How old were you???

I have an older brother who loved to ruin any bit of pleasure I had as a kid but I didn't totally buy in until I decided to sleep on the floor in my sleeping bag one Christmas so I could be ready to get up early in the morning. I heard my parents open the attic door and I knew it was a scam! I never admitted knowing to them because I didn't want to spoil their fun.
It took me many years to learn to appreciate the "spirit" of Christmas and to know that Santa is alive in anyone who loves the magic that this time of year can bring
 
13bullets said:
I was pretty young. Kindergarten or 1st grade. As long as I can remember I've known Mom and Dad were the ones putting out presents on Christmas Eve. I would never sleep, and immediately after hearing them go to bed I'd get up with my flashlight and see what "Santa" brought. I never had a discussion with my parents about his legitimacy.

As an adult, I know he's legit. Is he one dude in a red suit flying to every house in the world in one night? Of course not, but how can any adult that's putting out presents for their kids deny his existence? He lives through each and every parent doing all they can do to make Christmas day special for their children.
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This is awesome as well. Glad to see so many adults still believing in the magic that is Christmas. I know a lot of us forget the real reason for the season, but my favorite part of being a child was Christmas, not really for the presents, but just the excitement and the magic that came along with it. My absolute favorite Christmas movie/book is The Polar Express... I know that its more of a children's book/movie, but as an adult I think the message really speaks to you. One of the best presents my wife ever got me wasn't a big TV or a nice new gun, or parts for my jeep, but a bell from Polar Express and a copy of the book. I hang that bell on our tree every year.
 
Bump for an old thread, but had to show off my elves this morning! My kids are 10 now, so they know, but claim they don’t… so this will be the last year. They still enjoy looking for their elves in the mornings, and makes me feel good..
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I don't remember ever not knowing it wasnt my parents putting the stuff under the tree, but its probably cause of where my room was when I was a kid. My sister believed in Santa until I showed her it was our parents, I remember them getting pissed at me for that. Now as far as with my kid, I told him the truth the first time he asked but then told him to pretend he still believed cause it made his mother happy. That was when he was about 6 I think.
 
bigassedredjeep said:
Bump for an old thread, but had to show off my elves this morning! My kids are 10 now, so they know, but claim they don’t… so this will be the last year. They still enjoy looking for their elves in the mornings, and makes me feel good.. View attachment 362935View attachment 362936
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Man, this makes me sad. My little girl is 3 and this is the first year where she really gets it and I can see how magical it is for her. That feeling that I think we all try to chase but know we will never feel, we just live through our kids. Every morning, she wakes up so excited to see where her elf ended up and she goes absolutely crazy over it. Having the elf on the shelf is also a great thing for Mom and Dad, our little girl is EXTRA good and now wants to go to bed at night so Rosie can go back to the North Pole and come back.
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
Man, this makes me sad. My little girl is 3 and this is the first year where she really gets it and I can see how magical it is for her. That feeling that I think we all try to chase but know we will never feel, we just live through our kids. Every morning, she wakes up so excited to see where her elf ended up and she goes absolutely crazy over it. Having the elf on the shelf is also a great thing for Mom and Dad, our little girl is EXTRA good and now wants to go to bed at night so Rosie can go back to the North Pole and come back.
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Live it up with her while you can! Something I didn't realize until my son was growing up was how few years a child really gets to enjoy the magic of Santa. My wife and I were wide open trying to make those years as magical as possible for him. We had a small mailbox on the fireplace hearth that he could put a letter in (we helped him write it), and the next day he would find a letter in there from Santa. It was great. He told us that he wanted to ride in Santa's sleigh, so I managed to build a zipline without him knowing about it, and on Christmas day he found a note from Santa stating that he couldn't ride in his sleigh with him, but that riding the zipline was just like riding in his sleigh. We left bells leading from the mailbox on the fireplace all the way outside to the zipline. I miss those days. We rode the Polar Express in Bryson City three years in a row. He found out about Santa a few weeks before the third time, but he still enjoyed it.
 
superman27344 said:
I don't remember ever not knowing it wasnt my parents putting the stuff under the tree, but its probably cause of where my room was when I was a kid. My sister believed in Santa until I showed her it was our parents, I remember them getting pissed at me for that. Now as far as with my kid, I told him the truth the first time he asked but then told him to pretend he still believed cause it made his mother happy. That was when he was about 6 I think.
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My wife was determined that we would not do Santa in our house, when the kids were younger. So when my oldest asked, he was 5, she told him that it wasnt real and talked about the story and the reason and what not. But then also told him to not say anything to his brother, and to not tell his friends at school. I guess all the pretending made him forget, because he is 8 now, and both of them are as excited about it as ever. With that being said, Santa or the Elves isnt really something we spend much time with or talking about. It is typically more the other adults they are around bringing it up.
 
drkelly said:
Live it up with her while you can! Something I didn't realize until my son was growing up was how few years a child really gets to enjoy the magic of Santa. My wife and I were wide open trying to make those years as magical as possible for him. We had a small mailbox on the fireplace hearth that he could put a letter in (we helped him write it), and the next day he would find a letter in there from Santa. It was great. He told us that he wanted to ride in Santa's sleigh, so I managed to build a zipline without him knowing about it, and on Christmas day he found a note from Santa stating that he couldn't ride in his sleigh with him, but that riding the zipline was just like riding in his sleigh. We left bells leading from the mailbox on the fireplace all the way outside to the zipline. I miss those days. We rode the Polar Express in Bryson City three years in a row. He found out about Santa a few weeks before the third time, but he still enjoyed it.
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wow, this is awesome. I think next year, we are going to do the Polar Express train ride. I don't know, things are just different this year... We've had some ongoing issues within our families the last couple of months and now that everything is sort of on the up and up, I think my wife and I are just really trying to make it all about Christmas this year and enjoy it to the fullest.

I don't know how I am going to handle that age old question when that time comes. My parents didn't really sit down and have a talk with me about it. I think one year all of our presents were from "Mom and Dad" and I guess I just never said anything about it and it honestly never really bothered me till I got to be 19 or 20.
 
bigassedredjeep said:
Bump for an old thread, but had to show off my elves this morning! My kids are 10 now, so they know, but claim they don’t… so this will be the last year. They still enjoy looking for their elves in the mornings, and makes me feel good.. View attachment 362935View attachment 362936
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We avoided the elf until this year. My kids both have one in their classes and asked why we didn't have one at home. We got one on 12/1 and hid it (not very hidden) and the kids didn't even see it until 12/6. My 7 yr old daughter is skeptical but they're enjoying it.

That little girl is an old soul and wise beyond her years. I think what has kept her believing is several years ago she swears she heard something and looked out the window and saw Santa's sleigh in the yard. I don't know if she was dreaming or what, but in her mind she saw it with her own eyes and knows it's real. I've heard her tell her little brother about it multiple times.
 
So my almost 5 year old started asking questions this year. How does Santa get to all those houses, why does she see so many different Santa’s, how does he get in our house since we don’t have chimney, etc etc. I think we’ve managed to answer all questions satisfactorily, but I was not prepared for her to start asking questions this early.

That said…my wife’s friend had a spare elf on the shelf she gave us last year. Didn’t really use it and shoved it in a closet. The same kid saw that elf fall out of a closet a few months back, it got stepped on, and the head was ripped off. She was super concerned, we told her Santa would eventually come pick up his friend and fix him. She was good with that. Since there have been so many Santa questions this year, we decided to use the elf to reinvigorate the ‘magic’ of Santa. Last night was the first night we used the elf…and my daughter bought the whole ‘Santa fixed the elf with magic’…hook, line and sinker…but she wanted to know why the elf/Santa wrote like mommy.
 
UTfball68 said:
So my almost 5 year old started asking questions this year. How does Santa get to all those houses, why does she see so many different Santa’s, how does he get in our house since we don’t have chimney, etc etc. I think we’ve managed to answer all questions satisfactorily, but I was not prepared for her to start asking questions this early.

That said…my wife’s friend had a spare elf on the shelf she gave us last year. Didn’t really use it and shoved it in a closet. The same kid saw that elf fall out of a closet a few months back, it got stepped on, and the head was ripped off. She was super concerned, we told her Santa would eventually come pick up his friend and fix him. She was good with that. Since there have been so many Santa questions this year, we decided to use the elf to reinvigorate the ‘magic’ of Santa. Last night was the first night we used the elf…and my daughter bought the whole ‘Santa fixed the elf with magic’…hook, line and sinker…but she wanted to know why the elf/Santa wrote like mommy.
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You might try watching Christmas Chronicles. I seem to believe it discusses all of this in it. Might be too young though, or might be thinking of a different movie.
 
I've got three kids. As they grew up and each discovered the scam, we told them that if they spoiled it for the younger sibling(s) that they wouldn't get a Santa Gift. Talk about a way to see a kid get into the Santa Spirit in a hurry and lay it on thick!

How about this, how many or What kind of gifts did Santa bring in your house? In ours, the Fat guy was responsible for delivering the Stocking stuffers and One gift. Typically the big gift that wasn't wrapped.
 
mbalbritton said:
I've got three kids. As they grew up and each discovered the scam, we told them that if they spoiled it for the younger sibling(s) that they wouldn't get a Santa Gift. Talk about a way to see a kid get into the Santa Spirit in a hurry and lay it on thick!

How about this, how many or What kind of gifts did Santa bring in your house? In ours, the Fat guy was responsible for delivering the Stocking stuffers and One gift. Typically the big gift that wasn't wrapped.
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Ours changes a little each year, but it is typically stocking stuffers, and one of the smaller gifts that they likely have been wanting for a while. My wife typically tries to stick with 4 gifts: Something they want, Something they need, Something to wear, and Something to read. We also like to get them each an ornament that summarizes the past year, to put in the stocking.
 
paradisePWoffrd said:
My wife typically tries to stick with 4 gifts: Something they want, Something they need, Something to wear, and Something to read. We also like to get them each an ornament that summarizes the past year, to put in the stocking.
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That's what we do as well...plus a gift from Santa. We always significantly downplay the commercialism of Christmas as well. The Santa gift is usually the smallest and cheapest...and folks always tend to be surprised that I refuse to spend more than $100/kid and my wife and I don't do gifts. Mainly because I'm an adult and can buy what I want, when I want...but also to put the focus back on the purpose of the season.
 
bigassedredjeep said:
Bump for an old thread, but had to show off my elves this morning! My kids are 10 now, so they know, but claim they don’t… so this will be the last year. They still enjoy looking for their elves in the mornings, and makes me feel good.. View attachment 362935View attachment 362936
Click to expand...
Thanks for the idea! We're starting to run out over here.

My boys are 9 & 6 and both still believe. I'm very grateful for that!

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As long as we are sharing Elf on the Shelf pics, here is where the one in our house hangs out since we have no believers left in the house, lol.

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I don't remember for me, but last year I put some pillows on the couch covered with a blanket with a note that was something to the effect of "Shhhh, this is Santa I am just taking a quick nap". My 8 year old son (9 now) came down and he has always been the trusting (gullible) one, he read the note and just sat down in the other chair and stayed quiet. When the 6 year old son came down Corbin told him to be quiet because Santa was sleeping. The 6 y/o (Carter) instantly proceeded to whack Santa upside the head and pulled the blankets off. Corbin gasped and fussed at Carter, said he was gonna be in trouble. My wife saw the whole thing, wish she had videoed it. They then proceeded to decide Santa magically disappeared after he was hit upside the head.

Needless to say, Carter is not as gullible as Corbin.
 
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