How old were you when you realised the man in the red suit was your dad?

10 or 11, not gonna lie :P I think I sort of knew beforehand but I suppressed it, lmao.

when I started high school… My mum made me believe for all those years, then told me when I started high school so no-one took the mick :L

Well I had no dad, but I think I figured it out in grade school (bout 3rd or 4th grade) Santa came to visit, when he was done, it was time for recess. I saw him get into an old beater of a car, take his beard off, and start drinking what I think now was a quart of beer if my memory is serving me correctly.

I never believed in “Santa Claus”. (:

Was that because someone told you he wasn’t real when you were young, or did the idea just seem unlikely, or something else?

I was 5-6, my friends told me (even though their mum had sworn them to secrecy). I thought they were joking, and refused to believe them until mum confessed. I probably cried a bit - not so much that the idea of a magical kindly man had been dis-spelled, but because my parents had lied even though they (and the Sunday school people) had said lying was bad. I forgave them of course, and got my head round the joke and the whole ‘white lie’ thing, but I think I probably trusted my friends a lot more after that! Later in life I visited Myra in Turkey, where St Nicholas had been bishop. Disused at the time, with no pews (it’s now being restored) but a good acoustic. St Nicholas’ bones were stolen in the 11th century (probably for ‘safe keeping’ during a local battle), and taken to Bari cathedral, Italy. The pilgrims (and their money) stopped going to Myra and went to Bari instead, and I’d guess the loss of revenue led to the adjoining Myra monastery’s closure soon after. Great sense of history and connectedness to the past, especially with the Roman amphitheatre a short walk away, backed by a cliff with rock tombs from the time of the Lycian alliance 168 BCE - 43 CE. All open and free to walk round at the time. At the time I visited there were still monasteries in the Greek islands, but they tended to have just a couple of old monks who spoke no English and there was no sign of any new ones joining. There were a lot more monks at Meteora then, on the mainland, but not many now. Delphi is a good place to visit too - there’s a wall of big rocks made without mortar, and close-fitted like those at Macchu Picchu - a mason’s art now forgotten. Great view from the site, and also from the backs of local restaurants that have terraces over a sheer drop!

lol, great image - like something out of the Simpson’s!

Ha ha ha ha ha.

It’s kind of a habit with mums, mine still gets concerned that I ought to have something to unwrap, but I got over that decades ago. She’s never really come to terms with me growing up - sweet but kinda frustrating too… The stuff I did for a job just went over her head, and it was far from home, so she never really registered the fact that I was aging or improving and it’s all been a bit of a mystery to her, but then female education was pretty absent in 1920’s/30’s unless you got a scholarship or could afford to pay.

My dad flat out told me when I was going on to 4 years old. I mean it wasen’t all bad I just moved on & asked my perents for what I wanted.

I was 4, I woke up and caught parents puttin the gifts under the tree

It never seemed to make sense :p and my parents always made sure we knew that they bought us Christmas presents :D

In by region, there is no Santa. We have little Angel Baby Jesus bringing the gifts. On the evening of December 24th, by the way. You need to go outside when it gets dark and watch the stars. When the first star appears, little Angel Baby Jesus comes and you can go back in and - if you are fast enough - you might see him. But everyone I ever knew was too slow. We just found the gifts under the tree.

But then there was Bishop Saint Nicholas who put candy into your shoes on the night of 5th to 6th of December if you have been good AND cleaned and polished your shoes properly on the evening of 5th.

My older brother told me that mom puts the candy in the shoe when I was 5 and he was 7. My older brother also said that mom puts the gifts under the tree. What a bugger. :(

I always knew their wasn’t a Santa because my dad would take me to Toys R Us and have me pick out what I want. XD

When my dad confessed to all the Father Christmas attempts eg the soot from the chimney on the floor with boot footprints.Mind you when i was 8 my dad told me he ATE him so….. lol

My parents never tried to lie to me. lol The story about Santa and all that was cute for movies but I never had a belief that he was real at all. :P I never believed in the tooth fairy or the Easter bunny either. My parents thought of it as wrong to lie to their children, no matter what the lie was.