My mother told me right before Christmas the year I was 8. She was distressed when I began
crying and explained that she thought I already knew since she’d heard my older cousins
telling me the secret about Santa. Through
my tears I said, “What do they know?
They think the stork brings babies!”

My big brother told me. When I refused to believe his "lies", he brought me to the back of my parent's closet and showed me the stash. I was crushed.

I'm not sure if 'knowing' was such a non event that I just don't remember a specific time when I 'knew', or if it was so traumatic I blocked it - I have no idea how or when I learned Santa was really Mom and Dad ;) I remember helping continue the milk and cookies at the hearth for Santa for the benefit of my little brother 7 years younger, but not when I was elevated to being in on the pretense.

I have two older brothers and an older sister. Being the nosy sorts, they snooped around looking for packages.....I don't recall how old I was.

I have fond memories of sliding down ridiculously steep stairs on Christmas morning to see presents under the tree. Well, sliding down was kind of forced; more like being dragged down. Never been a morning person!

Such a cool picture, Alisande, and what a fun question. I, too, had an older brother who told me when I was about 8, I guess. I think I took it pretty well, but my 6 year old brother was there too and he cried and cried.

Every year, after dinner on Christmas Eve, my dad would take my younger brother and I for a ride in the car to look at the lights on all the houses. I loved that so much. And then when we got home, my mom would say "you just missed Santa Claus, look what he brought you". We would be upset that we missed seeing him, but that didn't last long as we started opening our presents. We celebrated Christmas Eve because our whole family came to our house Christmas Day for dinner and there was lots to do to get ready for that. Great memories of childhood Christmas. I'm so glad I have them.

The picture you showed, Susan, looked almost exactly like one from snapshots of my childhood down to the gifts.

I was about 6, and figured it out when the gifts from Santa and my mom had the same wrapping paper! When I have kids I'll have to be sure to remember that or come up with a good story about having to help Santa wrap his gifts!

While growing up, there was a St. Nicholaus that came on the 6th of December. He brought apples and oranges and occasionally some chocolate. But "bad kids" got coal.

At Christmas we had gifts from Child Christ. I think I was about 8. Kids at school told, no Child Christ was bringing presents, it was the parents.

Moni

"Magical thinking" usually ends around age seven. I don't remember believing in Santa, but I did, just as I took some religious stories and rites to be the literal truth. I do remember feeling embarrassed and angry at having been deluded.

Young children believe they are personally responsible for all sorts of things, and they are easily persuaded. The idea that Santa (or some deity) 'watches' seems entirely acceptable.

My parents told me around 7 or 8, hoping I wouldn't be too upset they said I could keep the secret since my brother was only 3 or 4 and I'd be a part of the grownups. I was crushed that everyone had been lying to me, plus I felt sorry that my parents had to pay for gifts.

My mother took my older sister and myself to see Santa. My sister wouldn't go sit on his lap and tell him what she wanted for Christmas. I couldn't believe that she didn't want to tell him She still got everything she wanted for Christmas! I quickly figured it out that Christmas morning!

I think I was 7 or 8. My younger sister and I shared a room and could clearly hear our dad's frustration that year while trying to put 3 bikes together before dawn. LOL

That got my curiosity going so at some point I started asking our Mom about it and said she wouldn't confirm or deny the story about Santa but if we didn't want to believe, that it was still okay to love the idea of Santa and continue to enjoy the fun.

After that I remember doing stash hunts with my sisters and keeping an eye out for our Mom.

I stopped believing in Santa at six years old. That was the year I recognized that he was actually Ivan, our beloved mail carrier (In those days he was the "mailman").

I was 8 and figured it out on Christmas Eve. We were going to my grandparents, leaving that night to arrive early Christmas morning. In the afternoon of Christmas Eve my dad took me to the store. When we returned, my mom and older sisters were excited because Santa had come early. Just for me. I figured it out very quickly, although they all tried to convince me. :)

Gee, am I the only one who never believed? Poor kids, like me and my brothers, have always known there was no Santa.

I was the 3rd of 4 children, and I don't know when I learned about Santa, but I had never strongly believed in him either. Didn't bother me. I assume I learned via cues from my siblings.

I must have been 7 or 8. Suddenly I wasn't allowed in the shed. That was just a challenge to find out the big secret. I played along for years as my little brothers grew up :-)

What? HE isn't real?

He's real in Canada. NORAD says so.

My parents never promoted Santa in our house. When I was around 5 or 6 and we moved to the suburbs I wanted to have Santa come like my friends did. So I pushed for Santa at our house. My mother bought me a giant 3 foot stocking to hang and filled it with extra wrapped little gifts. Don't know what happened to the stocking but I believed because I wanted to. I was an imaginative kid and I figured if I believed hard enough maybe the possibility of Santa being real was there. Even though I really knew he wasn't real since I had not been raised to believe.

This is the sad part. My DS told me my own mother told him there was no Santa when he was around 7 or 8. She never understood why our family let Santa bring the big gifts. Seemed she didn't want to compete with Santa. Wanted the credit. Sad.

I did everything I could to keep Santa alive for my kids. They did their part by "believing" long past reason. Special wrapping paper, the works. As long as they lived at home. DH volunteered as the local elementary school Santa for years. In the first grade DS was sooo excited that Santa knew so much about him. :-D

I still believe.

In 1956, I just turned 4 in November, and we lived in a tiny rural Kansas town that was 2-blocks big, so everyone knew everyone else. We attended church for the Children's Program (ironically, the town had 3 churches) and we received the iconic brown paper bag filled with an apple, an orange, and a small amount of candy from YOU KNOW WHO at the end of the program! How exciting! But there was one hitch. HE, was our neighbor. I KNEW he was our neighbor because he was the only person in my small world who wore black engineer boots. It was the boots that gave him away, not the awful fake wig and moustache, and that was the end of HIM. And maybe NOT believing anymore is the reason I had to wait until I was 27-years old before I got my first bicycle (LOL).

-Grainlady

My kids believed for a long time since the real Santa came to our house every Christmas Eve to talk with them about what gifts they wanted. I remember one of my kids literally shaking with excitement. (Unfortunately, my DH was always "out shopping" when Santa came.)

My 5-year-old grandson does not like Santa at all. My DIL asked me what she should tell him when he asks if Santa is real. I just didn't know what to say.

I brought this up at our DIL's parents' Vigil Dinner last night. Our DGD (nearly 5) is still a believer, but DGS (nearly 11) became skeptical a couple years ago.

When DGS started asking his mother about this, she wanted to keep Santa 'alive' for his sister. She told him, "If you don't believe, you won't receive." (That sounded odd to me until I thought about it. DIL knows best what will make DGS think twice before dropping this bomb one day when he is angry with his DS.)

DIL herself remembered being devastated when her father's aunt, a nun, told her there was no Santa. Her elder sisters had kept the secret for her; she's the youngest by four years.

socks - I'm not particularly religious and not wanting to start a debate about this, for me, Santa can represent the spirit of Christmas, being respectful of others, enjoying the gifts of having family and friends in ones life, being reminded of the existence of love and appreciating it. When our kids started questioning the existence of Santa we talked about how Santa can represent these ideas and to embrace them. Of course, your DIL will have her own ideas about what Santa represents (or not) but that's how we approached it.

I'm not sure if I ever fully believed. Stuff always appeared out of nowhere, but we didn't have a chimney. It didn't make a whole lot of sense. I never heard Santa coming or going.

My kids were believers until 3rd or 4th grade. The first found out from friends at school. The second set up one of his electronic devices to record everything. My third child won't admit knowing anything even with teasing from her brothers.

I like the idea that Santa represents the spirit of Christmas, generosity, giving, and family, Blfenton.

As for my DIL, she's ok with the "spirit of Christmas" approach but finds it a little difficult to express meaningfully to a 5-year-old. It's also uncomfortable to tell a young child to keep the secret from other children, younger siblings. Anyway, the grandkids are having a great Christmas, lots of family, gifts, cookies and fun, so the Santa issue will disappear very soon.

Like others here, I thought it was strange that Santa and my mother had exactly the same wrapping paper. That was the giveaway. (Also that year I didn't get the pony I told him I wanted.)

Also 7-8 when Mom told me on that Christmas Eve. I think I was a little annoyed but don't know about what:. Mother lying, the world collectively lying or Santa not proving everybody wrong....Christmas was never magical again but I discovered the joy of family gatherings and never lost the lust for gifts...plus much more convenient to tell Mom what I wanted through the year than to write Santa and hope he really didn't know whether I had been naughty--Mom knew about it and somehow forgave me every time, haha

He' not? I still believe, and I'm almost 75 and the oldest of 4 girls. I'm not sure if my mom told me or just let me dream. I'm still dreaming of Santa and a white christmas. Not today it is in the mid 70's Gray and looks like any minute it will pour down.

I'm not sure when my belief in Santa faded away. By age 5, I knew he wasn't real, but it was fun to pretend and try to figure out who was under that fake beard. We lived in a thinly populated area and knew the voices of everyone in a 4 mile radius. My sister was 1.5 years younger and she suspected there wasn't something quite right about Ole St. Nick, but she loved the world of make-believe and dolls that held private conversations with her that no one else could hear. She was thrilled to see Santa Claus and would slip into her make-believe world. It was her escape from the harshness of reality.

We did not travel when we were kids. In our world of make-believe, we could travel where ever we imagined and by unthinkable conveyances. Santa Claus was part of that world.

WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT! Eek!!!!

I believed everything my parents told me, so it took a while. Of course, the neighbor boy told me that Santa wasn't real, but I didn't believe him. Finally, one day in fifth grade, my teacher asked for any children who believed in Santa to raise our hands. I was the only one! As she smirked at me, I was flushed with shame.

I then questioned everything my parents had ever told me. When Santa flew out the window, so did the Easter Bunny, tooth fairy and god. That last one really threw my mom.

Junebug's reaction is common. So is the thought that being too poor to have wrapped presents and a tree, or even a chimney, means one is "naughty".

When I asked my mother if Santa Claus were real, she gave me a very Yes, Virginia answer, similar to Blfenton's. It was a bit vague and avoided the actual "yes" part. Even though it was a bit high minded for a four year old, it clued me in that it wasn't the same kind of real as electricity (which is also magic when you're that age).

Junebug, what a terrible teacher!

She was horrible.

I don't remember when I knew. When our daughter figured it out I simply invited her "in to the club" of folks who represented the collective Santa working together to make the holiday magical for those who still believe. She went from being excited about Santa to being excited to be a Santa- generous and thoughtful in creating spcial moments for others.

We grew up dirt poor on the banks of the St. Francis River in Missouri and growing up, we never got Christmas "gifts", nor did we even have a tree. My mother however knew the story of the little girl named Virginia and the letter she wrote to the New York Sun. And I passed that on to my own children.

DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
Papa says, ‘If you see it in THE SUN it’s so.’
Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

VIRGINIA O’HANLON.
115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

So, with that being shared, I still believe in Santa Claus, and always will.

Larry

Like several posters above, I was pretty PO'd when I found out my parents had been lying to me. I had defended my belief to several elementary school classmates, so I was also perturbed to have been proven wrong in front of my peers. Because of that, we never promoted the myth of Santa's being real, although we told our kids that it was a nice story, and represented goodness and kindness to each other. We also cautioned them that telling others that Santa wasn't real was similar to telling the story of how babies are made--parents want to tell their kids in their own way, so don't go around sharing the info. Knowing kids, I doubt that worked.

I was probably about five or six. I couldn't picture Santa wanting to come down our apartment incinerator where we tossed all our nasty trash, and you'd never know when someone else in the high rise would be dumping their stuff in. Besides, he had my mother's handwriting. I didn't let the folks know right away because I didn't want to hurt their feelings. (No, it wasn't that I was scared the gifts would stop -- they always had things under the tree for us with their names on them (from Mom and Dad), as well as those things that showed up overnight Christmas eve, with his name on them,.)

We always had "Christmas" on Christmas Eve at my grandmother's house.

It was the fifties/very early sixties, & Granny had had 12 children, & it was the Boomer years, so there were dozens of cousins, & it was loads of fun.

My father & my Uncle Nick always had to...something...maybe go get some beer?...& then they'd come back to take us home.

& we'd arrive home to see that Santa had been there already!

Daddy's explanation was that Santa had a lot of miles to cover that night, & he had to start somewhere, & Texas was as good a place as any.

I'm thinking that someone at school told me, & I denied it at first, & then I got to reflecting on those beer runs...

I was the oldest of three boys, and Mom got long-term, hospitalized sick when I was just under 6, with a couple of younger brothers.

I think that we did the milk and cookies routine, and it was the boys at school that clued me in ... and I, of course, denied their story ... but the seed sprouted, and eventually came to flower.

I don't recall how devastated I was ... but we farm kids were pretty matter-of-fact type folks, so reality wasn't just a TV show (which we didn't have, in the Dirty Thirties, of course).

Son, born in Korea, came to Canada in '63 when we were missionaries on furlough and we lived in Toronto at Christmas when he was a month over 2, so we took him to see the fancy Santa with all of the trappings at Casa Loma ... and there was no way that he was going any closer than about 20 or 30 feet from that guy!

I'm not sure when he became aware that Santa wasn't "real" ... or my daughter, three years younger, for that matter ... but he was willing to go along with the milk and cookies routine for her sake. And I don't recall when she became aware of the actualities of the situation.

Though we had chimnies ... the improbability of that may have given some clues ... and the long distance travel, with flying reindeer pulling a sleigh full of presents ... that only were removed at Santa's choice ... and I don't recall whether NORAD's sightings of Santa's travels were part of the picture, when they were young.

Son has said for some time that, unless he can be shown pretty secure, scientifically-based evidence that there's a God ... S/He ain't real, either. Which he only admitted to Dad a few years ago ... and there have been some interesting discussions, since ... including yesterday afternoon.

Actually ... our outlook on the realities of life are much closer than would appear, based on that premise ... but it took a while for him to realize that ...

... and Dad has dealt with some rather discomfiting issues, as well.

Hope you all had a lovely and blessed Christmas ... and are looking forward to the New Year with anticipation.

May it bring the fulfillment of some of your dreams ... and the envisioning of some worthwhile new ones.

ole joyfuelled

I noticed 'Santa' and my mom had the same handwriting, lol.

My paternal grandmother told me when I was about 8 or 9. I said something about Santa coming, and she said "which one, Mommy or Daddy?". I was crushed, because, although other older kids had tried to tell me, I still held to the belief. I still remember that moment a good 50 years later. I loved her very much, though, and don't hold it against her. But she shouldn't have said that.

One year I saw a set of children's "Little Golden" encyclopedias in the front hall closet, and then they were under the tree at Christmas.I asked my best friend Andrea and she confirmed our parents provided "Santa"' gifts. I still pretended to believe for years after because I had 3 younger siblings.

I don't remember, but I was the youngest of four (and quite smart and analytical LOL) so I am sure either they told me or I figured it out. However, in our house, if you said you did not believe in Santa you got NOTHING. And I am not joking either! If my mom were to ask me tomorrow if I believe in Santa, I say YES.

Dances.