My daughter is seven, and I think told us earlier this year that she knows who “Santa” really is, but she also has a little brother (4 at the time, recently turned 5), she seems to be keeping up the Santa mythos for his sake (as she told us when she “discovered” Santa that she would - she’s even starting to convince me that she still believes hearing her talk to her little brother.
BTW both of them (but especially our son) when they say grace, even since at least September, have been saying “and thank You for the North Pole” (which was a bit confusing to hear back in September … )
That’s nothing - I saw Rudolf’s nose! Looked out the bedroom window and there it was, up in the sky, red and flashing on and off. (Nothing to do with the nearby airport.)
Worked the truth out for myself when I was seven, but still had to negotiate for a few days with the thought that this revelation might put paid to the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny.
My parents were downright militant about it. When my brother started expressing doubts, he was threatened with no presents-- Santa only delivers to kids who believe in him, after all. I was also sternly warned, under pain of punishment, not to dissuade my brother from his belief in Santa.
The funny thing is, though they expected us to believe the whole Santa mythos, they made no effort to cover up their own involvement on it. Presents “from Santa” would be under the tree days or weeks before Christmas Eve, with the tags clearly in my mom’s handwriting. Way to think things through, Mom. :rolleyes:
I believed in Santa and his infinitely fast flying reindeer with all my heart until I was seven.
I never believed in Santa’s elves, though. A race of short pointy-eared magical creatures whose only purpose in life is to make toys? Obviously absurd.
For those of you who did not grow up believing in Santa, how did your parents explain the whole idea of Santa to you?
I believed until I was about 4 years old. My mom came and explained to me all somberly that Santa wasn’t really real, and I said “I know, Mom. There’s no way that could have worked the way you said it did.”
I believed in something else, not just Santa. Santa wears anti-tropical clothes and likes snow. No snow in the tropics. No chimneys, either. Santa was a fake. Now, Baby Jesus…
Camels and a baby born in a manger are much more easily believable in the tropics.
We just had Santa as part of the tradition, like the Easter Bunny. I explained this to a colleague, who told me immediately that they also believed in the Easter Bunny as a child, something I didn’t know anyone did.
This blew my mind.
Anyway, he was presented as a fictional character like in a nursery rhyme. Santa was by no means portrayed as evil or taking away from Jesus’ birthday. We just didn’t actually believe in him or his ability to bring gifts.
Like I said, we went to the mall and did the whole “tell Santa what you want” thingy, but our gifts were labeled “From Mom and Dad” or “From your brother” and so forth.
I did, until I was 6 years old, and, while idly examining a globe, noticed there was no land at the North Pole, such that any castle or other heavy structure would soon sink thru the ice. I confidently announced to my parents my conclusions, which amazed them a little.
Hmm I wonder how well this myth will work once the arctic ocean is ice free year round? Will we have to relocate Santa off to the South Pole or something?
My sister’s kids believed until ages 12-13-my nephew got really mad at them. My niece, who still believes at age 11, thinks Santa sent her (last year) the loving Shih Tzu she constantly dotes over.
My mom was definitely into the whole Santa thing, but I quit believing so early that I don’t even really remember believing. I have a vague memory of buying into Mom’s threats that if I didn’t behave, I’d get coal in my stocking, but I was really young, maybe 4 years old. (Possibly even 3.)
As for not lying to my kids, here is a discovery I have made. I have never lied to my kids about Santa. Not once. I have never said that Santa is real, or that Santa is coming, or anything like that. However, both my 7-year-old and 5-year-old appear to believe in Santa anyway. The schools, TV shows, other kids, and books have done the job pretty effectively. When they say things like, “I wonder if Santa will come to our house on Christmas Eve,” I say, “Hmm. Do you think he will?” and then they go off on a lengthy explanation of exactly when, where, and how Santa will show up, with no further input needed from me.
For me, it’s win-win. I don’t lie to them, but they still get to do the whole Santa thing. If asked directly, I plan to say, “What do you think?”
This also has amazed me. I teach 7th grade and most kids only stopped believing in Santa around 5th grade. As a kid, I thought other kids who believed in Santa stopped around 1st grade, or even younger.
I stopped believing at around… hmm… 8 or 9? I wasn’t told officially until I was 10, but I figured it out without telling my parents before that. I don’t know, I wasn’t never really adamant “SANTA!” or “BABY JESUS!”, so keeping it up or stop disbelief didn’t affect me either way.
One year I got a bike. I saw the bike some days before. I put two and two together.
By then I was "Oh it’s my parents? Oh well, I still get the present. " As long as there is family and food, Christmas is alright for me.
When I was a kid, I had ironclad empirical proof of the existence of the tooth fairy (basically, I could account for the location of every relative who might have done it between the time when the tooth was there, and the time when the coin was there), and I figured that if something as implausible as the Tooth Fairy could exist, then Santa didn’t seem such a big stretch.
My boss at my last job found himself in this position, with his only child, a then-11-year-old girl, still believing (or hopefully, at least claiming to because she wanted presents and thought she had to claim belief, or not wanting to hurt her parents’ feelings). I don’t know how it worked itself out in the end, but I do know he said that she knew many other kids didn’t believe and she thought they were just mean or deluded. He was kicking himself for not sitting her down about 5 years prior and giving her the “Santa is very special and in everyone’s hearts” talk or at least letting himself get “caught” putting presents under the tree.
My parents raised my sister and I to think of Santa as being like a very special fairy tale, and that many kids really believed in Santa so we shouldn’t be mean and ruin it, but that he wasn’t actually real. The whole “Santa dwells in all of our hearts/spirit of giving/Saint Nicholas” tie-in thing. I only learned that because as an adult I realized that I don’t remember actually ever really really believing in Santa, so I asked my mom how we learned he wasn’t real, and she explained what the situation had been.
I remember one year that I definitly believed. I forced myself to stay awake and then I heard him on my roof(probably a cat IRL), the sound didn’t come back but I knew Santa was within feet of me.
It was one the most magical and exciting moments in my life and also my strongest childhood memory.
That’s hilarious. “And if you check the Sunday circular for sales each week, Santa might be able to stretch his budget to get you an extra present or two.” Did you ever get any requests for a wooden toy?
We’re in the interesting situation where our 9 & 5 year old daughters still believe in Santa, but our 7 year old daughter does not. I’m not convinced the 9 year old isn’t just going along with it under the whole “If I tell them I know there’s no Santa, I won’t get any presents” theory, but my wife insists we leave matters alone.
Well, exactly. Except for last year when my then 9 year old told me in a grocery line that he didn’t think Black Peter actually brought the presents. I said I didn’t think so either. He shuffled his feet a little and I said, “But thank you because I think it’s really nice of you to do it,”. He was entirely stunned that I thought it was him and stuttered many denials. So I proved that it had to be him ( he is always the first one awake, he always picks very good presents that people like, St. Nicholas always brings the kinds of cookies he likes, and so on). He continued to deny it though.
He looked at me funny out of the corner of his eye for a week after that. Also, I thought the checkout girl at the grocery store was going to choke to death listening to this.
Does that count as lying?
Eh, I don’t care, it was one of the funniest moments of my parenting life. His eyes were this big.
I put down “yes” because as a child I wasn’t sure. I knew the store Santas were just “helpers” but everyone else(grownups) talked to us like there was.
But it was “kinda, sorta” really. I knew those presents came before Christmas Eve, except for one or two, soooo…
Then, on the Christmas Eve just before I was five I learned there wasn’t a real Santa. We left out milk and cookies, then got in the car to go to the children’s program at church. Mom “forgot” something and had to run back into the house. It was light in there and dark outside, so I could see through the crack in the curtains when she put the cookies and milk away, to make it look like Santa had taken them.
But I didn’t tell them what I knew, because I didn’t want to queer any extra nameless gifts. Same thing for the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy.
Mom says that just before I was eight she told me there was no Santa, and the my reply was “I know that!”
