Oh. Okay. That makes sense!
Great topic.
We went last week and this topic never even crossed my mind - I donât even know how Iâd approach the topic with my DS6. He KNOWS Star Wars and Marvel are just movies, but he looked at the characters like he thought they were real. He stared at Kylo Ren and the Stormtroopers like they were truly enemies. When Spider-man came to our table and when we âmetâ Jack Skellington/Sally, his eyes lit up. If I had to guess, I think he knows deep down they arenât real, but he certainly didnât act that way.
I do think he thought Santa was real though.
We donât do Santa at our house, either, but that didnât stop my middle child from believing in him, & even despite her older brotherâs Scrooge-y behavior in telling her he wasnât real.
In our town a local guy dresses his helicopter up in lights as Santaâs sleigh & reindeer and flies around on Christmas Eve. He flew over us when we were out driving, and my daughter nearly came out of her carseat, yelling at her brother, âI told you it was real! I told you he was true!â (She was so excited, she mixed up her adjectives). Her brother sat there in shocked silence all the way to church.
So, (like adults, haha) I think they see things as real if they really want it to be real.
At Disney, they tended to believe that objects, props, special effects etc. were real, not so much the people (partly because our whole family has some degree of Aspergerâs and so relate to objects directly and people somewhat abstractly) because they really wanted it to be real.
I donât think theyâve thought about it much since it happened, but Iâd bet anything that they still think (or want to think) they steered and docked the Liberty Belle, and they are now in their 20âs. When we go back this summer, Iâm going to keep them away from the Captain this time!
This is me, but I can also suspend disbelief for some of the face characters. When we met Peter Pan a few years ago-it really was Peter, Iâm sure of it. also, the real Santa comes to my Starbucks, in case you were wondering.
My daughter is skeptical of the fuzzy characters, but at least at 4, I think she believed in the face characters. For the upcoming trip, sheâs not that into the idea of meeting any non-face ones. I think she knows things arenât real, but like her mom, enjoys pretending theyâre real.
Our daughter (4) knows the fur characters arenât real (and has done for a long time) but still believes the princesses are. She does think Cinderella lives in the castle, and that the 7DMT ride is built around Snow Whiteâs actual house. Santa is absolutely real (and I sooo want her to keep believing that for as long as possible).
Funnily enough, a few trips ago we did the Chewbacca meet ânâ greet for the first time. DH (who has been a huge Star Wars fan since childhood) said afterwards that he actually felt quite emotional - although he obviously knew Chewie wasnât real it still really affected him. I thought that was so sweet!
I have never done a character meet & greet in my life, since the kids never cared. But I personally plan to meet Kylo Ren. Although, I dress up at Rey every Halloween, now. (I used to be Cruella, her personality suits e better). Maybe I should quit being so gendered and just suit up as Kylo.
I support this course of action.
He is oddly terrifying in person.
Yes very intimidating!
I just took my kids to see santa in our town. The usual Santa and Mrs. Claus had been canceled due to rain (I live in a very small town and the one time they are available to be seen it was raining and the event is outside). So we were in a neighboring town doing some other christmas-y things and saw Santa there. Both of my kids said that they would go see this (imposter) Santa, but that he wasnât the ârealâ santa. The ârealâ Santa was the one that had been canceled. âPlenty of people dress up like Santa, mom.â
They are both six. We are taking them to WDW in January and I wonder what itâs going to be like this time. We took them when they were four, and there was no distinction between the ârealâ characters or not ârealâ characters. Now, they are asking questions like âdoes mickey really live there?â âDoes Cinderella really live in that castle?â
I donât want the magic to die yet, so Iâm gently pushing them in the direction of using their imaginations, but it is obvious that they believe some people just âdress upâ as characters/santa. I will report back after we return from our trip.
Agree completely! My 7 yr old is the same as yours (live in his imagination) and when itâs real to him, it is 100% REAL and when theyâre characters, then âitâs just a movie.â When I mentioned eating at Cinderellaâs Royal Table, he said âI would be WAY too nervous!! We would MEET CINDERELLA!?â I Booked Cinderellas Table immediately.
That is really interesting! I mean, we know heâs not really Kylo, but still⌠Now I really want to do it.
I am not a child, but a forty-three-year-old woman. About 5 years ago, one of the local Star Wars Garrisons had some of the characters out at a toy store for a promotion. We saw a couple Storm Troopers out front, but the store was pretty empty. I used to have chronic nightmares about Darth Vader when I was younger and I was wandering through the store with no one near me when all of a sudden he rounded the corner, electronic breathing and all. My heart rate quickened and I jumped about 10 feet in the air. Real or not, all those years fearing him onscreen had conditioned me and my response in that moment was absolutely real, even if he wasnât. Or was he?
I find kids have an AMAZING and enviable ability to both know the truth and jump in the deep end of the fun of imagining. For example, we do Santa but have never lied to our kids about it. Every time they have asked if Santa is real since they were very young, our answer has always been âno but it is fun to pretend he isâ and they just dove right back in to the fun of imagining. The truth never held them back from enjoying it and you would have never known by how they spoke about him, anticipated him, etc. that they knew he wasnât real. I love it!
Wait. What? If she doesnât live there, then where does she live, huh? Answer me that one!
magic, of course
p.s. - clearly I am an embarrassment to my kids (22, 19 & especially the 14 yr old one)
I thought it was because she was RICH!
So far as I can tell, the earliest version of the Cinderella story is set in Italy. So presumably Cindarellaâs castle is there. And the one in Orlando must therefore be a copy. Or a holiday home.
Um. Italy IS in Orlando. You seem to have forgotten: