How did you find out that Santa Claus was...?

Hammer89

I'm not in the business of destroying dreams, so I kept the title open-ended.

Everybody remembers this, right? It's a seminal moment in life. It's the moment you discover that the world is actually a bit boring and sh*t, about as magical as Uri Geller around wooden spoons. I do. My memory's a little hazy, but I was still living in my childhood home at the time so I would've been, say, eight years old.

Anywho, this would've been shortly after Christmas because I got a letter from the man himself thanking me for milk and cookies. Right off the bat I knew something was amiss because we left him a club milk - who the f*ck kept cookies in the 90s? Not my home and not any home that I was familiar with.

That planted the seed of doubt; one that blossomed further when I saw 'Clerys' on the back of the letter. Mum worked there at the time. "How queer," I thought to myself. "Could that really be a coincidence?" I confronted her. "Mum, level with me babe: did you send this?" The jig was up. She was f*cked and she knew it. I genuinely remember her reaction when I asked if he was real. She didn't have to answer. Her face told me and oh how I cried. I was devastated. The world stopped being magical from that day on. Or did it?

Mum was a single parent, on a f*cking Clerys salary, and still Santa Claus managed to deliver all the sh*t my little sister and I demanded in our Santa letters. Looking back, that's as miraculous as visiting every house on planet earth in the space of about eight hours because it's real.

If there's any single mothers, or fathers, on here dreading Christmas because your kids still believe in Santa, I salute you. It must be f*cking hard, but it's worth it.

I can't remember how I found out, but I remember how my son found out.

Something happened at Easter, I can't exactly remember what, which led to my wife saying that of course the incident meant that the Easter Bunny was made up. He looked right at her with a look of astonishment and said "so if the Easter Bunny isn't real, doesn't that mean.......?". We had to own up. He was let's just say highly surprised, but only for a few minutes.

martingriff

Deleted User wrote: »

I can't remember how I found out, but I remember how my son found out.

Something happened at Easter, I can't exactly remember what, which led to my wife saying that of course the incident meant that the Easter Bunny was made up. He looked right at her with a look of astonishment and said "so if the Easter Bunny isn't real, doesn't that mean.......?". We had to own up. He was let's just say highly surprised, but only for a few minutes.

Funny enough that was the same way for me but instead of Easter bunny it was the tooth fairy

Into The Blue

I was about 8, lying in bed pretending to be asleep watching my parents place the stockings at the end of my and my brothers beds.

Heart broken.

yes there

Looking for money in my ma's purse and I found our letters to santa still in there.
Not as if I could confront my ma so I told my sister and she confirmed it for me.

Hammer89

Into The Blue wrote: »

I was about 8, lying in bed pretending to be asleep watching my parents place the stockings at the end of my and my brothers beds.

Heart broken.

Rookie mistake. Don't they know children are about as tired as a cokehead during a rave on Christmas eve?

martingriff

Hammer89 wrote: »

Rookie mistake. Don't they know children are about as tired as a cokehead during a rave on Christmas eve?

Post of the day

Medusa22

I was about eight when I began to question whether Santa was real or not, I'd previously found out that the toothfairy wasn't real so I had a sneaking suspicion that it was the same for Santa.

I sat my mother down to have a serious conversation about the matter, and I told her that she had to be honest with me, she asked me if I really wanted to know, and I said ''yes'' and she said that he wasn't real and I said ''but will I still get presents?'' and she said that I would, so I was mildly disappointed but relieved that I'd still get presents.

Azalea

I'd say from about age 7/8 onwards there are children who start to realise the truth deep down and massive denial kicks in. But the hints start to resonate at that age - e.g. why doesn't Santa give presents to poor children - they can't all be naughty, why is there all this talk of his elves making the toys in the workshop when most of them are clearly shop-bought, why do the number of gifts vary from child to child?

To be fair, the logistics of the flying sleigh/reindeer, same being able to carry enough toys for children around the whole world, Santa fitting down the chimney etc can easily be explained - magic. But not the other stuff.

When I was seven I left out a few Season's Greetings for him but the wrappers left behind were of different sweets to the ones I left. I reckoned he didn't like the ones I left out though, so he magicked up his preferred flavours (or just found the box and made swaps).

A year or two later it struck me that some children's presents were wrapped but ours weren't.

When I was 10, a girl in my class went around telling everyone. Initially I was gutted - my mother briefly convinced me it was a lie and Santa just didn't visit her because she didn't believe (I'm the youngest - she wanted to hold onto Santa being part of Christmas as long as possible, bless ) but then I faced facts, and felt well grown up. At 10 I had good innings in fairness. Loved those years when that auld fella was around though.

That first Santa-less Christmas at age 10 felt a wee bit sad...

The Backwards Man

Bullys told me when I was five.

On the plus side, they are both sad bastard losers now. Not that I hold a grudge!

Mountainsandh

I don't remember my experience, but my Mum always tells me how she felt terrible because I got very upset and said : "i know, but couldn't you let me believe for another while ???".

So now my daughter's ten, nothing gets past her, and I think she knows and wants to hold on to the belief for another while, and I dread the moment of truth because I know she'll hate it. She's practically my clone inside and outside, scarily so at times.

NachoBusiness

:eek:

Nodin

...a muslim? The beard, the way he stopped drinking the stout, the lack of pork products as random presents.

Jude13

Hammer89 wrote: »

I'm not in the business of destroying dreams, so I kept the title open-ended.

Everybody remembers this, right? It's a seminal moment in life. It's the moment you discover that the world is actually a bit boring and sh*t, about as magical as Uri Geller around wooden spoons. I do. My memory's a little hazy, but I was still living in my childhood home at the time so I would've been, say, eight years old.

Anywho, this would've been shortly after Christmas because I got a letter from the man himself thanking me for milk and cookies. Right off the bat I knew something was amiss because we left him a club milk - who the f*ck kept cookies in the 90s? Not my home and not any home that I was familiar with.

That planted the seed of doubt; one that blossomed further when I saw 'Clerys' on the back of the letter. Mum worked there at the time. "How queer," I thought to myself. "Could that really be a coincidence?" I confronted her. "Mum, level with me babe: did you send this?" The jig was up. She was f*cked and she knew it. I genuinely remember her reaction when I asked if he was real. She didn't have to answer. Her face told me and oh how I cried. I was devastated. The world stopped being magical from that day on. Or did it?

Mum was a single parent, on a f*cking Clerys salary, and still Santa Claus managed to deliver all the sh*t my little sister and I demanded in our Santa letters. Looking back, that's as miraculous as visiting every house on planet earth in the space of about eight hours because it's real.

If there's any single mothers, or fathers, on here dreading Christmas because your kids still believe in Santa, I salute you. It must be f*cking hard, but it's worth it.

One of the few times I wish I count thank a post twice. Wonderfully written.

Padster90s

Figured it out when I was 9 or 10, I think that'd be considered late these days! Just didn't add up, we had to send, the shoe box presents to Africa so why didn't Santa go there. Just didn't make sense when I got to a certain age! To be fair I think as I was the last for him in the house my parents wanted to hold on to Santa for as long as they could, could you blame them!! Thinking back the tooth fairy and Easter bunny never really happened in our house! We got money off Gran for teeth! The upside side was that when I did send letters to Santa I was a sneak and put 5 or 10 pound in them to get on Santa's good side! Found the letters in mam and dads room one Paddy's Day and had 45 pounds for myself!! Just made the change over to the euro to by about 10 days! Course it also meant they never actually read them!!

lc180

I was about 7 or 8, my older next door neighbour told me the craic, he thought he was way cool being in the know and telling everyone.

This person grew up to be a d**k, who would have guessed!

pappyodaniel

I don't think I ever got over the trauma of finding out that Santa was a lie. When you think about it, it's kind of a messed up thing to do to a child. The fantasy is all well and good but the kid is gonna find out eventually and is probably going to resent you for lying to them and making them feel stupid.

Santa Claus is a crock of sh!t but in some ways he makes about as much sense as what they tell you in the Bible.

Aglomerado

I was looking for the cat, who had run into my parents' bedroom. And I saw the things I'd written to Santa for! I kept up the pretence till Christmas day though. It didn't seem right to announce it straight away. I was 10 and this was 1987. A few days later our witch of a teacher announced to the class that she hoped no child in her class still believed in childish things like Santa. One of my friends cried all the way home.

Hammer89

lc180 wrote: »

I was about 7 or 8, my older next door neighbour told me the craic, he thought he was way cool being in the know and telling everyone.

This person grew up to be a d**k, who would have guessed!

Once one kid knows then forget about it. It'll spread like wildfire.

Hammer89

Hammer89 wrote: »

I'm not in the business of destroying dreams, so I kept the title open-ended.

Everybody remembers this, right? It's a seminal moment in life. It's the moment you discover that the world is actually a bit boring and sh*t, about as magical as Uri Geller around wooden spoons. I do. My memory's a little hazy, but I was still living in my childhood home at the time so I would've been, say, eight years old.

Anywho, this would've been shortly after Christmas because I got a letter from the man himself thanking me for milk and cookies. Right off the bat I knew something was amiss because we left him a club milk - who the f*ck kept cookies in the 90s? Not my home and not any home that I was familiar with.

That planted the seed of doubt; one that blossomed further when I saw 'Clerys' on the back of the letter. Mum worked there at the time. "How queer," I thought to myself. "Could that really be a coincidence?" I confronted her. "Mum, level with me babe: did you send this?" The jig was up. She was f*cked and she knew it. I genuinely remember her reaction when I asked if he was real. She didn't have to answer. Her face told me and oh how I cried. I was devastated. The world stopped being magical from that day on. Or did it?

Mum was a single parent, on a f*cking Clerys salary, and still Santa Claus managed to deliver all the sh*t my little sister and I demanded in our Santa letters. Looking back, that's as miraculous as visiting every house on planet earth in the space of about eight hours because it's real.

If there's any single mothers, or fathers, on here dreading Christmas because your kids still believe in Santa, I salute you. It must be f*cking hard, but it's worth it.

OP, that's a magical post in itself. I'm not ashamed to say that a tear trickled down my eye after reading the last couple of paragraphs. This tells me two things.

1. You've got both a way with words and a wonderful mother, you're a lucky guy/girl.

2. My PMS is really kicking in.

I learned the truth on Christmas day when I was about 10. I tiptoed down the stairs unbeknownst to my older siblings and parents, only to overhear my granny exclaim loudly "I can't believe we got her to believe in Santa for another year!". Then there were mutterings from the siblings about me being a bit of a gullible thick.

Hammer89

Candie wrote: »

OP, that's a magical post in itself. I'm not ashamed to say that a tear trickled down my eye after reading the last couple of paragraphs. This tells me two things.

1. You've got both a way with words and a wonderful mother, you're a lucky guy/girl.

2. My PMS is really kicking in.

I learned the truth on Christmas day when I was about 10. I tiptoed down the stairs unbeknownst to my older siblings and parents, only to overhear my granny exclaim loudly "I can't believe we got her to believe in Santa for another year!". Then there were mutterings from the siblings about me being a bit of a gullible thick.

This will be my first Christmas without mum, who died earlier in the year, so I got a little teary-eyed writing it too.

Hammer89

Hammer89 wrote: »

This will be my first Christmas without mum, who died earlier in the year, so I got a little teary-eyed writing it too.

You poor darling. I hope you have a lovely time remembering her, and that it's not too painful. Be kind to yourself over Christmas, it's what she'd want.



I'm totally bawling now.

jimgoose

I don't quite apprehend the question?

alchemist33

I can't remember the age, but I almost totally disbelieved by the time I read a letter in a Sunday newpaper, relating a story from a dad who dressed as Santa while leaving the presents, then tripped on the robe coming down the stairs and broke a limb. I suppose the editors of the News Of the World didn't expect kids to be reading the letters page!

smash

My son is 10. I know he doesn't believe, but he says he does so he'll get presents. The doubt started a few years ago when another kid said something in the school yard to try and spoil it for him. At that time his favourite movie was the polar express and for those of you who haven't seen it, it's about a kid who almost stops believing but ends up going to the north poll on the polar express and Santa gives him a bell off his sleigh, but only those who believe can hear the bell ringing when you shake it. My mother ordered one of the bells on-line for him and we hid it in the tree. Come Christmas morning my parents called over and I asked him to reach under the tree to get their presents but in doing so, the bell fell out. We all pretended we didn't hear it fall, but the look in his eyes was priceless and it saved the magic for another year.

frozenfrozen

I was getting a lift home from a friends house, the mother driving was so stoned (realised this many years later) she missed the turn no less than five times on the dual carraigeway for my road. and had to loop all the way back around which took easily 5 minutes each time. JUST as we were pulling up outside my house I can't remember the exact wording but my friend said something about santa not being real, his mother took in a huge gasp, and he just said "oh frozenfrozen; you obviously don't believe in santa, do you?"

..I just said of course not.. got out of the car and as soon as I got in the door saw my mam and said 'santa isn't real is he?' she just hugged me and I shit you not she all said was 'that little bastard'. One of the only times in my childhood I ever heard her curse, and she was right, that little spoiled bastard child with his **** parents stole easily another few years of magic from me.

Not sure what age I was but it was well before the rest of the class found out. I saw it happen for them and I couldn't believe it. I tried my best to defend poor santa but the seed had already been sown. A little know-it-all with two tight parents who had never done christmas for him decided that when he was asked what he was getting for christmas he would let everyone know exactly what the real story was.

****ers, the lot of them.

_Brian

I think I was eleven. We were out Christmas shopping and my dad worked it naturally into the conversation, he knew I knew but wanted to be sure.

My daughter is 12 now and similarly we had the crack with her during the summer gone by. She knew last year but worked with it for the younger sisters sake, she's seven.
I was dreading my daughter not believing any more but I suppose a bit like she was ready seems so were we. She's helping us sus out what her sister would like as we don't have lists - it's a surprise each year and that's it.

All that said, the 12 YO has no idea what she's getting for Christmas and it will be laid out as if from Santa.
So in many ways we all get to go in pretending, happy days

Ruu

Older neighbour told me about 10. He said my Mam and Dad was Santa. I started to say while picturing them in red suits and fake beards, wait how do they travel around the...oh.

lazeedaisy

My sister told us all, she was 13, brother was 12, sister was 11, I was 10 and baby was 8, she took us to the attic and showed us...

Ths was before the Easter bunny, waaaayyy before...

Plazaman

I was 9 when next door neighbour, a lanky 11 year old, told me and my younger buddy that it was our parents that buy everything and Mr C was all a crock of sh1t.

Younger friend burst into tears and ran home, I was in shock and holding some sort of a toy which I flung at the lanker hitting him square in face drawing blood and calling him a lying liar.

That evening his mother turns up at my door (with him in tow) demanding my mother to punish me for hurting her angel who is smirking away. "He's telling everyone that Santa isn't real" I cry. Cue Lankys mouth drop open, his mother clipping him across the back of the head and dragging him home while apologising to me.

Fcuker still has a scar which I relish to this day.

Atlantic Dawn

It came down to the basics of common sense, the rich people got great presents the poor did not, clearly it was somehow linked to your families wealth and not some generous bearded lad.

lazeedaisy

lazeedaisy wrote: »

My sister told us all, she was 13, brother was 12, sister was 11, I was 10 and baby was 8, she took us to the attic and showed us...

Ths was before the Easter bunny, waaaayyy before...

Siblings are the very worst offenders.

Whitewinged

I was about 8 or 9. I had seen and heard a few things that made me question it.

My mother popped out to the neighbours house so I decided to start looking for things. Went into her bedroom and opened the top press of the fitted wardrobes. I saw two bags and ended up pulling all the toys down on top of myself.

Had a quick realisation and panic that my mother could be back any second. I ran to the window and she was chatting to someone in the garden. Shouted to my brother whose 5 years older to "help" because i couldnt reach the shelf properly to get the toys back in. He ran up the stairs and gave me a look as if to say "what have you done?". He quickly threw all the toys back into the wardrobe. Only one of the many times that he saved me from getting into trouble.

Fr_Dougal

I was about 15...repeating my mock Junior Cert exams...dark times...

MilesMorales1

I was 11, just gone into secondary. I had a pretty big argument with someone in my new year 7 class about the existence of Father christmas, to the extent that the teacher called my mum in, and she told me on the way home.

Absolutely gutted I Am was

tonto24

I was 9 i think, new bike for xmas on the way, looked out the window xmas eve morning, my bro decided he would take it for a spin around the garden. D%ickhead

podgemonster

I was staying in my aunts house after school one day. It was coming into the Christmas season but my aunt didn't care for cartoons. She'd leave the telly set on RTE 1, so she'd never miss the news and hide the remote.

On that particular afternoon there was an RTE show where they addressed Television complaints from the public, it was on between Live@3 and the Nuacht.

It was December and the show played a clip from EastEnders where another parent accuses another of telling their child their is no Santa Claus, the accused parent said that the whole thing was sentimental nonsense. The clip stops and the programme then reads out 2 to 3 letters from the public complaining about revealing the truth to children about St. Nick. Finally the segment concludes with a short debate on when is the right time to tell kids that Santy isn't real.

I remember sitting there on my aunts spotless carpet floor, my jaw clenched in shock. I wasnt sure what just happened, everything I had know had been a lie and the box in the corner of the room that had been my friend for so long had just kicked me in the teeth. I was 7.

Cb9

When I was 4 I decided to stay awake all night at christmas to see santa. I just saw my ma and eldest brother putting the presents at the end of the bed, and pretended to be asleep. I told my ma I knew about it christmas morning, she was surprised I wasn't crying or screaming about, I didn't really care too much for some reason, just accepted it and moved on.

DA7800

I was 9 when I found out. I had my suspicions anyway, but I overheard a phone conversation between my parents that confirmed it for me. I talked to my mum afterwards, she said that she had a feeling that I had known.

The following year, when my sister was 9, I had a big argument about the existence of Santa Clause. I figured since she was the same age now as I was when I found out, she should know too. So after about 5 minutes of childish squabbling, she said "so prove it" and I took her to where the Christmas presents were hidden... she swore she would say nothing, but half an hour later I got a lash across the backside and was told that I ruined Christmas.

Whenever I think of how my sister found out I cringe and remember how much of a disgusting human being I am, particularly because I did it just out of a need to be right about it.

pappyodaniel

pappyodaniel wrote: »

I don't think I ever got over the trauma of finding out that Santa was a lie. When you think about it, it's kind of a messed up thing to do to a child.

Perhaps - I would not like to judge really - but I know for me it is not something I am doing with my kids - or intend to do with my future kids. I just will not be doing the Santa thing with them at all.

_Kaiser_

Great OP.

I can't remember exactly when I found out/realised though but I'm gonna say mid-80s when I was 10. I remember getting a pile of Transformers that year

Like the OP's mother, my mam worked damn hard to look after 2 young kids (in a foreign country no less as we'd moved to Holland for a few years because of the economic situation at home) and she worked all sorts of crazy hours on shift to provide for us, which meant that I frequently had to get myself and my sister to school and back with only a neighbour to keep an occasional eye on things (imagine the horror now if you suggested that! :rolleyes:)

Although I didn't realise it at the time, as I've gotten older I've come to appreciate just how hard it must have been on her (she was only in her late 20s herself at the time) and even when she got sick and we had to come home, she still scrimped and saved from her invalidity pension so that we both got the chance to go to college and provide for ourselves.

She passed away a few months back after a long drawn-out and finally painful illness, but she beat all the odds (when she was originally diagnosed they gave her 6 months) and although we had plenty of arguments too over the years, I'll always be thankful for the sacrifices she made for us.

Kovu

I think I was 9 or 10 and Dad had lost his job earlier in the year so things were tight. Ran down early Christmas morning to see what Santa had brought, there was one wrapped box beside the fireplace. I didn't mind, I was and am an outdoor person with a good imagination so anything was a toy/potential game.
However, Mum had used the wrapping paper which was in the press (which I had used only a day or two before) and I put two and two together in about ten seconds. Asked my parents when they got up and they just looked at me sorta sadly and nodded.

LoonyLovegood

I was eight. My little sister had to get a tooth removed on Christmas eve, so I was sitting bored in the waiting room. Asked the kid beside me what was she getting off Santa, and got "I went shopping with my Mom, Santa's not real!" I was sitting on my own, Mam was in with my sister, and I just froze. Didn't tell Mam until almost a week later, and she just hugged me because it was probably the cruelest day to tell someone.

Although I'm 21 now, the youngest at home is 15, I've moved out (as has my sister) and we still do Santa. We write a list, Mam and Dad buy stuff, but we've no idea what we'll get. It's the best time of year.

RhubarbCrumble

lc180 wrote: »

I was about 7 or 8, my older next door neighbour told me the craic, he thought he was way cool being in the know and telling everyone.

This person grew up to be a d**k, who would have guessed!

Similar enough story here. I was in second class, just turned eight and one little f****r in the class went around asking if we believed in Santa. We all said yes (we were all about 7 and 8 and this was the late 1980's so 99% of us were still believing at that age) and he told us that we were stupid, there was no such thing as Santa and your parents bought the presents.

Not surprisingly he grew up to be a d**k as well. What a surprise!

Shenshen

Bit of a different story here, I grew up somewhere that doesn't do Santa Claus. Our parents used to tell us the presents were brought by the baby Jesus, but even that was always very obviously tongue in cheek. Nobody ever thought to turn it into this big thing that you'd want children to believe in.
The Easter Bunny, on the other hand, they put a lot of work in making us believe. Particularly my grandfather, who thought it was the best laugh ever making us try and find it or even catch it. Elaborate Easter Bunny traps and all that.
But I stopped believing those stories when I was around 6, I think. Can't remember still believing when I started school.

So, I will read the OP's question as "When did you find out that Santa was .... actually a huge deal in some countries?" - So that was in 2002 when I came over here. I was 28 at the time.

Hammer89

LoonyLovegood wrote: »

I was eight. My little sister had to get a tooth removed on Christmas eve, so I was sitting bored in the waiting room. Asked the kid beside me what was she getting off Santa, and got "I went shopping with my Mom, Santa's not real!" I was sitting on my own, Mam was in with my sister, and I just froze. Didn't tell Mam until almost a week later, and she just hugged me because it was probably the cruelest day to tell someone.

Oh god. That's extremely sad.

whatismyname

Don't think I ever really believed deep down to be honest.

Might be something to do with quite stupid parents who left the price tags from the shop nearby on the selection boxes, so it was clear they'd actually been bought there. Oh and even when quite young I could identify that the writing on the piece of paper on top of each pile of toys with the name of who they were for was my father's writing.

Both of those meant I always basically knew deep down it was a sham, but of course I kept 'believing' cos as a child, you want to believe, don't you...?

Oh and another factor may have been getting really upset by my alcoholic mother getting wasted and ruining each Christmas day, and her then telling me what an ungrateful child I was getting upset at her on Christmas day after she'd got me my Christmas presents.

Oops, I may have lowered of the thread. I'll leave now...

Crumpets

Mammy used the same wrapping paper for my Santy presents as she did for daddy's present from her. I was 9.

MilesMorales1

Believing in father christmas is so magical. I wish I still believed.

seanaway

pappyodaniel wrote: »

I don't think I ever got over the trauma of finding out that Santa was a lie. When you think about it, it's kind of a messed up thing to do to a child. The fantasy is all well and good but the kid is gonna find out eventually and is probably going to resent you for lying to them and making them feel stupid.

Santa Claus is a crock of sh!t but in some ways he makes about as much sense as what they tell you in the Bible.

Jesus, you must be some craic at the Christmas do.

AllGunsBlazing

I twigged it around the age of 8 - a good two years before my parents were any the wiser. Devious fecker that I am.