Santa Clause

When you were a kid, did you believe in him at the behest of your parents? How old were you when you stopped?

For me as a dad, it was disheartening when my daughter casually admitted at around age nine that she no longer bought into the whole 'Santa' thing.

When I was a kid my older brother used to make me sit in front of a window upstairs in the hallway and told me that Santa was going to ride by, I have to sit and wait to see him. Of course years later I found out that he was downstairs banging his girlfriend and he wanted me out of the way LOL. I stopped believing about 8 or 9 years old.

I think I stopped at around age 6. I had 3 older brothers who were quick to kill my belief in him and by then my parents had already played the Santa game for years so they didn't push. They just asked me what I wanted, I told them and that was that.

I guess it was my parents who first lied to me about The Fat Man. My father told me I was about 7 when I figured it out. We carried on the lie with our daughter too.

I have no idea...I don't know that I ever really bought into it...yes for a while we believed and when I was about 4 or 5, I was shocked as hell when he showed up at our Christmas party, but right after he left I had already put it together that it was our neighbor, but he came again the next year and I still kind of believed. Thing with me is I don't think I ever really fully 100% bought it, just kind of.

I was in second grade and our teacher was losing it (Chicago public school) and she told us. So it was easy to tell Mom that I knew.

I have to share about my son finding out for sure. A couple months before the holiday season, my friend's kids were here when she was out of town. One of them lost a tooth. That made my son very suspicious because he couldn't figure out how the tooth fairy knew to come here when they didn't live here. So, as the holiday approached, some kids at school were saying Santa wasn't real. So, when he pressed me, I decided to just tell him so that it was from me. And when I did, he began to cry and said that he was sad that I did all the buying but didn't get that much myself. It was so very sweet.

I don't quite remember when I stopped believing in him, but I did at a young age. I know it was before I was 10.

I started getting a suspicion that he may have been a fraud when I was probably around 7 or so. But kept on cynically playing along with the concept until I was about 10.

That's a really sweet story, Redbedroom.

I think I was 8 or 9 when I stopped believing, though if you ask me today, I'll say Santa's realy - lol. We still got "Santa" gifts well into our teens.

Thanks, TSJ! He is a doll, but we have entered pre-teen zone, so sweet moments are much more staggered these days!

I believed until likely about 9/10ish but I kept the rouse up just in case it got me more presents from the rents. xD