How did the Santa deception affect you?

How did Santa factor into your life as a kid? How did you find out he wasn't real? How did the discovery or realization affect you? Do you think your life might have been different without the experience of that or other fantasy figures like the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy?

reply to post by Desertopa


Wait... are you saying Santa isn't real? Santa isn't..... MOMMY!!!!!!!

~Heff

I believed in old Santa until I was about 14. When I found out the geezer wasnt' real I wanted to rip his beard off

What kinda joke is that to play on a little kiddo? Believin in the fella for so many years then poof, no more Kris Kringle comin down yer chimney with a bag full of toys

reply to post by Desertopa


First I should like to point out that there has been no deception. The person who you call "Father Christmas" or "Santa Claus" and various other names does in fact exist and was last seen yesterday en route from Hawaii to the US.

A seismic event was recorded yesterday.

6.5 2010/12/22 21:50:11 26.800 -143.700 13.0 NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN

Regrettably you will find no record of this event now in the bulletins however I can assure you that for a while it was there. It seems that the US Homeland Security fighter jet sent to challenge an approaching unidentified flying object ordered the occupant to stop and have his 'junk' touched.

The occupant refused and the UFO was shot down by the Homeland Security fighter. Investigations into this incident have led scientists to reach the conclusion that the erroneous seismic event was in fact caused by global warming and had nothing whatsoever to do with the regrettable fact that Santa's sleigh was blasted out of the sky by Homeland Security, despite the debris and evidence to the contrary.

A spokesperson for the group "Scientist High Priests of AGW" said

The debris on the surface of the sea is inconvenient however we have adjusted our report to exclude the evidence.

Once I realized santa want real, all the others fell into place..easter bunny, tooth fairy..I decided with my children, now grown and giving me grandchildren to bring the santa concept in a different direction of the norm. I told them I buy the presnts. I explained Santa represents the spirit of giving and recieving and helping the less fortunate.This was a time of year for celebrating the gift of giving and recieving. I explained it it is a timse of year for famiily togetherness and happy feelings. They never felt the betrayal feelings I felt when reality slammed me in the face.

I found out who he really was when I was around 8 years old. My parents made us go to bed early, of course I could not sleep because I was so excited. Then I heard some noises outside of my window in the backyard. Upon peeking, I saw my parents putting together a trampoline. The next morning when we woke up my parents guided us outside to see what "Santa" brought us. Of course it was a trampoline. I can't really remember exactly how I felt, but I think it was mostly disappointment. I'm pretty sure both of my older sisters found out years before, but never told me.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/7ec142651d8b.jpg[/atsimg]
That sums it up nicely

It made me question all previous beliefs and taught to accept nothing just because someone said it.

Add: Incidently...why did you put tooth fairy in there...might want to fix it..as we all know, thats real.

...right?

Funny our local news was just talking about this. When I found out I think I was 9, a friend told me it was a lie because her older sister told her.

I wasn't as upset about Santa being fake as I was about my concept of what the North pole looked like being fake. So, I was more angry that the environment Santa lived in wasn't real (like toy shops, elves, a town, etc). It's not enough that we must discount Santa, there's a lot of other ideas that come with Santa that also have to be deleted from the brain.

I had just won a medal thing from a school geography contest weeks before discovering the Santa deception. So, my point is, I was mad because I felt that it adversely effected my sense of geography, which I took pride in at the time.

Santa's a great example of how as children we can be fairly intelligent yet so naive at the same time. I don't think I will do Santa with my children, we do it with my stepson but that's out of my jurisdiction. When I have kids of my own, I think I will go the route of the above poster in telling them that Santa is more a metaphor for a spirit of giving during the holiday season and explain the history behind it. Orchestrating a great years-long lie doesn't seem right to me.

All you ever heard was trust your parents, They will never lie to you.
Except for Santa.
Except for Easter Bunny
Except for Tooth Fairy..
Now I am still supposed to believe they will not lie to me?

OMG Santa isn't real!? And neither is the Easter Bunny or the Toothfairy!?

Well I have to tell you, this feels pretty darn bad.

I got toys and had alot of fun, that pretty much all the effect it had on me.