this there is only one thing a child can do. Scream as loud as they can until they’ve been rescued by an extremely flushed and apologetic parent.
By the next year, usually around the age of four, comprehension has set in. Okay, so he might look weird but if you’re good the rewards are stacked up under that tree on Christmas Day. This stage lasts for the next couple of years and for many parents the weeks leading up to Christmas are also a time of bribery. You’d better be good or Santa might not bring you any
presents.
Doubting Santa
The next milestone comes around the age of seven or eight when the words every parent dreads hearing are first uttered. Does Santa really exist? My friend says it’s his dad. These are the first tentative steps into doubting Father Christmas’s existence. However, at this stage children aren’t quite ready to believe that he doesn’t exist and are easily convinced with some quick thinking replies. After all, if Santa doesn’t exist then it means that Mum and Dad have been lying all these years!
The final milestone occurs somewhere between the ages of nine and eleven when parents have to finally own up. By this time children have a pretty good idea anyway and have gone into ‘humouring the parents’ mode. In our article ‘The Santa myth’ we look at whether we should go on perpetuating the myth about Santa because are we lying to our kids?
Tips for tackling tricky questions
There are, of course, plenty of tips to help parents survive the Christmas Milestones.
- Think small for baby’s first Christmas. Buy one or two appropriate toys and one or two mementoes.
- If your toddler is wary of strangers in general don’t try and make him sit on Santa’s knee unless you’re prepared for the inevitable screams. If you have older children let your toddler see them with Santa and gauge his reaction.
- Be prepared for when your child starts to question the existence of Father Christmas. Try not to lie. Children have an uncanny knack of knowing when a parent is lying to them. Tell him that as long as someone believes in Santa he will always exist. It’s the truth and will usually be enough for at least one more year of magic.
- When the time comes to tell the truth, try to do it gently. Make your child feel more grown up, especially if they have younger siblings, by telling them it’s a secret that only big boys and girls know. Let them become involved in wrapping the presents from ‘Santa’ for younger children.
- Most of all, allow your children to enjoy their childhood Christmases because they will never get them back. Let them have that Christmas magic for as long as you can.
