So now that the Easter bunny has been and gone...

[Trac]

have any of you with older children brought up the fact of who exactly the Easter bunny (&/or Santa) is? DS is now 8.5, and still seems to wholeheartedly believe in the existence of both. For me, it's starting to feel less like a fun thing to do, and more like a blatant lie. I think if/when he finds out from a friend at this point, he'll feel embarrassed and betrayed by us. Is it time for me to sit down with him, and tell him the truth? Or should I just allow him to believe as long as he believes? What have others done, and how did it all work out?

[moss]

my ds is the same age as yours and still believes. i dont want to ruin the magic for him, but have dropped a few clues here and there. he knows that some of his friends dont believe but it's not a big deal really. if he ever did get mad about being 'lied' to, i'd probably tell him about the yes, virginia there is a santa claus story, etc. my dh said that he was a couple of years older than this when he found out, and was glad that he didnt fnid out at a younger age

[phathui5]

I'd just let him believe it for as long as he wants to. My nine year old told me last night that he knows that the Easter Bunny is fake, but that he still wants a Easter basket and that he's going to keep it going for the little kids (6, 4, 2).

[MommytoB]

I actually had told brendan the whole truth but with grandparents outdoing it makes him believe that Easter Bunny Shows up at my house or grandma's house.

So I say B we are going to do an egg hunt where he can wake up finding eggs and I never mentioned bunny at any of the Years but his grandma did .

So then I feel bad for playing along when grandparents are doing it !!!!!!!! Then it's like even at xmas time when I tried to tell him but he still believed .

So now he said when candy , eggs, money , chocolate , transformers, hot wheel truck, that the easter bunny got them for him saying He came sigh even after i just mention it's just an treat/prize hunt beforehand !

[SunshineJ]

The Easter Bunny has never been a really big deal at our house. Yeah, he shows up, and yeah they get stuff, but it's no where near on scale with Santa! This year the kids knew that I was the one hosting the egg hunt. 15 kids, 428 eggs sitting in a bin in the living room, it wasn't a secret. Yesterday as I brought in the baskets I "found" in the garage, I was totally busted by the 5 and 7 yr old! Their reasoning was that since the EB didn't really hide the eggs, then he didn't really bring the baskets. I'd also told them the legend of Ostara a week or two ago, which I think helped it click for them. They were totally not upset, kind of smirky that they figured it out, and we had a great discussion about why we follow the traditions we do when there isn't really an EB. No idea if they'll catch on in December as well, but for now, this was separate from Santa.

[karne]

We did all the Easter stuff this year and I never mentioned the Easter Bunny as an option to ds, 7. Middle school dd has known for a while. It changes absolutely nothing about what we do-baskets, candy, egg hunt, etc. We do it all. This year dh and I just didn't have it in us to trot out the Easter Bunny story-it feels very young, and not much fun anymore-more like work to keep up a facade. It's hard to explain, but it didn't feel "right" this year, and I don't think anyone missed it.

[meemee]

since i fix easter bfast at church we usually do our egg hunt there. personal egg hunt. not church organised. yesterday there were some kids so i did a hunt including them too.

dd didnt buy it. no way was that easter bunny. mind you i have never ever proposed teh story of easter bunny. its something seh picked up from teh kids and love it. so i tried telling her that it was easter bunny who did it but she wouldnt buy it. seh wanted to run home adn see what the easter bunny had left her.

YIKES!!!! thankfully my friend was not doing anything so he went and hung out with dd while i went to walmart (for the first time ever - it was not too far away and most other places were closed) and bought her a bunch of items stuffed in this organiser for her art supplies. no candy.

OMG you should have seen her. seh was jumping and squealing and was soooooooooo excited. it wasnt so much the things but the thought the easter bunny put into getting her thinkgs that tickled her she looooooooooooved the ball of yarn and crochet hook.

and me? i loooooooooooooooooooooooooved the shopping and looking for items she might like. i was so grateful my friend was avaiable to help. it was a GREAT easter.

my dd i know knows better but seh wants to believe. so i am not stopping her. she even believes in fairies and even has convinced her bf that they exist. the issue is not that they do or they dont.

for her its the magic.

[LynnS6]

Well, our ds has had the information and has apparently rejected it. He asked me two years ago when he was 7 whether I was Santa Clause. I asked him what he thought, and for the first time he said "I think you are". I then told him I was, and we talked about why I did that (it's fun to pretend something magical). He even made the jump from Santa not being real to Jesus not being real.

But the way he was talking about the Easter Bunny and Santa this year makes me think he either still believes or he's playing it safe and pretending to believe. Ordinarily, I'd say he was just pretending, but a couple of things he's said sound a lot like he believes. He could be completely snowing me, but he's not that kind of kid, usually.

I feel no need to enlighten him. The world loses it's magic pretty soon anyway.

[choli]

Originally Posted by LynnS6

Well, our ds has had the information and has apparently rejected it. He asked me two years ago when he was 7 whether I was Santa Clause. I asked him what he thought, and for the first time he said "I think you are". I then told him I was, and we talked about why I did that (it's fun to pretend something magical). He even made the jump from Santa not being real to Jesus not being real.

But the way he was talking about the Easter Bunny and Santa this year makes me think he either still believes or he's playing it safe and pretending to believe. Ordinarily, I'd say he was just pretending, but a couple of things he's said sound a lot like he believes. He could be completely snowing me, but he's not that kind of kid, usually.

I feel no need to enlighten him. The world loses it's magic pretty soon anyway.

FWIW, many of my friends pretended to believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny long after they knew better. Mainly because they were afraid that the quantity/quality of the gifts would go down

[Ahimsa]

I just let DS (5) believe. If he asks questions I ask him what he thinks the answer is. I try to let him have the fun of believing without overdoing it. When he gets to the point of asking me, I might say it is a fun game or something like that.

[Irishmommy]

Originally Posted by choli

FWIW, many of my friends pretended to believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny long after they knew better. Mainly because they were afraid that the quantity/quality of the gifts would go down

Dd2 is almost 10, still believes in both. But she has a 15yo sister that she sees getting the same stuff, so I don't think she's afraid of losing out. Dh has made a couple of accidental comments about the Easter egg hunt, but she doesn't seem to have picked up on them.

[JayGee]

DS is 8 1/2. Yesterday, after the egg hunt, I said to all the kids, "Did the Easter Bunny do a good job?" And he muttered back, "More like the Easter Mommy". So we had a little chat with him about not ruining the fun for his little sisters. AFAIK, he still believes in Santa though.

[mamababamba]

Ds is also 8.5 yrs and knows many friends don't believe. We still enjoy hiding his easter basket stuff and he keeps it going with I think a bit of a wink wink.....I hope we have left enough leeway that the truth will eventually just lie in the magic of he and his parents celebrating the seasons with some fairytale fun thrown in.

[greenbeanmama]

We chose not to "believe" in Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy. We didn't want our children making the jump of Santa isn't real, so neither is God. We still do stockings, but we don't mention Santa. Same with Easter baskets. So far, at three, my son can't understand for the life of him why someone would dress up in a Santa costume and hand out candy canes at the mall. He knows he's associated with Christmas, but also knows he's pretend.

The biggest problem we've run into is my husband's brother and his wife. They want the magic to last AS LONG AS POSSIBLE for their daughter (20 months). They have brought it up at every single visit that our children better not ruin it for their daughter. Or else. Yikes - I didn't realize that the Tooth Fairy was a matter of life or death! Fortunately, my son is fine playing along with their "pretend game". At least at this point in time...

[lonegirl]

We never even mentioned the Easter Bunny. He watched Peter Cottontail many times...but on Easter morning I handed him his basket of goodies and he thanked me or getting him all the Easter eggs and fun stuff...The day before Easter our well meaning neighbour asked who was coming...he said "grandad" She was like "Oh grandad? That's nice. But who is coming tomorrow to your house? Is the Easter Bunny coming?" his response was "No, grandad is coming"

[A&A]

ds (almost 8) has decided that I'm the Tooth Fairy and his dad is the Easter Bunny. He still believes in Santa, though.

[Danielle283]

We did the Easter Bunny thing this year, then the next day at preschool DD's classmate told her he wasn't real. She asked me about it and I kinda told her the truth in a round about way. I told her some families choose to pretend that he's real and some don't and both ways are fine. If she wanted the Easter Bunny to be real in her family then he could be. She still believes in Santa and we haven't gotten to the Tooth Fairy yet, she's only 5.