Discussion When did you find out Santa wasn't real?

[EternalShore]

This question comes up a bunch, and I'm kinda interested in when we stopped believing in Santa Claus! :3 or if we ever believed in him at all~ or if we still do (y'all have great convictions and determination btw~ :D)~ ^_^

feel free to tell your tale if you wish too! ^_^ altho, they can be rather sad tbh~ :(
if anyone's interested, I never believed in him as far as I can remember tbh~ I only ironically did when I reached my older elementary, tween, and early teenage years~

 

[AngelTear]

I was raised as a Jehovah's Witness so I never had the chance to believe in fairy tales...

 

[scarystrawberry]

I mean I was always kinda like there's no way but I remember three events that stuck out to me:
(1) I wanted a paint kit for my birthday. Parents didn't want to get it for me so I said fine I'll just ask Santa for it for it Christmas since they're somewhat close together dates and then my parents got mad and said they would tell Santa not to get it for me lmao. I don't even remember the context just that being suspicious.

2. Two fifth graders being like ´yeah he's obviously not real' in elementary school and me overhearing them in the library in like third grade

3. My mom telling me my family in India doesn't celebrate Christmas so that's why my cousins in India didn't know what I was talking about when I was like « what are you going to ask Santa for? » and me being like oh if he's just this entity who can go anywhere from the North Pole why is he being mean to my cousins…maybe this man is just a story if he only exists where ppl know about him?

This was fun to answer lol

 

[Namelesa Graves]

When my parents had me, we stopped doing the whole santa is real thing due to older siblings getting upset when they were told he isn't so I never believed he was real. Weirdly tho i believed in the tooth fairy tho.

 

[Dejected 55]

Enjoying stories as entertainment and communicating good values or lessons is one thing... but I never subscribed to the notion of adults tricking kids into believing such things were real. I've had this discussion with religious people and I always posit to them that if they want/expect their children to trust them and to believe in their religion, it made no sense to me for them to trick their kids into believing a fantasy that they would later pull the rug out from under those kids. Seems like it just sows the seeds for distrust in those kids.

 

[EternalShore]

This was fun to answer lol

How neat~ ^_^ I had fun reading your answer! :D

When my parents had me, we stopped doing the whole santa is real thing due to older siblings getting upset when they were told he isn't so I never believed he was real. Weirdly tho i believed in the tooth fairy tho.

aww~ poor them~ :( I do think I remember you mentioning that about the tooth fairy before! :3

Enjoying stories as entertainment and communicating good values or lessons is one thing... but I never subscribed to the notion of adults tricking kids into believing such things were real. I've had this discussion with religious people and I always posit to them that if they want/expect their children to trust them and to believe in their religion, it made no sense to me for them to trick their kids into believing a fantasy that they would later pull the rug out from under those kids. Seems like it just sows the seeds for distrust in those kids.

yeahhh, this is why my parents never did that to me, and I don't plan on telling my kids he's real either~ There's no need to make one's kids more cynical towards authority, adults, and religion than they already are when they're tweens~

 

[Claymore7274]

I never really thought about santa being real, since my parents never gave me any presents around that time. They were real broke

 

[Black_Knight]

Never thought he was. I was a huge skeptic of everything as a child. Turned out this threatened my bpd father's sense of self and authority (no shade on bpd people, I inherited his bpd myself, and that actually helps me empathize with him because I know the way it made him feel and I understand the twisted way he dealt with it. But a little too late and after the fact).

I basically didn't have a childhood. I started as a cynical little person and regressed to childlike tendencies I didn't get to have as an "adult". Now I'm in my 30s and competing with literal 18 year olds who are smarter and more mature than me. It's a fucking mindwarp. (I hate the word competition here btw, learning shouldn't be competitive but whatever, I don't write the rules. I just ruthlessly criticize and whine about them xD)

 

[girl from mars]

the funny part is that I know about when I stopped believing (8-9,) but I can't remember why... I remember talking on the swing set one day with a friend and just intuitively knowing it. perhaps that was the moment I grew up

 

[Pluto]

 

[psp3000]

I never believed he was real I think it was because we were poor but mainly because they attempted to make me believe in god too
and I was a very skeptical child and they ruined the thought of a higher being for me not only because it seemed hateful to me but because of their own bad parenting (ex. "a god cannot be real, if it were I wouldn't have such xyz (negative traits) for parents and all of these bad experiences thus far")

 

[MissAbyss]

So, he isn't real...? No, no, no! Don't shatter my reality into pieces please!

 

[cemeteryismyhome]

I was raised as a Jehovah's Witness so I never had the chance to believe in fairy tales...

same

 

[Angst Filled Fuck Up]

This is a real tearjerker I know, but late on Christmas eve 1990 I remember seeing my parents walking back and forth from the garden shed bringing presents into the house. I couldn't sleep and was peeking out my bedroom window.

Oddly enough my first thought wasn't "Santa isn't real" but it was more "why would Santa make my parents do all this? Seems lazy."

In hindsight I don't think I was the brightest bulb in the box. Mind you what's new.

 

[bunnƴ]

Maybe not believing in Santa as a toddler has a correlation with being suicidal

 

[leloyon]

He's fuckin' real, alright. And I, for one, aint getting shit, and anyone else he woulda went to after my house aint either.

 

[heywey]

Story goes that my older sister at age ~5 grilled our parents until they finally admitted the truth. There's no way she would have kept the secret from me lol so it was just kind of common knowledge growing up.

 

[mlha]

I can't remember when I stopped believing in the gift bringer. Btw. in my part of the world the gift bringer is Baby Jesus, not Santa.

 

[Leyna]

Not sure when but I recall seeing presents in my parents' room that had "From Santa" on it and didn't connect the dots. I still believed in Santa.

I was not a smart child.

 

[Zyntkalla]

I missed all of my childhood. I more remember always being clueless than anything even now I sill have it. I missed out on all of those holidays, socializing, understanding any of it. For me life always seemed dull & boring.

 

[NoPoint2Life]

I can't remember the exact age. 10 o 11? I was already extremely suspicious of the tooth fairy. The Easter bunny too. Santa, I was still a bit iffy on. But we were going upstate to my Nana's for Christmas. When my parents were getting all the stuff into the car I came across a bag of already wrapped gifts labeled to me from Santa.
But I didn't say anything that year. Must have been sometime in the following year I confessed I knew.

 

[bliss.bmp]

i don't think i ever believed he existed but i used to pretend i did so that i would still get presents on christmas day

 

[YandereMikuMistress]

I never had to think about it i knew and I know he isn't.

 

[Zyntkalla]

i don't think i ever believed he existed but i used to pretend i did so that i would still get presents on christmas day

I definitely did that too

 

[Dejected 55]

I liked all the cartoons and books and stories and songs... but my parents never tried to convince me.

I distinctly remember being in 2nd grade and barely 7 years old... and the teacher pulling me aside and instructing me to not ruin Christmas for everyone else by telling the other kids there was no Santa Claus. I remember being very confused by the authority figure I was supposed to respect and obey telling me that I was supposed to lie and support the lie for the class.

For the record, it's not like I went to class and stood on my desk and declared there was no Santa Claus. It had come up in conversations with other kids who brought up the subject and I just said he wasn't real and was quite surprised the other kids were so insistent. Many of them were almost more insistent in Santa Claus being real than they were of their Christian faith... which also confused me at the time.

 

[Andarna]

I once forgot to mention in my letter to Santa about this one toy I really wanted. I was in tears, telling my mom I'd never get it because my letter had mysteriously disappeared and I had lost the chance to fix it. But then *plot twist* I got the toy anyway! Because of that, my little brain kicked into overdrive, and that's how I uncovered the terrifying truth. I had wasted a postage stamp.

 

[Zyntkalla]

I once forgot to mention in my letter to Santa about this one toy I really wanted. I was in tears, telling my mom I'd never get it because my letter had mysteriously disappeared and I had lost the chance to fix it. But then *plot twist* I got the toy anyway! Because of that, my little brain kicked into overdrive, and that's how I uncovered the terrifying truth. I had wasted a postage stamp.

Funny & Sad story, but it's kind of funny with the ending with the postage.What really made the twist and made me laugh.

 

[Custos]

I always took it as a game you went along with, like movies aren't real.

 

[AlTheObviousAlien]

Celebrate Christmas. Love Christmas. This is a Christmas family. We give our presents with love, thoughts and appreciation. Not Santa.

 

[underairpressure]

I started to voice my suspicions around 4-5, but my parent's had a really clever plan to convince me he was real (paid an outside contractor who was fixing part of our house pretend he found some "evidence" and present it to me lmao)

But around 7-8 I was still suspicious so I pulled the classic "sneak downstairs to catch your parents putting Santa's gifts under the tree" move.