This is inspired by a GD thread about believing without question. I’m not smart enough to participate there, so I thought I’d start my own thread
If you were brought up in an environment where Santa Claus figured in, what was your experience? For example, did your parents convince you He (just kidding) existed? At what age did you find out he didn’t and how did you find out? How did you react?
I’m hoping monster, my sister, comes along because I want to hear her take on it.
I don’t ever remember my mom trying to convince us that Santa Claus existed. I felt like we definitely knew there was no Santa, but I was aware that he was kind of a fun thing that went along with Christmas. I saw the shows that showed him distributing presents, but I didn’t see a conflict between that and what I believed. I guess I saw it as a fun thing to pretend…?
I remember breaking it to one of my friends and she was devastated. We were still very young and I laughed when I understood that she actually believed it, then I felt bad because she was really sad about it.
My dad lied to me constantly (only he called it teasing), so I learned pretty quickly to doubt everything he told me, Santa Claus included. At age 5, my twin brother and I found our presents hidden in our parents’ closet a week before Christmas, and both declared “I knew it!” Thus ended any belief we ever had that there might be a Santa Claus.
Santa always seemed to show up while my sisters and I were at the early church service on Christmas Eve. We were honored that he always came to our house first.
I cannot remember ever really believing in Santa Claus. My mom says that they never emphasized it, and I’m pretty sure they never tried to tell us that he was real. Though we did get presents from him–probably partly so that my folks could avoid wrapping things up!
My own daughter is 4.5, and likes Santa. Pretty much all of her Santa knowledge comes from osmosis, or something–not from me. But I also think that she knows that he’s a story, or at least suspects. Last year, whenever she saw someone dressed up as Santa, she would point him out as a ‘pretend Santa.’
I should atleast answer the OP and my answer is I learned about Santa from seeing him in cartoons such as “KISS Saves Christmas” but I never thought about him that much one way or another.
I’d say “what do you think?” Regardless of my opinion on the matter, it’s like sex ed - something that parents may feel strongly about that should be left to them.
Personally, as long as I can really remember I thought about it as a “Yes, Virginia” sort of thing, I guess. When I was four or so I swear I heard the reindeer on my grandmother’s roof, and I used to try to peek under the door of the guest bedroom, whcih my parents locked in December and called “Santa’s room” (I was sure I saw his feet, too), and at five I set out cookies and milk at 2 in the afternoon in quivering anticipation and came to check on the after dinner to be heartbroken that they were gone with no presents (damned dog), but once I was old enough to have memories of how I really thought about things, I knew it was more of an “idea” than a real thing.
I don’t remember “finding out” or anything, but I do remember “playing along” with Mom and mall Santas and all - there must have been years where we all knew what was up, but we talked about it as if we didn’t. Mom was very into The Polar Express and “Yes, Virginia” - still is. I think she’d be more way-into-Christmas if she didn’t get sort of a lack of support from me. I’ll go to the Carolina Craftsman’s Christmas Classic, and I’d like to hit the Mastersingers this year, but please, let’s not go nuts on the decorations. One of her friends seems like a perfectly normal, cool lady, until Christmas rolls around and she takes all the pictures of her family off the walls and replaces them with pictures of Santa. :eek:
I don’t know what I’ll tell any potential future children. I don’t like the idea of lying to my kids, but I don’t know what to tell them when they pick Santa up by osmosis.
I looked up “Santa Claus” in our Collier’s Encyclopedia. After a lengthy article about the origins of the St. Nicholas legend, the depictions of St. Nick and Santa Claus (et al.) through the years, etc., the article ended with something like “with younger children remaining unaware of their parents’ secret giving”. That was as close as it came to saying the big guy didn’t exist, but combined with the strong doubt that led me to look it up in the first place, it was enough to settle the matter for me, even at eight years old.
My parents never said anything one way or another about Santa Claus. They read me various Christmas stories, but never told me that there was such a being. Some Christmas presents had tags saying they were from Mom or Dad or Mom and Dad; some said Santa. I don’t remember actually believing in Santa. When I was (I think) five, an older friend (seven?) asked me if I believed in Santa Claus. Thus alerted that this was a question, I instantly said no – I always wanted to be as mature and sophisticated as this friend. But I did feel a little disapointed that I couldn’t believe in this nice story. Oddly, that’s the only mythical being I can recall ever feeling bad about not buying into.
My experience was similar to this. Though we always got presents from “Santa” we sort of knew, even at an early age that “Santa” was really from one of our older relatives. A warm fuzzy tradition we continue today.
I was raised baptist (but though still a christian, I’m recovering nicely from being a baptist :D), so the family togetherness, fun, and christian aspect of the holiday was emphasized way more.
I know that when I was really little, we thought there was a santa, but it was more of a fun, sometime thing, not a concerted effort on our parents part to do the whole “write letters to Santa, dress up like him, pretend you hear reindeer on the roof” all that sort of thing.
The national guard, or some such entity (can’t remember now) used to do a UFO sighting “Special News Flash”!!! on Xmas eve every year over the radio. I had fun with my kids when they were little, but as with my sister and I, they just gradually grew out of it. By 5 or 6 I’d guess, but with all of us, my sister and my two kids, there was never an “AHA” moment.
My older sister told me. She was mad at me at the time and just yelled it out. I think I already really knew but hated having my hand forced to admit it.
This is pretty much what I thought. I don’t think I ever believed in SC as a physical entity (at least I can’t remember believing, I might have when I was three) but I thought it was a fun tradition. My parents stopped labeling gifts as being “from Santa” when I was around seven or so.
I believed until I was 10 years old. I was a “late bloomer” (in many respects). Other kids would try to tell me there was no such thing, but I held tight to my belief that Santa was really out there somewhere.
My mother broke the news to me about a week before my tenth birthday. She was helping me clean my room, and she just said, with no drama: “I’m sure you know by now there is no Santa Claus, right?” I just nodded, but I was numb with rage and humiliation. Yeah, at ten years old! What problems, huh? LOL!
My immature mind processed this information, and didn’t like it one bit. My parents had lied to me for years, and by Og, I had stood up for them! About an hour later, I came up to my mother with tears in my eyes and said “I guess that means Jesus isn’t real, either.” She tried to explain the big difference, but you know, she’s still explaining today and I’m not quite grasping it.
Eventually, after many bitter years (unrelated to Santa) I adopted a more Taoist outlook on life, and I gleefully tell everyone, children, adults, animals alike, of course there is a Santa Claus! Why the change in attitude? I just believe in happiness now, and making other people laugh and smile
When I have children, I don’t think I’ll go out of my way to convince them, like my parents did to me. I’ll ask their opinion, as another poster mentioned: “What do you think?” I can tell them what I believe and how and why I believe in it - but only if they ask.
Well, the year “Santa” was out in our backyard, cussing his head off, my older brother and sister tried desperately to convince me that it wasn’t Dad putting together a swing-set. Uh, right. I was about 5.
The next year, I walked into the boy’s toys aisle in TG&Y and there stands my mother with a buggy full of toys covered with our coats. She looks at me like a deer in headlights. “Do you believe in Santa Claus?,” she urgently whispered. What to say? I still kinda believe. I want to believe. If I say no, will it mean I get less presents? But will she get mad if I lie? So I say I don’t believe. She says, “Good. Now help me find toys for your little brother.” :eek:
I think I was five. When I saw Mom and Dad hiding Easter eggs, it wasn’t much of a leap to figure out that if the Easter Bunny was really my folks, then the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus probably had the same fingerprints.
Santa only ever brought small presents, though. The Big Stuff was from parents and grandparents.
On the other hand, Santa still comes to ALL members of my family, regardless of age. When kids are old enough to question, we tell them that yep, Santa is all the grown-ups – and now they’re old enough to be an elf and help. Adults will conspire to distract the smaller kids so that the new elf will have the chance to add candy and (adult-bought and wrapped) small presents to the stockings.
The new elf looks smug, no hearts are broken (“Santa” still comes, after all!), and family tradition continues.
