Did you believe in Santa Claus when you were a child? When and why you stopped believing?

why would anyone stop believing, what are you trying to say

I did for a short time but due to my cynical nature I was born with...figured it out an a very young age and when I questioned my mom she did nothing to help perpetuate the belief, she just fessed up. I think I was 5 or 6.

Being raised in a Jewish family, my mother early on explained that Santa Claus is what Christian children believe in. I just figured it was just part of the Christian beliefs. At Macy's (five years old) I saw other children sitting on Santa's knee. Once on Santa's knee, I first told Santa I was Jewish. This Santa replied something to the effect that Santa gives all good children presents. He was correct; Christian neighbors always gave me presents for Christmas.

Anyway, I still believe there is a Santa; he is not always wearing a red outfit; sometimes it is a she, and not a he.

I believed until my brothers showed me where Moms stashed the loot. I was probably seven on eight.

I didn't beleive in St. Niclas (that's the "original Santa", coming on December 6) as long as I can remember: there were just too many going around in the streets, and ours was clearly garnpa.

I did believe in 'Christ Child' (which brings the presents on Christmas Eve) until I was six: my sister and I weren't allowed to go on the attic the last days before Christmas, and not in a smaller sitting room and the room next to it on Christmas Eve afternoon. (That's where the Christmas tree was and the the Christ Child put the presents on chairs, sofas etc).
So I was hiding in the dark on the steps, heard my father swear as something fell down, saw in the (afterwards lit up) hall a toy lorry (which obviously slipped out of the box) ... and it was later under the Christmas tree.

My sister (three years old) wasn't convinced at all; classmates in school were very sceptical.

Same here! My brother had to tell me, after he teased me for several years
insisting that he's seen Christ child through the keyhole. I stood there for
hours looking through the keyhole and nothing happened.....

My daughter was eight years old when she found out, and she immediately
had to tell all her classmates that there is no Santa. That wasn't a good day
at school for her.....

I believed until I was about six; I then realized what was up but had to keep my mouth shut because I was the eldest of four. I was still carrying on the charade at thirteen because I had a one year old brother!

I recognized my father's handwriting on a gift from Santa when I was 8. I kept that to myself for a couple of years for my sister's sake.

That should read "seven OR eight."

My parents didn't teach he was real. They didn't always have money for presents, so they didn't want us to get our hopes up.

I was 5 or 6 when the local kids told me. I didn't take any convincing (we didn't have a chimney and I always thought aluminium sliding windows with flyscreens would present issues....

I was 7, my sis was 5...

She believed for 3 more years, and my baby sis might still believe, who knows, she never grew up.

Santa is for the kids, and the Media should quit their crap.

I believe Santa exists as the anagram to Satan.

I was also around 5 or 6 when I stopped believe in Santa Claus, but I still believe in the spirit of Santa Claus justlike the editor 1907 did. 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

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.

I pretended to believe for years out of concern for my parents' feelings...my mom, especially, seemed so attached to the whole business that I felt obligated. It was kind of exhausting.



Oh, that's sad... why your reminiscences always gotta be so heart-wrenching, Edgar? how about making up a few happy stories about the time you, I dunno, found fifty bucks and some happy puppies and a new bike or something.

I believe.

Well, those two kids think that Mom is Santa