Follow-up: For those with children, do you continue the ruse with your own children, or simply tell them it’s you who gives the gifts? Why or why not?
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Six. My lone Jewish friend told me. It was a big old fucking bummer.
I never grew up with him. So it was never a question for me.
Around 9, when I was basically up half of the night, and the presents were there, without any noise from the door (we don’t have a chimney)
I was a skeptic since at least the age of six. I remember having to write a letter to Santa in first grade and basically wrote down I didn’t believe in him. I wouldn’t want to teach my kids the “Santa is real” nonsense, otherwise they might believe God is too.
I dont think I ever really believed. We lived in a trailer when I was a kid so there wasnt a chimney and Idk why but thats always what stood out to me as a kid. Also at that point there were so many christmas movies where the plot was people not believing and I think that also caused me to think there was a pretty valid reason behind that especially when they pointed out “how does he make it to all the kids houses around the world in one night.”
I don’t remember a time when I truly believed that he was real. I remember thinking that it was my parents, but I didn’t want to believe that. I wanted to believe that there was a magic dude who would hook me up with presents. But it was illogical and we kept up with the whole thing, because I wanted my parents to enjoy it too.
I’m not sure I ever really believed a big fat man would slide down our chimney to deliver presents on his sleigh. The fantasy of it was fun though. For me it was a pretty smooth transition to not doing Santa stuff.
As a child I wasn’t good at accepting much of anything at face value. If I did ever believe I was quite young.
I think I was 3 the year my mom had to work as an Easter Bunny at a photo op to make ends meet, and I’m not sure much belief survived seeing the Easter Bunny rip its head off and reveal my mother inside.
Obviously Santa Claus is real. Spiritual beings exist in the same sense that love and other concepts exist and it’s completely absurd to say otherwise.
Santa is a Jesus variant!
I questioned it around 8 and fully stopped believing around 10. When you behave and ask for the same gift three years in a row you start to wonder. Before that I believed that he was magic and was incredibly fast.
Years ago I didn’t want to teach my children about Santa because of the Christian connections, but then I realized why we have holidays over winter. If it makes them happy I’ll do it, but I’ll also be teaching them about all the other connections to pagan religions when they’re old enough to understand.
Why do you need Santa at all? Why not just teach them, every year around this time we give gifts to each other
Same reason why we have the tooth fairy.
Same reason why we create all sorts of other things for kids. To allow kids to be kids and have fun. To help them see the good in the world before we rip the rug out from under them, and show them the world just plain fucking sucks.
I think lying to kids is how you hurt them.
Kids can have fun without that lie: “Let’s make cookies together and eat them. Let’s hang up stockings and put surprises in them for each other. Let’s decorate a tree and make a fun video”.
You do you. I don’t see it as a lie, but again you raise your kids as you want.
Same to you! What’s a little trauma, right? They’ll grow out of it.
If that’s enough to cause them trauma, I kind of feel sorry for any kid with that thin of skin.
Being lied to by your protector and guardian is enough to traumatize anyone at that age. You shouldn’t be shaming the people who get hurt by it, you should be shaming the people that do it.
5 or 6. I don’t remember if I figured it out myself or if someone just told me the truth, but I do remember that I quickly started asking my parents if all the other magical beings were real too (Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, etc).
What I wanna know is who are all these people claiming that Santa Claus is not fucking real!?
Of course he’s real.
Around 4. The chimney in the house was to small to fit anything bigger than a fist; somehow my child mind refused to parse the notion of a very fat man sliding down it. Also, the roof was so inclined birds avoided it, so no chance of parking a sled and whatever number of reindeers up there.
I don’t push the tale as a fact but I did told it to many children as something we should cherish as a symbol of good will and kindness toward each other. The legend of Odin (the original santa) is always a success and I tell it in the most epic way I find, whith Sleipnir ridding the storm clouds in the Great Hunt.
Legends should inspire, not create delusions, is what I go for.
The legend of Odin (the original santa) is always a success and I tell it in the most epic way I find, whith Sleipnir ridding the storm clouds in the Great Hunt.
I would watch this holiday stage play every year.
pretty early. 5 or 6. religious celebration salad + small thinking just won’t let that pass through. it became a family in-joke after.
philosophy class got me a glimpse of adulting and got me believing again.
I get what you mean. Christmas was never about the religious aspect for me, but about family getting together, the holiday cheer, and exchanging gifts. Also, booze and huge meals.
I’m an atheist, but I still celebrate Christmas.
I realized the note from the Easter bunny was in my father’s handwriting. I felt “in on the joke” and remember that applying to other holidays like Xmas too. I must have been 6 or 8.
