At what age did you stop believing in Santa Claus?

[WI_DEM]

Just a fun poll to, hopefully, unite one and all. HOHOHO.

[verse18]

1. I never believed in Santa Claus. n/t

[Starlight]

2. Age 4 for me, but my DS & DD never believed in Santa.

I don't believe in deceiving or lying to children so I always made it clear that Santa, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, etc. were pretend.

[terip64]

3. I think I was seven. My older sister told me to stop being an idiot. n/t

[Redstone]

4. What? You don't believe in Santa Claus? It's coal in the stocking for you.

Redstone

[Bucky]

5. There was never an age when I 'stopped believing' per se; just my understanding evolved.

I sorta got the understanding that the folks were involved in the gift giving, somewhere around 6 to 8. By the time I was a parent, I realized the jig was up and I'd have to hit that Toys R Us without the fat man sharing in the costs.

[MADem]

6. I AM Santa, dammit!!!! NT

[kimmerspixelated]

7. What?!!! There's no Snata?

I'm crestfallen!

[kskiska]

8. About 8 or 9, but that was back in the early '50s

when kids were still very naive and childhood lasted longer. I became increasingly suspicious when my letters to Santa were answered in red ink with block printing that looked a lot like my mother's writing. In addition, Santa told me things like "clean up your room." I eventually got the picture.

[gollygee]

9. I don't remember

my 4-1/2 year old believes.

[Warpy]

10. I pulled a department store Santa's beard off when I was two

Yeah, I got the line about how he was one of Santa's helpers, but I didn't buy that for a second.

In fact, I can't remember ever believing in that particular myth but I do remember going along with it because all my friends believed it.

[Poll_Blind]

11. When I found him hunched over and feeding on the bodies of my parents.

  Sometimes I wish I knew how to use Photoshop. Sometimes I'm grateful that I don't.

  I'm not sure which one of those times it is.

PB

[valerief]

13. LOL! I hate when that happens. nt

[valerief]

12. Same age I stopped believing in god and the tooth fairy. nt

[niyad]

14. what do you mean, stop believing in santa claus? honestly!! didn't you ever read this?

Newsman Francis Pharcellus Church wrote The Sun's response to Virginia.



Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.




"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest man that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus! Thank GOD! He lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

[Crunchy Frog]

15. Santa is a DU member.

He posted here on Christmas Eve three years ago. I wish he would post again this Christmas. :cry:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=user_profiles&u_id=136718
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=574002
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=574526
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=574934

[TheCowsCameHome]

16. What.are.you.trying.to.say?

No, please say it isn't so................

[annabanana]

17. I always suspected he was bunkum. . . And when I

finally asked the folks, they responded
"How badly do you want to know?".. . .So I let them live with the illusion of my belief for awhile longer

[cassiepriam]

18. Oh you are just starting a flame war, everyone knows there is a Santa. nt