This is a thread to tell how you found out that Santa Claus doesn't exist.
------------------------------------------------ I don't know about anyone else, but when I was a kid Santa creeped me out. I didn't want some stranger with a beard coming into my house at night. So one night when I was like twelve I stayed up all night to see if I could kill him with my Boy Scout regulation pocket knife. When I saw my parents doing Santa's job I figured he didn't exist so I went back to bed.
Posted by Ginol_Enam (Member # 7070) on :
You were planning on killing Santa Claus?! *gasp*
Anyway...
There wasn't an actual moment where I found out that Santa was fake. It was more like a slow and quiet realization.
*shrugs*
Posted by Trisha the Severe Hottie (Member # 6000) on :
Wow, that's awesome. I was like four, same age I learned about sex. I have a lot of weird quasi-Freudian issues with Santa. Anyway, my sister who was six told me he didn't exist in the same conversation where she explained that there is this guy named Santa that some people worship at Christmastime. So I always equated "Santa" with "Doesn't exist".
Also, my mom had painted a picture of a villainously clever looking man for a stage prop (the painting contained a clue about some kind of mystery). Not wanting to discard it altogether, she slapped a beard, a white hat, and a sack of toys onto the painting.
There was actually an entire thread devoted to deprogramming my Santa envy last year. I wonder if it's still around.
[ December 23, 2004, 04:45 PM: Message edited by: Trisha the Severe Hottie ]
Posted by Sara Sasse (Member # 6804) on :
I read about Saint Nicholas at the library. *grin
I started believing again when I was 17. My father used to shake sleigh bells (attached to a strap of leather) outside on Christmas Eve. He died in October, the year I was 17.
That Christmas, the bells still rang. it was my beautiful, sweet brother. Posted by dread pirate romany (Member # 6869) on :
I found out when I was three and stayed up all night to see Santa. I never really trusted my parents again after I found that out, and have never told my kids tales such as that (some things they have come to believe on their own, but that's another matter).
Posted by jeniwren (Member # 2002) on :
I don't remember, but my parents *still* do the Santa thing. Dad always sends me stuff from Rudolf and Santa and Mrs Claus.
My 2 year old daughter gravely informed me last night that Santa isn't real. Then a few minutes later, she asked me what Santa was bringing her. I love that girl.
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
I was doing a search last year for festivals of light for school, and found this link. I thought it was very interesting. It has an obvious "bent," being from the cannabis site, but it does come from myth. I am reading the "Rhapsody" series right now by Elizabeth Haydon, which features a world tree, and Tolkien based much of LOTR on this Norse mythology.
I grew into it. When I was eight, I recall, I found a box in the garage. It was mailed to my mother's name. It was the box from the drum set I had got the previous Christmas. It was just the solid proof I needed.
Posted by breyerchic04 (Member # 6423) on :
I never really believed in santa. But i know a girl who's mother went out of town the week of christmas when she was 15 (her birthday is in january). Her mom wanted to do christmas a week early because she wouldn't be home for christmas, but the girl insisted that mom didn't need to be there, santa would do it. So the mom had a car dealer bring her christmas present over on christmas morning saying it was from santa.
Posted by Alcon (Member # 6645) on :
Breyer: A car dealer?!? o_O
I always knew, but my parents kept up the act until I was 15 or 16. I never believed them, but I was always too good a kid to stay up and actually prove it too myself.
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
I don't remember. I don't remember believing, but I don't remember finding out otherwise. My parents DEFINITELY did the Santa thing, but I can't remember it.
I probably had my nose in a book. How weird that that's gone!
Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :
What do you mean Santa doesn't exist? Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
Oh you guys! We go through this every year. Of course he exists! He's just got better technology than us is all. He's a cool guy. Just cause people's parents also give presents doesn't mean Santa isn't real. Sheesh!
He's got time travel stuff which is why he can manage to get to everyone's house that he goes to in only one night. He spends most of the year doing it. Summers he generally spends in the jungles of Brazil on the Amazon with his friend the Tooth Fairy. Apparently the earth's rotation messes with his time travel equipment, so he had to locate at one of the poles so he could easily cancel that motion out.
The chimney thing is just a legend, of course. What he actually does is have the ability to travel in at least four spatial dimensions. As anyone knows, this means he can access inside locked 3d rooms because he can touch any point inside the same way you and I can set a pencil down inside a square drawn on a sheet of paper.
So let's hear no more of this nonsense about Santa not existing. Of course he exists!
[ December 23, 2004, 09:24 PM: Message edited by: Tatiana ]
Posted by Tater (Member # 7035) on :
Even when I was a wee little tot I thought there to be something quite fishy with the fact that Santa had the same handwriting as my dad.
The real mystery to me has always been how they got those darned dollars under my pillows! (Tooth Fairy reference, of course) When I was about 6 they started getting lazy and just putting the money BESIDE the bed. Those chumps. Anyway, explain to me how you parents now get the money under the pillow, and then perhaps I shall know how mine did it.
Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :
Daddy says "You just gotta make sure they're tired when you put them to bed... once they're asleep, most kids are pretty good sleepers. With you guys, we coulda shoved you over into the next room while we did if we'd've needed to."
Mommy says "You just reach under there and take the tooth and leave the money. No big deal."
Posted by Xaposert (Member # 1612) on :
As of yet, nobody has given me any good evidence to suggest Santa doesn't exist. Thus, I suspect those who claim they know Santa doesn't exist are confused... or looking to justify their lack of faith.
I have, though, figured out that my parents have a history of pretending to be Santa, based on accumulating evidence over a long period of time, such as the discovery of wrapped presents from Santa in my house prior to Christmas.
[ December 23, 2004, 10:56 PM: Message edited by: Xaposert ]
Posted by WheatPuppet (Member # 5142) on :
It's that time-travel thing again. Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
I always kind of knew. We pretended but it was always a happy pretend.
One night, though. I was too excited to sleep. I wasn't waiting for Father Christmas, I just couldn't sleep. My stocking sat on the end of my bed.
My mother came in, carrying a duvet (didn't seem odd, at them time). She said I should go to sleep (of course I didn't). Five minutes later, she returned, still carrying the duvet and told me to go to sleep.
After she left, I lay down. After a few minutes, I feel something heavy on my feet. It's my stocking, filled to the brim. I figured out what had happened of course, but my parents always denied it. "I was up all night!" I kept saying. My parents insisted that I must have fallen asleep for five minutes and that was when Father Christmas came.
Posted by Sharpie (Member # 482) on :
Ugh, I was the world's worst tooth fairy. I forgot to put the money under the pillow sooo many times. This necessitated learning the "gosh, let me help you look for it" method of slipping the money under the pillow. "Oh, look, there it is, honey!!"
I'm still so ashamed.
Posted by Tater (Member # 7035) on :
Hahaha. I am a sound sleeper. Darn it. I slept right through the magic of the tooth fairy! Posted by beverly (Member # 6246) on :
I don't remember really believing in Santa. But I my memory isn't the greatest either. I remember that my parents talked about Santa as though he existed. They said that they were Santa's helpers. There would be presents under the tree before Christmas, and those were from specific people. But anything that appeared on Christmas morning was "from Santa". Mainly the stocking stuffers and some presents.
But my parents never actively tried to make me believe. It was my older brothers who did that. They really enjoyed trying to get me to believe in Santa and would try all kinds of things--telling me that they heard reindeer hoofs on the roof or explaining in great detail the "technology" behind Santa visiting every child's house in one night.
But I don't know that I ever *really* believed them. But I wondered enough that I went to my parents one day and openly asked them. They told me succinctly that there was no Santa Claus. I was kinda taken aback by that. I guess I wasn't expecting them to be so up front so easily. No attempts to continue the fascade. While I wasn't surprised, I must admit a tiny hint of disappointment. I guess they figured if I was old enough to ask, I was old enough to know the truth.
That's probably a similar guideline I will use in choosing when to tell my children about the birds 'n' bees.
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
I didn't learn about Santa Clause until I went to school. I asked my father if Santa Clause is real, and he asked "What do you think?" I told him that I didn't think he was real. My dad responded "You're a pretty smart boy."
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
I don't remember any Santa facade at my house. I think I always knew he wasn't real. But then, my Christmases were pretty warped, anyway. Posted by Ryuko (Member # 5125) on :
My parents pulled the "what do you think" on me too. Well, my mom did. My dad still maintains that santa is real. He's so cute...
Anyway, when I was in kindergarten or first grade, one of those older kids told me Santa wasn't real. I was upset and so I asked my mom if it was true. Though I didn't know at the time, she made it a point not to lie to her children, and so she asked me "What do you think?" I replied that I thought he was real and she said, "Well, that's all that matters then."
When I was in second grade, though, I asked again. She asked me what I thought again and I said, "Oh, no, I'm not falling for that again. Is he real or isn't he?" She told me the truth. I said that it probably meant that the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy weren't real either, huh. And she said nope. That was us too. Then she made me agree to help the kids think that Santa was real.
Now none of us believe, except my Dad, of course. But we still get presents from Santa. Posted by James Tiberius Kirk (Member # 2832) on :
quote:I don't know about anyone else, but when I was a kid Santa creeped me out. I didn't want some stranger with a beard coming into my house at nigh.
My mom was like that as a kid; at one point they had to take her to the hospital because she was so panicked. Then some kid told her that there was no Santa, and to her relief, her parents verified this. (her next statement, she says, was something like: "At least there's still the tooth fairy").
So my parents decided to spare me and my siblings by telling us Santa didn't exist when we first heard of him.
--j_k, who edited this post to add his sig.
[ December 24, 2004, 01:40 PM: Message edited by: James Tiberius Kirk ]
Posted by dread pirate romany (Member # 6869) on :
My current tooth losing child is not into the tooth fairy, so it doesn't matter if he wakes up when hubby puts the money under his pillow. It'll be tougher with Olivia though. BTW< what's the tooth fairy pay at your house? I was all set to give Matthew quarters, but hubby gives him dollar bills.
Posted by Mike (Member # 55) on :
I think the tooth fairy pays about a buck a tooth now, but guilt-ridden ones tend to pay more.
Posted by Verily the Younger (Member # 6705) on :
I don't remember how old I was, but I had started to suspect, so I asked my parents point blank. They confessed. I remain bitter about it to this day--not about the fact that there is no Santa, but rather about the fact that they lied to me for years about something trivial.
Posted by Amka (Member # 690) on :
I also remember not believing. The whole idea of every child all over the world was just too much to swallow. I think also it is because my parents, like me, never actually insisted that he was real. One of my fondest memories is of my Dad reading the Cajun Night Before Christmas. Still, Santa was more of a story we all played at, knowing it was pretend but having fun all the same.
I remember wishing it were true, though. I looked outside, and saw a reddish light in the sky. "That could be Santa Claus, if he were real," I thought, "But I know it is just a helicopter."
I like the story of Saint Nicholas, and tell my kids that Santa Claus was a real man who lived in medieval times, and we celebrate his spirit by giving presents in his name. They like that.
Of course, this developed into my oldest telling my youngest: "I have some bad news. Santa Claus is dead."
[ December 24, 2004, 03:18 PM: Message edited by: Amka ]
Posted by Space Opera (Member # 6504) on :
Huh. A lot of you are starting to worry me with this bitterness and not trusting parents anymore stuff. I sincerely hope that doesn't happen with my youngest!
I choose not to share how I found out about Santa for reasons of my own. However, my son discovered the truth when he was 6. He just came up to us one evening and announced that he didn't think Santa was real and that he knew we were the ones who put presents out. It wasn't sad for him as far as I know - he was actually quite excited because now he could help play Santa with us. Ever since then on Christmas Eve he fills his sister's stocking, which he thinks is very cool.
space opera
Posted by Verily the Younger (Member # 6705) on :
I still trust my parents. I have wonderful parents. They aren't perfect, of course, but I feel they did a great job raising me, and my sister.
I simply question the wisdom of lying to a child for years over something inconsequential. I believe that it's only acceptable to lie to your children if it will protect them from something that they are not yet equipped to handle. The fact that Mom and Dad are the ones that filled the stockings doesn't qualify.
Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
Mike, you are my hero!
"You cant-a fool me, there is no sanity clause!"
Posted by Mike (Member # 55) on :
Posted by Joldo (Member # 6991) on :
I'm reminded of Hogfather by Terry Pratchett, in which it says we have to start by believing the little lies so eventually we can believe the big lies like justice and mercy and so on . . .
Posted by punwit (Member # 6388) on :
I was probably about 5 or 6 when I found out for sure. I had been in a scuffle with a neighbor boy and my folks were in the process of deciding what sort of punishment I was to recieve for fighting. They asked me why I'd gotten in a fight and I told them that the boy had claimed that Santa was fake. I became indignant and asserted that Santa surely existed because my parents told me he did and they wouldn't lie. This was about when he made a statement concerning my parent's trustworthiness... the fight was on. My parents still express some guilt over this episode.
![[No No]](graemlins/nono.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
What do you mean Santa doesn't exist? ![[Grumble]](graemlins/grumble.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Wall Bash]](graemlins/wallbash.gif)
![[Dont Know]](graemlins/dontknow.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)