SPOILER ALERT: Please stop reading if you still believe in the Jolly Father Christmas and his mince pie loving ways.

Ok, so I don’t BUT I really wish I did. I mean who doesn’t want to believe that some Santa flies through the sky to deliver you everything on your wish list?

This year the girls have really got in to the whole Father Christmas thing. It’s probably the first year Molly really has and she is now five. Alice has of course got caught up in the excitement too. There is something so magical about watching their little faces as they wrote their letters and talk about what he is bringing. It does have it’s downside though. Apparently, Father Christmas is bringing Daddy a Tortoise so hoping they won’t be too disappointed when that doesn’t appear on Christmas morning. It most definitely isn’t.

As I sat wrapping the presents the other night I had a little panic when I realised that in my cold fuddled mess I had wrapped the presents from us in the same paper as the presents from Santa. Would they notice? Do I really need to rewrap everything or will they be too busy tearing the paper off to notice? Arghhh. I really don’t want to ruin the Father Christmas thing yet so hoping I can brush it off if Molly does mention it. She’s so blinking on the ball that I’m scared she will.

This got me thinking, how long have I got till they stop believing? I really don’t want it to end and I know they are only small but those years fly by so quickly.

I was 7 when I found out (only 2 years left for Molly on that count then). My darling 9 year old sister woke me at midnight Christmas Eve to inform me that ‘Father Christmas isn’t real. It’s Martin’ (our stepdad). Apparently she had caught him filling the stockings and just like that the illusion was shattered. What a way to put a damper on Christmas morning!

So how did you, or your children, find out that Santa wasn’t real and how long do you hope you can keep your little one’s believing?