How old were you when you stopped believing in Santa Claus?

[Honeycombe8]

I think I was about eight. I remember realizing he probably wasn't really real....flying in a sleigh in the air and all. But I wished really really hard that he was real, and that I was mistaken about not believing it.

[cynatnite]

1. I remember realizing that it was not possible. I don't know how old I was. n/t

[Honeycombe8]

7. The reason I remember it....

is because it was an important moment in my life, apparently. I remember that I was in my bedroom, nearing Christmas time. I looked out the window, at night, up at the sky, with the dawning realization that there probably was no Santa Claus. I remember the age, because we had recently moved, and it was the bedroom in that new house. Maybe I was 9 years old....I was 8 years old when we moved...I would've turned 9 right before Christmas. (my b'day's in December....what a bummer)

[rug]

2. WHAT!

[whistler162]

18. Not believing in Santa right up there with

believing men landed on the moon! Go figure.

[nycgiants9944]

3. around 10 years old

[a la izquierda]

4. About 10 or 11

My parents were going through a divorce and I desperately wanted to hope that someone that good and generous could really exist. As an adult, Santas don't have to be in red suits to be real.

[Honeycombe8]

5. Thank goodness. I thought maybe I was late to coming to the realization, and

everyone else knew by age 6 or so! Phew. That's a relief.

[a la izquierda]

8. Nah, I believed even after my younger sisters stopped.

I'm a bit of a dreamer, I guess. If I ever have children, they can believe as long as they want.

[raccoon]

35. You and me both! I thought I was the only one. nt

[kalli007]

6. My best friend in 3rd grade told me...... broke my heart!

nt

[Silver Swan]

9. I seem to have always known Santa was make-believe.

I don't remember specifically being told, but my mother told me later that she had been so devastated as a child when she found there was no Santa, that she vowed that her children would always know Santa is make-believe.

I always told my children that Santa was make-believe. We still hung stockings for the fun of it, just like we had a special tooth fairy pillow.

I never told other kids that Santa wasn't real, but I may admit to having had a feeling of sly superiority in knowing the truth!

[Still Blue in PDX]

10. I don't remember how old I was, but my parents had to break it to me.

My mom had given me the, "If there's anything I hate, it's a liar" speech time and again, so it never occurred to me that she would lie to me about anything as important as Santa Claus. Such betrayal!

That was when I became an atheist. If I couldn't see cold, hard proof, I wasn't buying it. Except I did continue to believe in the Easter Bunny.

Gods, I was a dumb kid.

[dawg]

11. Technically, I still believe.

I'm a Christian, so I believe in the concept of eternal life. St. Nicholas was a Christian saint, known for his generosity.

My religion teaches that he did not actually die in the middle ages, but instead his spirit went to dwell with God in paradise to await the time of the resurrection.

Santa Claus is still real for me.

[Raven]

12. I got at lease one additional year of believing...

We always went to my grandparents on Christmas Eve and Santa always came. When I was around 10 I decided that there was no Santa, that my father or one of my uncles impersonated him on Christmas Eve and that I was going to expose the fraud. When Santa arrived, I went around the house looking for my father and uncles fully expecting one of them to be missing. To my shock they were all present and accounted for. My parents must have clued Santa in that I was skeptical because he took me on his knee, let me tug his beard and showed me a cut that he had on his finger that he said was from making toys for kids. I was in awe and very ashamed that I had questioned him. When he left all the kids went to a bedroom window to see if we could see his sleigh in the sky and I swear to this day that I saw it fly by.

PS: Later I learned that a friend of my grandfather who was a gardener and maintainence man played Santa for us.

[Arugula Latte]

13. Third grade -- 9. I pretended I still believed, though.

[Coyotl]

14. I don't remember believing in Santa Claus, but I do remember

peeking under the door when my parents played Santa Claus and moved the presents to the tree from the closet where they "hid" them. I was maybe four or five. I remember that three of my siblings were with me, two were younger. We had too many cousins near our age for the truth to not get around.

[mythology]

15. I was always told Santa Claus didn't exist

My dad thought it was wrong to commercialize Christmas (or that's what he said but he never let me go trick or treating, believe in the Easter Bunny or get any money from the Tooth Fairy, so he's probably just an asshat).

Additionally we couldn't put the tree up until Christmas Eve and then it had to come down exactly 12 days later.

[Kaleva]

16. When quite young as the bastard kept giving me long underwear, wool socks...

mitts and other crap that no 4-5 is ever thrilled to get.

[Lady Freedom Returns]

17. I was 12 years old...

Many of the school bullies knew I still believed and they went at me all the time. One day in Oct. I had enough and slugged one. I sprained my wrist and had to go to the emergence room. While they were getting ready to do some x-rays my dad told me the truth.I had to apologies to the bullies that use to throw rock at me on the way home from school, steal my lunch and made my school days hell. I felt that they won that day.

[Baitball Blogger]

19. Don't remember the exact age, but I remember faking I didn't know

for the longest time.

[Lady Freedom Returns]

20. Hung in there for that one extra present.

Nice!

[pipi_k]

21. Can't

quite remember the exact age.

Ten? Eleven?

I do know that I became suspicious when I noticed that "Santa's" printing on our gifts was the same as my father's printing, which was very neat and very precise. My parents said it was because Santa dropped the presents off and they wrapped them and wrote our names on the gifts.

One thing that always broke my heart was hearing from my father, when I got older, how awful he felt when my parents couldn't afford the type and quantity of presents other kids got when we had been just as good and deserved as much as they did. It really bothered him.

That, I think, would be one reason why, if I had kids now, I would not do the whole Santa thing.

[struggle4progress]

22. I always follow the Air Force tracking reports to learn where he is

[Yavin4]

23. Um..What do you mean by "stopped believing in Santa Claus"?

You say that like Santa doesn't exist or something.

[Libertas1776]

24. Whoa whoa whoa

what do you mean there's no SANTA!!!!????

[Squinch]

30. Don't even listen. They're trying to freak us out. My family used to do this to me all the time.

[Shrek]

25. When did you stop believing in gravity? N/T

[sigsauerlnv8553ef]

26. about 9 years old

[hrmjustin]

34. Another one of my welcomes gone wrong. I did not read his name. the second delete was

an accident. The poster has been PPR'd because of the name. I thought it was one of those computer picked names. Again my apology.

[freshwest]

36. Nothing to apologize for, the fault was his.

[Honeycombe8]

38. What....

does that poster's name mean? It seems like gobbledygook to me.

[hrmjustin]

40. A particular gun. I thought it was gobbledygook as well, but Mirt ppr'd right away.

[Honeycombe8]

41. Oh. I've never heard of it. nt

[Taverner]

27. I say this with great shame - 11

[Major Nikon]

29. Around the same time I stopped believing in god

Whenever that was.

[sakabatou]

31. I never believed

Grew up in a Jewish household

[MiddleFingerMom]

32. "I remember realizing he probably wasn't really real"

.
.
.
YOU TAKE THAT BACK!!!!!!
.
.
.

[Honeycombe8]

39. Oh, I wish I could. If only there really were a jolly man flying in a sleigh in the sky...

bringing gifts for all children.

[Kali]

42. !!!

[hunter]

37. Forget Santa, we didn't even believe in Christmas.

Disillusioned by Catholicism, my mom had bounced around several churches and landed with the Jehovah Witnesses. They consider Christmas a pagan holiday stolen by Catholics (which it is) and celebrating it will get you excluded from the chosen 144,000. Revealing that secret to my grade school peers contributed to my status as a weird kid. I didn't say the pledge of allegiance either.

My Father's parents couldn't deal with this so Christmas in our family was always a religious war, sometimes cold, sometimes hot.

Eventually the Witnesses couldn't take any more of my mom and one day a couple of large men told her she was no longer welcome in their kingdom hall. I think my dad skipped that day to play handball. We ended up as Quakers. After that our Christmases were a little more peaceful.

My kids have enjoyed ordinary American Catholic Christmases, not the kind of Christmases I suffered as a child with my mom throwing dishes at grandpa, grandpa yelling, dad standing between them, and grandma sobbing in the corner. Or, just as bad, the adults all cold and polite throwing daggers at one another with their eyes.

[WCGreen]

43. I busted outa the womb and grabbed my mom by her pubes and said...

Don't try to feed me none of the Santa Claus Bull Shit, I'm on to your bull shit....

[Rhythm]

44. I was about 10 or so...

The next year, i got the greatest gift of all...
I got to help BE Santa... and help dad build my little brother's new bicycle!

[datasuspect]

45. when i used the scientific method, deductive reasoning, and empiricism

to determine the falsity of santa claus.

I was 4 or 5 years old.

after that i never 100% trusted an adult again. i knew they were full of shit.