No Santa?

[ladydi]

I teach second grade. I have a class that is of many religions. It seems that some of my students tell the others that there is no such thing as Santa Claus. The children that still believe come to me for the truth. How can I handle this? I don't feel comfortable saying anything. This is a family issue.

 

[cvt]

family issue

My first graders do the same. I tell them some people believe and some don't, but that it is something they have to ask their parents because they will know.

 

[Bertie]

Santa

I tell my kids that I believe in Santa and that's why he comes to my house.

 

[teach2all]

This comes up

a lot, either w/ Santa, tooth fairy, etc. I just remind my class that we all believe different things and try to leave it at that.

 

[mitchus]

My reply

I got this a lot with also the Easter Bunny, leprechauns, the toothfairy etc. I always said things like. You know, I was just never one of the lucky ones to catch a glimpse, but I always got a treat somehow. It seemed to work. Most of them would tease me by saying something like, Ha, ha! I saw him before and you didn't even get to.

 

[kali]

Believe in your imagination

This even comes up in Kindergarten where some kids with older siblings have heard this mean rumor about Santa not being real. I tell my kids that they can believe anything they want about things and to believe in the power of their imagination!

To this day my husband teases me by saying.."gnomes are not real." I LOVE gnomes and I believe they are real in my imagination.

 

[2ndGradeDeb]

I also tell students that different people believe in different things and that is okay! I also say that I like to believe!

 

[briteach]

Santa

Our school policy is to say that it's the family's decision. It's hard explaining that to kids though.

I accidentally dropped the bomb on a student one year. I was flustered and just piped up, "We all know Santa isn't real." Yikes. Definitely got a phone call about that one.

 

[Cathy-Dee]

No Santa

This is an issue for many grades.

I just tell my students that there are many things that we believe in when others do not. I teach grade 3 and I think for grade 2 upwards you can have a discussion about "believing". When the topic comes up I lead my class into a discussion about who are other people we believe in (or things) and of course we get a huge list (leprechauns, the Easter bunny, Santa, elves, tooth fairy) and sometimes God is mentioned as well.

We talk about how everyone has to decide for themselves if they believe or want to believe in Santa, the tooth fairy and even God. And then I emphasize the fact that it is ok to believe and it is ok not to believe and we have to respect everyone's choices.

I tell them that I believe in Santa and what he means - giving to others, being good, sharing. For those who are not sure, they are happy with this "choice". For those who do not want to believe they at least usually quit talking about it as much and those who do believe are happy they can keep on believing.