When did you stop believing in Santa/EB/TF.

My parents never fed me lies about magic people. I was told at a young age that it was bullshit. I was also told to keep my mouth shut when other kids talked about.

Um. I don’t understand. Stop believing in what about them exactly. They’ve always been more than nice to me. I gonna try and stay awake this Christmas to see if I can see him. Oh good times ahead.

Not sure what I would do if I kids. But, I’ve often wondered if it’s a good lesson to learning at a early age, about believing in something just because everyone around you does. Is there a moral trying to be taught that is going over most peoples heads?

I was seven years old, when one evening I had just gone to bed. It was then that I thought that Sinterklaas was really quite impossible so I went down and asked my mother whether he really existed because it seemed so… Impossible. And it was :)

I suppose I’ll be passing it on to my children if I ever have them, as I still miss believing it :). Then I’ll just wait until they find out for themselves it’s fake.

I was raised by atheist/Jewish parents, so I was never taught to believe in Saint Nicholas or the Easter Bunny. It seems rather cruel to tell these lies to children, but I suppose that’s what religion is all about.

I have always believed in tuna fish.

I still believe! Not in the reality of an actual person being Santa Claus, but in the spirit of giving. When I was old enough to know better, I wrote my mother a letter asking her. We lived in a very small house,and I had two younger brothers. Everything that was said, was heard by everyone in that small house, and I did not want to take the chance and ruin it for them if Santa wasn’t real. She wrote me this beautiful letter that I still have. She was so eloquent in saying that Santa was real if you heart was full of love and the spirit of giving. She never answered me directly with a yes or no, but I knew exactly what she meant. Now when I say giving….I don’t mean looking high and low for the most expensive thing you can find to give someone. I mean GIVING of yourself and your talents to someone you love. The spirit of Santa should last all year, and not just at Christmas. Giving an expensive gift is not enough.

I have a daughter who has been homeschooled all of her life. I was sad when I realized she did not believe. She never told me, because I think she did not want to hurt me. She is my only child. She still goes through the rituals…leaving cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. She is 14 and knows the truth, but it is still a fun and tradition that we do at our house. Last year, she told me….“Mom, when I am old and have a family of my own, can we still come here and do all of this Christmasy stuff with you?” “I love that you make Christmas every year for us!”

I guess I never looked at it as lying to her. I am a big believer in making childhood a time of happiness and good memories. I was only trying to make her happy and loved, and to make Christmas special for her. I hope I have achieved that.

Christmas is not just about Santa and gifts for our family. We are Christians, and for that reason Christmas is very special for us.

I just have one thing for everyone that posted a comment here…...Dont Stop Believin’

Its ok I busted out my air guitar too

@sferik – the fish are a lie!

NOOOOOO!

Great story mzgator. Tissue please:-)

I stopped believing in Santa and the Easter bunny (I dont know what the abbr. For TF is) a long time ago. But I will always believe in keeping a tradition alive and still get excited for Christmas every year. Plus I never get to see certain family members until Christmas, or other holidays.

I think I just grew out of it. My parents did a very half hearted attempt with the whole Santa thing. We would often wake up on christmas, see nothing left by Santa and tell our mom and she would say “uhhhh oh really?” . then she would divert our attention and in 5 min, voila ! she would tell us we JUST missed santa who is running a little late and left us our gifts. So it didn’t take us long to wise up about the whole thing. Long after we “knew” we still continued the ritual because we still wanted our gifts from santa! The night before we would tell our parents “make sure santa doesn’t forget our gifts” . honestly, if i could, i would still carry out the ritual because it was always fun to wake up to it and even now my mother hasn’t admitted that she was the “santa” . she always just says “i don’t know what you are talking about”. we are big on denial in my family

There’s no Santa?!!

Yes there is Babo! In fact, you just missed him :)

Myth is so much a part of human experience. it fires our imagination and sparks our curiosity. Who wants to live in a blah prosaic world in which there is no magic? On and up with Santa, the Easter Bunny, the tooth fairy and their whole ilk.

Drat!

I just grew out of it to. Its not bad to believe in those things though. When I was young, I came up with WAY crazier ideas. I’m sure I’ll play the game with my children because it left me with some good memories, and now I love giving gifts more than recieveing them! I love making people happy.

I outgrew it too, and so did my daughter. It was no big deal for either of us.

The tooth fairy was big at our house. Seemed like for a long, long time. I don’t know what the children believed, but I loved the whole process—finding the little tooth under a pillowed head, leaving a quarter, a dollar, whatever as inflation dictated, and fielding all the questions the next morning. Holding my ground as well as I could.

i stopped when my daddy told they never existed, when i was like 5 years old.

I guess I never actually believe in those things

@vic
Really? Never? Not even as a kid?

I taught my daughters that as long as they believed in the Tooth Fairy, she would believe in them. They didn’t lose their faith until after the wisdom teeth were removed. I thought I was the one who should get money under her pillow at that point!

I’m Jewish, so Santa and the Easter Bunny were never in my head. As for the tooth fairy, I pretty much knew it after my third tooth, but my mother refused to admit it until I was about 11.

Honestly, I don’t think that I ever really believed in any of those. I’m sufficiently romantic that the idea was enough.
See, at our house, we focus on the Christian parts of the holidays – the birth of Christ at Christmas, His death and resurrection at Easter (yes, I know about syncretism, tyvm), though we did have trees and presents and easter egg hunts, because all that’s fun.
‘Fun’ was also the main excuse for the tooth fairy.

I never believed in Santa, I guess.

I never believed in Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, or the easter bunny. My parents told me about them, of course, but in a fun sort of way, like we were all in on the “joke.” I always knew it was just for fun. But then my parents raised me to be very cynical and to question everything, thank goodness! There is nothing good about being gullible.