Yeah, I know, but when he actually shows up at your house every year, it probably takes a while for skepticism to start.
But didn’t she think maybe it was odd that this guy only came to her house and that her friends weren’t talking about meeting Santa and hanging out with him?
My husband hid behind the tree at age 5 or so, and discovered his mom and dad putting presents down. He’s all heartbroken, and shouts, “You lied to me!” which enrages his father and puts him in a world of trouble. (Abusive, bipolar dad.)
After hearing this and other tales of how disappointed some people were when they figured it out (discovered presents in the parents’ closet, etc.), I asked my mother how we learned there was no Santa, since I couldn’t remember a Big Reveal. Turns out my parents never told my sister and I that there was a Real Santa, and she in fact told us from an early age about how Santa was a neat fairy tale that symbolized a Spirit of Giving, etc., etc. We were also counseled to not dissuade other kids from believing because it was so fun to do so.
Dunno, never asked her. I mean, I think it’s totally bizarre, but she seems happy.
I don’t remember how old I was when I figured out Santa. I did have a younger brother, and I remember at some point being in the know when he wasn’t, but I can’t put my finger on when that was. We never did stop hanging stockings and putting out a snack for Santa, so it’s kind of hard to pin it down. Just at some point we all knew it was just for fun.
My son was about 8 when he started asking questions. First it was about the Easter Bunny, but he asked in the summer or so. Then the tooth fairy. Then finally at some point he got around to asking about Santa. I asked him what he thought and he said, “I think it’s like the tooth fairy and the Easter Bunny, it’s you guys.” I told him he was right, but not to tell his little sisters. He was quite tickled to be in on the secret that year, and we let him help a little. Made him feel special. As far as I know, he never did let the cat out of the bag.
Add me to the skeptics who cottoned on by age 4 that Santa couldn’t possibly exist - my earliest memory is humoring my parents about it (“oKAAYYY…if they want to put out milk and cookies for this being we all know is mythical because they think I believe in him, I guess they can do that”).
My son hung on until 7, and CairoSpouse and I were getting pretty impatient. After all, Santa can do anything, including deliver a Wii to Egypt by a certain date! Parents aren’t held to such a high standard.
Maggenkid was eight when she told me that we should pretend Santa was real, because her Nana still believed. I let them fool each other for another year.
I have no idea when I stopped believing (most likely told by my older brother) can’t have been too traumatic.
I never believed in Santa, I didn’t think anyone did but that they just played along because it was fun. I’m still not entirely sure that isn’t the case. I was talking to my mom about it just last xmas and apparently she actually thought i believed in him. I was floored to learn that. And she refuses to believe that i never did believe in him. So don’t be so sure the children in your life haven’t already figured it out and are just playing along because they think they’ll get more presents or because they enjoy it.
Especially if they watch TV. I mean how could you watch TV, especially around xmas, without learning that he isn’t real? It’s the topic of half the xmas specials out there!
I’m not quite sure. I’m pretty sure I at least suspected it by the time I was in kindergarten. Santa had the same handwriting as my Mom, so…
But I do remember the big confirmation. I was seven. My sisters and I all went to bed. About half an hour later, I remembered that I had forgotten to take the nightly antibiotic pill I was taking for strep throat. So I went into Mom’s bedroom to tell her. There she was, putting together a Barbie Townhouse. She yelled at me to go back to bed.
I remember lying awake, really upset. But I know I was not upset about the revelation that Mom was Santa. The things I was upset about were, in order of importance:
- I missed my pill,
- Mom was mad at me, and
- That the Barbie Townhouse might be for one of my sisters, and not me.
It turned out that it was a communal gift, so I was good. And Mom just told me not to tell my sisters, but some of them had already pretty much figured it out.
My youngest sister pretended to still believe in Santa for a long time because she believed that acting all babyish and cute got her more Christmas loot. I’m pretty sure she was right, too.
My baby sister is six years younger than I am, and four years younger than my other sister. She milked Santa for a long time - although I’m sure she also knew much earlier than either of us did (how good are ten year old kids at keeping important secrets?) I suspect that with youngest siblings they often figure it out sooner, but pretend to believe a lot longer than with oldest siblings. We figured it out around eight or nine. She figured it out by six, but milked it until twelve when my father finally looked at her and said “you can’t possibly believe.”
I was talking to a woman on another board who claimed her twelve year old didn’t believe. My thought was “either your kid has you snowed, or is developmentally disabled.” But this is the type of mommy board where people are proud that their kids believe - as opposed to Dopers who play the “I could read out of the womb and wrote a thesis on how Santa couldn’t exist at five.”
I reduced my nephew to tears last year, on accident. It was a few days before christmas so he was of course bouncing off the walls… He comes up to me for about the 30th time asking me what I think santa is bringing me, bringing him, bringing his baby sister, etc… I was getting annoyed, and was concentrating on a game, and for one brief moment i forgot myself.
“Thomas, there is no santa!”
Tears welling up…
oh fuck
5 year old initiates distraught banshee mode.
fuckfuckfuckfuck
Irate mother enters stage right. She was NOT happy with me.
From what I remember, I started doubting Santa around age 5. I asked my mother how Santa could drive his sleigh over the snow when it rarely snowed at Christmas where we lived (Kentucky). I also wanted to know how he came down the chimney when we didn’t have a chimney. Mom said she just left the front door open for him on Christmas Eve and even at five I didn’t think leaving the front door open at night was a good idea. After all, robbers might come in instead of Santa.
I’m pretty sure that by the time I was done with first grade I knew Santa Claus was just a story. My nephew seems to have clued in at roughly the same age I did, though I’m not sure of the exact set of circumstances leading to his skepticism.
Wow, that was mean.
Last year my wife was in a toy store before Christmas with my daughters, then 4 and 6. They have seen the Christmas specials on TV and have heard all the stories, etc., involving Santa’s elves that make the toys that he delivers on Christmas Eve. Four-year old looks around and says “wait- where does Santa get all the stuff he brings us?” My wife just said, “you know- the elves make them”; daughter just keeps looking around with a furrowed brow but doesn’t say anything else. Older daughter hasn’t opined one way or the other, but recently had a few visits from the Tooth Fairy. I think they both know the skinny but don’t want to spoil the magic.
:dubious:
Well, it is nice. Santa makes kids happy, her parents showed that they cared for her happiness.
Our 7 year-old believes and her mom and I don’t see any reason to disabuse her of the notion - it makes her happy, and what’s wrong with that?
I don’t remember ever really believing. But any hint of belief I may have had was thrown off by my mother’s insistence that we leave Santa Clause a can of Pepsi (which mom guzzled) instead of milk (which we never really drank).
That’s true, and I always sort of hoped that my oldest was just playing along for the fun; but I think it was half that and half that she still wanted to believe in the magic. (And we never watch Christmas specials except for maybe Charlie Brown; I don’t like 'em.)
My 5yo is either a master manipulator or a true believer; this year her plan is to ask Santa for the expensive American Girl doll, since Mom thinks its too much money but Santa can afford anything. And guess what she’s getting for Christmas…Felicity is already in my mom’s basement.
My Dad took me aside when I was eight and told me but I had to keep it a secret from my little sister. I’m sure she was taken aside at eight and told as well but at that point we were still so used to pretending that we still do, it’s fun.
I believed until 7 or 8. I didn’t find out in any traumatic way–just gradually realized that it didn’t make sense. Once I knew the secret, I had a a lot of fun helping keep up the pretense for my little brother.
I figured it out when I noticed that Santa used the same gift wrap my parents had in the hall closet. So my brother and sister-in-law now are very careful to use different designs for the Santa gifts and the ones from Mom and Dad. And during the Christmas Eve party, they always had a special in-person visit from Santa (actually my sister-in-law’s father in full costume), although the kids were too scared of Santa to go anywhere near him. Later, when they started to notice Grandpa’s absence during this time, a friend of his would appear instead.
I was six. My dad used to love to regale me with his tales of his merchant marine exploits, using the globe to outline his travels. Well, come one December eve, I was idly contemplating the world in my hands when I noticed that there was no SOLID LAND at the North Pole, and that any structure built there would either get shredded by the ice eventually or sink into the ocean. I marched into the other room and announced my conclusion to my shocked parents.
My nephew, otherwise a very bright kid, had a more or less opposite experience. When he was 11 he still believed, and finally my sister broke down and told him the truth. He was not pleased, to put it mildly, mad more at what he saw as their attempts to play him like a fool for all those years than for anything else.