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Original poster

Discovering Santa isn't real

29 replies

ConsternationStation · 08/12/2024 22:57

At what age did you/your DC realise that Santa isn't real?

I was about 10 when I finally plucked up the courage to ask my sister and learnt the truth, although I'd suspected for a year or two before that. My eldest DS is 8 and I suspect he's not quite as sure on Santa being real as he was last year. He's not asked outright but he seems less into the idea. His little brother is 6 and definitely still believes.

OP posts:
spiderlight · 08/12/2024 23:09

My dad told me on Christmas morning when I was 6, just after I'd opened my presents. My mum had just popped next door to check on her aunties and he blurted it out. She was livid when she came back!! No idea why he thought that was a good time to tell me. I wasn't particularly upset, though, I don't think.

IdylicDay · 09/12/2024 00:39

I was 8. My dad filled a bucket of water for the reindeer from our above ground pool. He literally dunked a bucket into the pool. I remember thinking why wouldn't he fill the bucket with fresh tap water, why give the reindeer yucky chlorine pool water? He emptied the bucket back into the pool the next morning. It seemed weird he'd give reindeer pool water to drink, so that made me figure it out.

BlackChunkyBoots · 09/12/2024 00:55

A classmate told me when I was 10. I was devastated.

KittenPause · 09/12/2024 05:20

My DC now teens told me they lied for ages about still believing Santa existed because they were worried they might no longer get any presents Grin

Apparently DD saw me putting presents under the tree on Christmas Eve so that's why she stopped believing

DS found out from a friends older sibling

KittenPause · 09/12/2024 05:21

I have no idea when I stopped believing

Compash · 09/12/2024 05:23

S... Santa's not real...?! 🥺

reluctantbrit · 09/12/2024 08:13

DD was 9, she was quessing thanks to classmates with older siblings.
She took it well, immediately also checked about the Easter bunny and tooth fairy (again, I am sure she had a good idea).

doodleschnoodle · 09/12/2024 08:16

DD1 is 5 and told me last week that she didn't think Santa was real and that it was me and her dad who buy the presents. I kind of said 'mm' then she asked me outright and said she really wanted to know, so I told her and she went 'I thought so!' and just skipped merrily off again 🤷‍♀️ She was almost there last year when she told me that all the grotto Santas were just people dressed up.

She is a sceptic generally though. Her face when I mentioned the tooth fairy Grin

doodleschnoodle · 09/12/2024 08:16

I was nearer 8 or so I think.

saveforthat · 09/12/2024 08:18

I don't remember believing ever. I did have a brother 5 years older though. Maybe that was why.

Strawpollplease · 09/12/2024 08:19

I don’t think my kids ever really believed but it didn’t stop the magic.

ThatIsNotMyNameSoWhyAreYouCallingMeThat · 09/12/2024 08:23

doodleschnoodle · 09/12/2024 08:16

DD1 is 5 and told me last week that she didn't think Santa was real and that it was me and her dad who buy the presents. I kind of said 'mm' then she asked me outright and said she really wanted to know, so I told her and she went 'I thought so!' and just skipped merrily off again 🤷‍♀️ She was almost there last year when she told me that all the grotto Santas were just people dressed up.

She is a sceptic generally though. Her face when I mentioned the tooth fairy Grin

I have one of these. We never presented it as anything real and she had it worked out by 5 (and by 7 had worked out Santa would have to break the speed of light to achieve the mission).

I worked it out, on Xmas day, aged 6. I’d asked for something in a specific colour and before Xmas my mum asked if it was okay if Santa could only get one in a (specific) different colour. On Xmas day it was the different colour.

I was hurried out of the room and threatened if I ever let on to my little sister what I knew. That broke my heart (had already experienced significant childhood trauma).

Have hated Xmas ever since.

Zippidydoodah · 09/12/2024 08:25

I was five. Far too nosey/switched on as a child to ever really believe that one person could somehow deliver presents to every child in the world on one night, and we had coal fired heating so wouldn’t he burn himself coming down the chimney? And, magic key?! Pull the other one! 😂😂😂

i don’t know about my daughters, although my son realised at the age of 8 or 9 (I forget which) when we kept telling him to leave a certain present until last (his games console). He was wondering how we knew?! He wasn’t upset at all, just gleeful that he’d worked it out!

my six year old still believes. He told me this morning that the elves must be real because they move in the night 🥰

ChaosHol1 · 09/12/2024 08:26

Around 8 for the eldest and the younger two were about 7 as they both caught me putting the stocking out but had already started asking questions.

DappledThings · 09/12/2024 08:27

DC1 was 5. DC2 is nearly 7 and seems to believe but we don't make a particularly big deal of it anyway so I'm not sure.

I've just been on holiday in Belguim and because we were there over the 6th December we got a present of chocolate in our room. Came home and gave it to the DC and explained that the tradition in other countries is FC visiting on a different day so the hotel gave us the chocolate. Forgot to play it as FC giving them to us rather than the hotel so she might have picked up on that.

TheSilkWorm · 09/12/2024 08:28

I was 8, and I read it in an Enid Blyton book, so I stayed up to see and saw my grandad coming in and leaving the presents. I expect I would have carried on for a year or two after if that hadn't happened. My DS was 10 when he definitively declared that he wasn't true and I confirmed it. Prior to that he had questioned it from age 8, I never lied but didn't confirm it either and I think he chose to carry on believing. By the time he found out properly he was at the age where it didn't make any sense to be true anyway so he was fine about it

lineylines · 09/12/2024 08:32

I knew the truth when I was quite young, reception age I think.

However I didn't let on to my parents, and I got swept up in the magic of it all when Christmas came around.

Most of the year, I would have been 100% sure Santa wasn't real. But come Christmas Eve, and expecting my stocking, I wasn't so sure! I tried to stay up all night to prove to myself it really was my parents one year, but didn't manage it

I think adults get way too hung up on whether DC believe. Children play make-believe games all the time, and we don't stress about whether they think they really are a dinosaur / alien / whatever.

Father Christmas is a lovely make believe game that we all play together. You really don't need to believe to take part, I think adults forget that.

My older DC know Santa isn't real (at least, I assume they do - at nearly 12 and 16 I would be worried if they did believe!)

But we all still play along together as it's a lovely thing to do. And the DC still want the presents!

Original poster
ConsternationStation · 09/12/2024 09:42

I think my kids, especially the eldest (8) just wants to believe in the magic now. Like he just likes the idea of it. He didn't want to tell me what he would like for Christmas this year because "Santa knows" which I think is just his way of trying to check!

I'd really like DS6 to at least have one more year believing. I wouldn't want it spoiled for him before Christmas this year and there's every chance that if I confirmed his non-existence to my eldest that he'd blab by accident - or when he was cross with his brother.

OP posts:
BankHolidayReset · 09/12/2024 09:46

I think my two 8 and 10 believe. I'm going to have to tell the 10 year old before she goes to secondary school.

Standingontheedgeofforever · 09/12/2024 09:55

KittenPause · 09/12/2024 05:20

My DC now teens told me they lied for ages about still believing Santa existed because they were worried they might no longer get any presents Grin

Apparently DD saw me putting presents under the tree on Christmas Eve so that's why she stopped believing

DS found out from a friends older sibling

I think this is where my DD8 is at 😁 She's told me the last couple of years that she thinks I'm Santa, but this year hasn't said a word and seems to be going along with the pretence - though is using the idea of Santa and us buying presents interchangeably.

I haven't really confirmed or denied yet as she has ASD and finds it really difficult to keep a secret and I don't want her to blurt it out in front of her younger brother who is six and still so magically enchanted by the idea.

IdaClair · 09/12/2024 09:58

I believe in Santa Claus. Nobody ever told me that it isn’t real or had a big reveal conversation and yet I knew that my parents did it pretty young, but that didn’t mean I didn’t believe in Santa Claus. My children believe in Santa Claus too, and have never asked me if it is real, or cast any doubt on the process, and they are all adult or teen. It’s a game. A very real game, that exists in this world and that most people play. We continue to play it because it makes us happy and we will do it whether the kids are 2,12 or 22. Yes, the game changes as we grow and traditions evolve but the idea and name of Santa Claus gets presents into the hands of millions of people every Christmas, so what’s not to believe in?

SuzieNine · 09/12/2024 10:00

I don't think I ever did. I'm not sure that parents in the 70s did the whole "Father Christmas is real" thing, or at least mine never did. I mean, all my presents had labels on saying who they were from.

AyrshireTryer · 09/12/2024 10:03

My sister told me when I was about 3, she being 4 years older. I was fine with it.
Although I did tell my parents that lying wasn't nice.

GiraffesAtThePark · 09/12/2024 10:03

I was around 6/7 - my friend who has an older brother told me. She said they went looking for presents and found them in their parents wardrobe. I then did the same. I remember opening up a wardrobe and a beauty and the beast vhs tape falling and hitting me on the head. I put it back and never said anything. True enough I got that from Santa on Christmas morning.

I never said anything to my parents and even when my younger sister realised years later I still pretended to believe as I worried being honest would lead to fewer presents or a change.

DappledThings · 09/12/2024 10:17

SuzieNine · 09/12/2024 10:00

I don't think I ever did. I'm not sure that parents in the 70s did the whole "Father Christmas is real" thing, or at least mine never did. I mean, all my presents had labels on saying who they were from.

My parents and DH's parents, in the 70s, did the same as we do now. Stockings with little gifts are from Father Christmas, everything else is from who it is from.and is put under the tree whenever it is bought and wrapped. None of this hiding everything till Christmas Eve or everything from FC business. But stockings were.