Skeptic Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 Santa Claus was mentioned in another thread on here and it made me wonder how many people here believed in Santa Claus, the easter bunny, etc. as kids. I didn't believe in them. My parents told me at a really early age that none of them existed, like before I even knew who Santa Claus was. When I learned about the whole Santa Claus story, it didn't even make sense to me anyway. The tooth fairy and other such beings were equally nonsensical. Knowing that these things weren't real did affect my belief in god quite a bit, though. I knew that I couldn't see him, hear him, or really interact with him in any way, and I did question god's existence quite a bit as a kid, but I'd fall for apologetics too easily, as I didn't know how to refute it yet. I did have an imaginary friend at one point who I knew didn't exist. It was something other kids my age were doing (I was around 6 years old at the time), so I figured I would play along. That didn't go over so well. My mom was convinced that it was a demon, even though I knew it didn't exist and I was just messing around. *sigh* So, did you believe in this stuff as a kid? When you found out that none of it existed, how did that affect your belief in god? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
☆ TexasFreethinker ☆ Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 Too trusting here. I believed in it all... Santa, Holy Ghost, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, monsters, Satan, demons, ghosts, hell. I was a bit unsure about the Great Pumpkin, tho. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdp Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 I did believe, but while I found out myself it wasn't by thinking about it but by stumbling onto the place where my mom hid the presents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neon Genesis Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 I literally believed in Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, and the Easter bunny as a kid. I found out on my own that they weren't real. The belief just sort of naturally faded away as I got older. When I found out Santa wasn't real, I actually sort of liked it better because then we didn't have to wait until Christmas morning to open our presents and could open them up earlier. ^^;; Finding out they weren't real didn't effect my belief in God at all. When I stopped believing in Santa, I just didn't really think too much about the subject or why I believed it in the first place. I just sort of stopped and so I didn't think about comparing Santa to God or anything like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
upstarter Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 I believed in them all and my children do too. I think it's all part of the magic of childhood imagination. I would never deny my children the fun of these myths. Learning that Santa wasn't real was quite traumatic for me. But I never equated any of these beings to god, or a belief in god until many years after I deconverted. Heather Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Moderator buffettphan Posted April 17, 2009 Super Moderator Share Posted April 17, 2009 I believed when I was very young. Every year my family had a xmas party, taking turns at various relatives' houses. One of the uncles would always dress up as Santa and "visit" the party. When I was four, as usual, Santa visited. I figured it out then and I think I must've ruined it for all my cousins when I said, "Look, Santa wears the same watch my daddy wears." Of course, my dad was nowhere to be found... Uh-oh....... The following summer, I came home from Vacation Bible School telling everyone that god was mean (that pesky ol' Abraham/Isaac buybull story). That was the beginning of the end of god-belief for me. When my kids were very young, I played along with the santa myth. It is a fun and magical part of childhood. When they asked questions, I'd always say, "What do you think?" When they got old enough to make their Santa List, I said, "Don't expect everything on your list. Mom and Dad have to pay Santa for the stuff he leaves for you." I stressed that their lists were ideas for presents. Their reaction --"Ohhhhh......so everybody's parents are Mr. and Mrs. Santa for their own kids." My kids are now in their 30's and they say that never diminished any of the fun of xmas for them. Right or wrong? I don't know, but it worked for us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShallowByThyGame Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 I believed strongly until while playing hide-and-go-seek two weeks before xmas, I discovered presents in the closet labeled 'from Santa'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodsmoke Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 When my kids were very young, I played along with the santa myth. It is a fun and magical part of childhood. When they asked questions, I'd always say, "What do you think?" When they got old enough to make their Santa List, I said, "Don't expect everything on your list. Mom and Dad have to pay Santa for the stuff he leaves for you." I stressed that their lists were ideas for presents. Their reaction --"Ohhhhh......so everybody's parents are Mr. and Mrs. Santa for their own kids." My kids are now in their 30's and they say that never diminished any of the fun of xmas for them. Right or wrong? I don't know, but it worked for us. That seems a respectable method of letting them enjoy the fantasy without encouraging it overmuch. I approve. As for myself, I don't know that I ever really believed, but my mom was of a mind that Santa's position of cultural prominence in relation to the Xmas season was both disrespectful of and diminished Jesus' importance, so while she never came right out and said Santa wasn't real, she was always careful to downplay the myth with us. I don't accuse her of robbing me of my childhood or anything, though. I was a pretty smart kid, and while God may have been compartmentalized away in an unassailable region of my mind, I figured out virtually from the start there was no way Santa was actually real. I still played along, though, just because it was fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vomit Comet Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 Yeah, I definitely believed he was real. One Christmas Eve when I was 7, me and my cousin (who was/is my age) camped out by the fireplace with baseball bats. Our plan was to ambush Santa, kneecap him, and steal his magic sack. We would get all the toys we wanted for ourselves from the sack, and then get rich selling the rest of the toys to other kids. We thought we could get away with it because the police were adults and therefore wouldn't believe that Santa was real. Why yes, my cousin did go to prison when we grew up. So anyways, we woke up the next morning and were like "WTF?" He blamed me for falling asleep on watch duty, and I blamed him, and we probably got into a fistfight over it at some point later that day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vigile Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 I don't remember when I discovered he wasn't real. It wasn't a big event for me I guess and probably happened gradually. I wasn't skeptical when I was young. I don't know why I am now. It's almost like a switch got turned on in me later in life because when I was younger I was very typical. I was American, baseball, mom, Jesus and apple pie. Think Leave it to Beaver. I do remember that my dad once put talc on his shoes and left "snow" prints across the living room floor. First toward the cookies and milk and next to the tree. That was pretty cool. I swallowed that one hook, line and sinker and still remember it fondly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodsmoke Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 I wasn't skeptical when I was young. I don't know why I am now. It's almost like a switch got turned on in me later in life because when I was younger I was very typical. I was American, baseball, mom, Jesus and apple pie. Think Leave it to Beaver. And again with the similarities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vomit Comet Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 Looks like those of you who displayed early signs of skepticism as small kids are using this thread as an opportunity to pat yourselves on the backs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueGiant Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 I figured out the nature of Santa/Tooth Fairy/Easter Bunny etc on my own, just kind of dawned on me, and realized that it was a conspiracy of awesome (I mean, conspiring to give presents, that rocks!) I wasn't crestfallen. I wanted in. Eagerly. Of course I came to this realization, out-loud, at the dinner table, to parents who went into damage control quickly for my bro's sake. For fans of Ghost in the Shell, I posit that the big SC is the original Stand Alone Complex, copies in the absence of the original. I guess it could redefine "the Laughing Man." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodsmoke Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 Looks like those of you who displayed early signs of skepticism as small kids are using this thread as an opportunity to pat yourselves on the backs. And just like that, you've inspired a new avatar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neon Genesis Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 Of course I came to this realization, out-loud, at the dinner table, to parents who went into damage control quickly for my bro's sake.That reminds me that one year when we were visiting my grandma, one of my cousins who was about four or five blurted out that Santa Claus is a big phony once, but luckily none of the other little kids were paying any attention when he said it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ephymeris Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 I began questioning Santa when I was around 5. I point blank asked my mom on christmas day when I was 5 if he was real. She matter of factly told me no. I find it ironic she has no problem telling me Santa was a lie but she's still all into jesus. Santa brings better gifts than jesus, hands down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ephymeris Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 For fans of Ghost in the Shell, I posit that the big SC is the original Stand Alone Complex, copies in the absence of the original. I guess it could redefine "the Laughing Man." Excellend GITS reference!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazycatlady Posted April 18, 2009 Share Posted April 18, 2009 I believed in 'em all. I got skeptical about the tooth fairly, so I decided to test that one out. I didn't tell my parents when I lost a tooth and then complained five days later about the darned fairy not coming yet. Strangely, I believed in Santa and St. Nickolas (but not tooth fairy, Easter bunny, etc.) until my parents told me otherwise (because Mom had told me they couldn't afford to buy me a sewing machine and then I got one from Santa, and got thread for it from St. Nick -- they must have been in cohorts -- yeah, I was a gullible kid). I suppose this ability to disregard some fictional characters while believing in others is quite an important skill for being Christian... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazycatlady Posted April 18, 2009 Share Posted April 18, 2009 This isn't about me, but it's kind of funny, so I'll tell it anyway. My dad believed in Santa until one Christmas when his mother was unwell, and his father had the kids help him wrap the Santa presents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Moderator buffettphan Posted April 19, 2009 Super Moderator Share Posted April 19, 2009 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skeptic Posted April 19, 2009 Author Share Posted April 19, 2009 LOL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Moderator buffettphan Posted April 19, 2009 Super Moderator Share Posted April 19, 2009 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mriana Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 I figured out on my own Santa wasn't real. Why was Santa White in St. Louis County, but Black in E. St. Louis? Humm... Maybe he's a man who dresses up in a Santa suit? I also caught my mother laying out presents and under that bread, when Santa dropped in was obviously some male relative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xandermac Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 We were very poor and I found out when I was about 5. I'm 52 years old and I hadn't really thought about it, but it all comes back to me now. Mother use to collect green stamps (if anyone remembers what that was) and she redeemed them to get all 5 of us a ball. I remember her crying when I got angry and ask why Santa only gave me a ball. I remember being angry at them for telling me there was a Santa. I went to school and lied about all the great toys I got. UGH! What a sad memory. Thanks for reminding me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaggieMae Posted April 21, 2009 Share Posted April 21, 2009 I believed in all of it. Seriously, everything. Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, Jesus, demons, angels, fairies, unicorns, mermaids.....if I could have been born into a fantasy novel, I'd be the happiest girl in the world! lol I loved Santa so much....his reality was crushed for me when I was watching the old claymation Rudolph movie with my best friend (we were probably about 6 or so), and she just turned to me and said "you know Santa isn't real, right? My mom said so." I was horrified, but the bubble had burst! I spent the next 2 years trying desperately to get the belief back, but alas, it just doesn't work that way. (I actually had a pretty similar reaction to deconverting!) I did, however, figure out the Tooth Fairy on my own. She always left me little notes that looked suspiciously similar to my dad's handwriting..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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