I think I must have only grown out of it too. I really can't remember (!) so it couldn't have been very traumatic. Possibly my sis and I were enlisted to help make Santa 'real' to my brother 6 years younger than me, making the excitement and mystery last several more years. I remember putting out milk and cookies for Santa so must have believed, but I transitioned into knowing the stockings and gifts came from family and parents so easily its not an event I remember. I can recall kindergarten (began at age 4-almost-5), swimming lessons at the Y at that age, tap dance classes same age but not how I learned Santa wasn't real.

I can't remember, but probably 6 or 7. For one thing, my dad played Santa at the Christmas party for his lodge. I recall sitting on his lap and telling him I wanted a female goat for Christmas to go with my other goat. I knew he wasn't Santa, but I played along. Come to think of it, I imagine my nephew, who was a year older than me, probably told me.

Santa Claus was always a storybook figure at our house. What made him special was that everyone knew the story and pretended it was real! what fun :-)

I don't remember, but I expect my older brother and sister were involved somehow.

I do remember waking up one night to discover that the tooth fairy looked suspiciously like my mother in my father's bathrobe.

We lived in an apartment house in NYC, and an older girl who lived in the building told me. We were in an elevator. I was upset, but I couldn't make a quick escape.

I had the same experience. I questioned why Santa had the same wrapping paper as my mom, and she was flustered and couldn't come up with an excuse fast enough. :)

I was a little kid, and we all walked to a one-room school. One of the older classmates told me. I was so upset I turned around and ran all the way home, crying.

When we pointed out that the gifts from Santa were wrapped in my mothers wrapping paper, she put on an amusing and thoroughly convincing display of indignation that Santa had USED HER WRAPPING PAPER?!?!??! And would exclaim at how RUDE he was! It was funny when we were itty bitty and we enjoyed pointing it out to her every year.

I can't remember when I found out so it must not have been too hard on me.

I remember some kid in school, picking on me and telling me there was no Santa. I was in second grade. I remember asking my teacher and she told me that YES there was a SANTA! HA!

I don’t remember how old I was when I started to question it or why, but I distinctly remember I was taking a bath when I asked my mother if there’s really a Santa. She put up no resistance, just asked me not to tell my friends.

No idea how old I was, but loved all your stories!

I remember being quite young and questioning why there were Santas in all the department stores and on the street corners. My mom told me they weren't the real Santa; he was much too busy at the North Pole....these are all his helpers who get the info to him about what kids would love to have for Christmas.

At some point, I remember asking her if Santa is real. I don't recall what made me question it. She said, "Honey, Santa is real as long as you believe he is." That confused me at the time, but I now think it was a great answer.

We didn't really do Santa Claus at our house. All gifts were from parents and close relatives and labeled as such. When I was almost six and we moved to the suburbs and I started school other kids would talk about stockings and things relating to Santa. I asked my mother why I didn't get a stocking. That year she did have a stocking for me. It was a giant one and she filled it with smaller gifts up until my teens. I don't remember ever believing in Santa but I wanted to and would use my imagination to pretend he was real.

My kids got stockings and Santa gifts until they became adults. DD learned Santa wasn't real from neighborhood friends. DS was a big believer until my own mother ruined it for him by telling him that gifts were from us. He told me years later. Yes. The woman was broken enough that she didn't want her gifts to compete with Santa. She used to admonish me for labeling the best gifts for the kids "from Santa". I even had special wrap for the Santa gifts, long after we had no true believers in the home. DH was the local elementary school's Santa for years.

My grandkids had/have the best Santa. Family friends who are like honorary grandparents visit them as Mr. and Mrs. Santa. Eventually the kids finally recognized them but were told that it was Santa's secret life. That yes their friends were the real Mr. and Mrs. Claus. They were told to keep it a secret. Santa was also recruited to visit grand son's preschool. DGS kept his personal relationship a secret with Santa. Grandson was a fearful of the other Santa's. But a year or so ago a Santa stole his heart and gained his trust by giving him a pair of gloves. When "real" Santa visited he also carried gloves to keep it going. I occasionally don a Santa suit for photo shoots with the pets. So Santa is alive and well in our family.

I don’t remember, I do remember Santa coming early on Christmas Eve to tell me to get to bed! When I was 6 I had chicken pox and he wouldn’t let me sit on his lap. Santa gifts weren’t wrapped, they were all set up to play with. My sister and my dad were diagnosed with cancer when I was about 7, that’s probably when it stopped for me, I have blocked a lot of those years from my memory. We did spend many Christmas Eves staying up all night with friends putting things together for our children.

You mean he's NOT? ! ? ! ? ! ? ?

Rusty

Well, this is all nonsense. Of course Santa is real. Neither one of my parents are living and I still get gifts. How do you explain that? Hmmmmm?

I had this plan when I was very small. When I grew up and had a baby we would not get gifts for the baby the first Christmas. If there was a Santa no problem, I thought Santa would be offended if we got gifts just in case. If there wasn't a Santa the baby would be too small to know we hadn't gotten it any gifts. I was about six when I came up with this. It struck me as a perfect solution.

My adult kids still gets gifts from Santa and from the pets.

I was 8 or 9 and had started to question FCs existence so went on a search for the present I was most anticipating that year, a bike.

I figured it would be pretty hard to hide in our small bungalow, so decided to have a snoop round my much visited Auntie May’s house and found it in her spare bedroom.

I didn’t let on though in case I got told off for being nosey.

I got suspicious when I was around 5 or 6, because we lived in an apartment building, and I just couldn't see Santa coming down that disgusting incinerator to drop off gifts. Besides, he and my mother had the same handwriting. I didn't let on not because I thought they'd stop if i told them I figured it out - but because they were also enjoying the whole occasion, too. (We got gifts from our parents as well as from Santa, so I didn't think the gifts would stop, anyway.) I probably told them when I was about nine - I think it came up in conversation when Mom probed me about what I thought. .

My brother is 7 years younger than me - I never told him, but he eventually found out via classmates probably in first grade. He immediately revealed that he knew. But it was one of the fictions my parents continued until we were both well into our teens. (But we stopped leaving Santa cookies long before that... probably when my brother revealed what he'd learned... our Santa never liked milk, so that had never been part of the deal, anyway...)

What are you saying? What? Are you kidding me?

What do you mean he is not real. I suppose next you will be telling me the Easter Bunny isn't real either!

Sue

I was a true believer when I was a kid. Christmas was magic, thanks to my great aunt and uncle and my parents. I was sure I could see Santa and the reindeer in the sky. It was all so wonderful. Like most, I gradually put two and two together, like there was no way a human being could fit down the chimney and the wrapping paper faux pas. Oh well, Christmas went on being just wonderful for many years and I like to think it was for my kids, too.

Oh no..the Easter Bunny too? You people are just mean..surely you are

lying to us!

I don't remember the 'when', but I remember being *furious* about the lie and questioning what else was a lie?

I didn't care if he was real or not, I still got presents and a stocking full of candy. My sibling was furious when they found out and was angry (and still is even thought they're dead) with our parents for "fooling" them.

I don't ever remember being told, I think I just kind of grew out of it

I honestly don't remember even thinking Santa was real, so I really don't know when I knew he wasn't. When my son was growing up, my then husband wanted to do the Santa thing and I didn't feel strongly, so I let him do it all. I don't know why I was so mad when he told my son he wasn't real without discussing it with me. I softened the blow by telling him, he is real, because, in reality, we're all Santa. I stand behind that. We are all Santa, the spirit of Christmas, and giver of wants.

At maybe 7 and 6yrs old, Sis and I were playing hide and seek in the house, while our parents were outside, shoveling snow. My sister decided to hide in our parent's bedroom closet, but when she opened the door, she saw an open box inside it that contained gifts, several of which we had each asked Santa for, in our letters to him. Just as I began looking for her, Sis came out of their bedroom. When I asked why she hadn't hid, she couldn't contain herself and revealed what she had seen.

We didn't tell our parents when they got back inside, deciding to just carry on as though we knew nothing. Maybe we thought they'd return the gifts, now that Santa was outed, lol. But I recall Sis and I whispering about it in our shared bedroom that night, and we both were a bit sad, to feel that Christmas Eve would never have the same magical mystery it had before.

Last year my 6 year old grandson was asking questions about how Santa could fly all over the world in just one night. DD told him there are different time zones, so it isn't Christmas Eve in all countries at the same time. She was hoping for at least 1 more Christmas, before he figured out Santa and might tell his younger brother.

I came across this video while visiting DD last Christmas Eve, and nonchalantly declared, "Oh, looks like some people in New York, caught Santa on his way back to the North Pole, to pick up more gifts for tonight's flight." Both grandsons came running over, and were elated to have seen this rare 'capture' on video. DD isn't certain if her now 7 yr old son still believes, but if he doesn't, at least he hasn't spoiled it for his little brother!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr29iwtTY0w

I don't know what you're talking about.

I am 71 years old.

I think I was about 5. I heard about it from a friend who was a year older than I was; he heard it at school.

Moosemac, that's a wonderful story!

Can't remember when I learned that there was no Santa. But I love reading all of your stories. Thanks.

I was 8. My mother
told me right before Christmas. When I
started crying, she was crushed and begin apologizing. She said, “But, I thought you knew because I heard
your cousins tell you.” I said, “What do
they know? They think the stork brings
babies!”

LOL iread15, your poor mom! did she keep from laughing?

nickel_kg,

I don't remember what my mom did at the time, but I think she spent a lot of my childhood alternating between laughing and pulling her hair out.

Well, what about the Elf on the Shelf! He is still around you know!

Sue

I don’t think we ever believed Santa was real. Santa was a cute tradition, but we all knew the story of how St Nicolas put money in the shoes of poor children, and the tradition of “Santa Claus” sprang out of that.

It doesn’t ruin the magic, to learn the history. It makes it richer.

I was pretty old--maybe 10 or 11. I remember feeling very, very silly when I realized nobody else still believed. My best friend growing up was Jewish and I asked her, "Why didn't you tell me? Why did you let me go on like this?" She told me that she wanted to but her Grandmother told her that she absolutely was NOT allowed to tell me because it was nice to let kids have the magic of Santa as long as possible and to NOT ruin it for me.

What? You're kidding, right?

Rose--are you asking if I'm kidding becauseI was so old? Not kidding. Also, my friend was very relieved she no longer had to hold that secret in!

I don't remember exactly but probably older than I should have been. After all, we left cookies and hot chocolate, heard jingle bells and "Ho, ho, ho" 's in the middle of the night, so obviously he was real! It was a bummer to learn he wasn't. :( We didn't make as much of a deal with our kids so I doubt they were ever really surprised when they learned the truth.

I was the 3rd of 4 children, and I don't think I ever fell for it. If I did believe, it was only for a couple of years. I sensed from my older siblings that this was not quite real. We had gifts under the tree from Santa and Mrs. C, but it was the same wrapping paper.

5 or 6. Then in 2nd grade, when I was 7, I asked my mother if it was alright to tell another classmate "there is no santa." We discussed him driving a sleigh all night, delivering packages all over the world.....a flying sleigh no less...pulled by DEER! Mom, said she'd figure it out. ☺

I don't remember how old I was when I figured it out; no one told me and I think it was a gradual realization. I know when I was 7 or 8 I thought I heard reindeer with bells on the roof--I think I had been asleep. I was a little worried about telling my youngest the truth because I thought she'd be furious that we'd kept this secret from her....she was ok, though. When I suggested to my oldest the truth, because I didn't want her made fun of, she immediately made the leap to the Easter bunny.

Okay, all you nay-sayers, enough of this 'not real' nonsense! A picture is worth a thousand words, right?

Rusty

And if the picture above isn't enough, how about this article from 'The Sun', published sometime in the 1800's:

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

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 external 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 you 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 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, 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 lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Rusty

Santa was at the discount supermarket tonight. First I heard him telling another shopper he was going to his Christmas routine this year, same as always (never mind there is a pandemic in effect). Then after I checked out and was putting my change in my wallet he came up right behind me in the lane and was dealing with the cashier past my end of the plastic barrier, so that as I continued around the end of the counter and was gathering up my bags he was then immediately to my right (never mind there is a pandemic in effect, with stripes on the floor indicating shoppers checking out are to stay six feet apart).

Ho ho ho!