Bonus points if it was because of this thread

I think I was 9 or 10 years old. My mom is Austrian and 'Christkind' visits all the children in Austria on Christmas Eve and delivers the presents. So my mom decided that, living in the United States, we needed to follow Austrian traditions. So we always got to open all our gifts on Christmas Eve. Santa would always visit our house first (before the rest of the country/neighbors). I thought it was weird that Santa would make a special trip to deliver our gifts and then go back out to the rest of the world before returning to our neighbors on Christmas Morning. So that made me skeptical about the Jolly Fat Man.

So on Christmas Eve, our family would always go on a long walk in the neighborhood to look at all the lights. During our walk is when Santa would visit our house and drop off our gifts. One time, I forgot my jacket about halfway down our block so I ran back without telling my parents that I was leaving. I noticed that my grandfather wasn't with us on the walk. I walked in to see him eating Santa's cookies and drinking milk. And he had a huge box of wrapped presents by his feet that he was putting out.

so yeah, I figured out pretty quickly after that that Santa wasn't real.

I also thought it was weird that the handwriting on Santa's gift tags was my mom's handwriting

[Edited on December 23, 2014 at 10:24 AM. Reason : f]

12/23/2014 10:23:35 AM

WHAT?!!!!

I guess this thread

12/23/2014 10:24:54 AM

your grandpa is santa? sweet!

12/23/2014 10:30:52 AM

I don't remember ever believing in Santa. I'm the youngest child, so my brother and sister didn't really "believe" when I was little. Plus I was a sneaky little bastard and would always find where my parents would hide presents.

By the time I was 10, each of us kids would wrap all the presents for one of the others, so my parents didn't have to wrap them all.

12/23/2014 10:47:34 AM

My parents never told me about Santa. They told me if you work hard then you will earn rewards. I did not listen

I'm Krallum and I approved this message.

12/23/2014 10:58:14 AM

Also if you take your kids to see a mall Santa, it might be Mick Foley in that suit

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2526846/

12/23/2014 10:58:55 AM

4th grade teacher said to the class, "you guys know Santa isn't real, right?"

12/23/2014 11:37:49 AM

^

12/23/2014 11:57:47 AM

My parents never really did the santa thing with us.

I don't feel like I missed out.

I reluctantly agreed to do the Santa thing with our kids to keep my wife happy. I still refuse to outright lie about it, and use misdirection whenever my daughter asks.

Amy: Daddy, is santa really real?"

BD: I'm told that if you're a good girl all year, Santa will leave presents under the tree.

Amy:But is he really really really real?

BD:Do you think he's real?

Amy: pauses.... Yes, I do think he's real! runs off to go do 7year old things.

12/23/2014 11:57:58 AM

do any of us really remember back that far? :3

12/23/2014 12:37:23 PM

I was 8 and in the kitchen when my Mom was all "you know Santa isn't real, right? I mean come on." I was pissed off that she had lied to me for 8 years. She then tried to say that it's the idea of Santa and giving gifts with nothing expected in return that we should celebrate. I was still pissed and stormed off to my room. WHERE DO THE LIES END, MOM?!?

12/23/2014 12:41:38 PM

When I was five I asked my dad at the dinner table why mommy was hugging santa for so long in the living room, and he flipped the table and beat my mother severely.

That is when I realized Santa wasn't real and that my mother was fucking the neighbor.

12/23/2014 1:00:38 PM

Quote :

" I also thought it was weird that the handwriting on Santa's gift tags was my mom's handwriting "

That's how it was for me. The "From Santa" looked just like Mom's handwriting and when I asked her about it She denied it but I had spent the past few months perfecting her signature on things like when I got in trouble at school so I knew her handwriting pretty well.

12/23/2014 1:01:57 PM

A few months later, when my parents died, nobody came to give me gifts that year.


And that is when I finally became certain that there was no Santa. And that any previous gifts were likely given by them, or possibly that same neighbor who turned out to be my real father. He also died.

12/23/2014 1:15:53 PM

My Santa presents were never gift wrapped, so we never ran into the "handwriting on the gift tags" issue

12/23/2014 1:24:44 PM

i more than likely learned that santa wasn't real from my older brother. 9 years difference so when i was in my impressionable "santa believing" years he was already a douchey teenager who probably broke it to me. then i remember one year peeking over the banister to see my parents setting gifts out around the tree and just nodded to myself and went back to sleep.

^mine either. The big Santa gifts were always left unwrapped. It's funny, now my parents wrap everything. And will mark a few presents as "From: Santa". I actually chuckle and enjoy that much more.

12/23/2014 1:44:51 PM

yeah but my santa present was always a bike or something.

12/23/2014 1:51:21 PM

yankee santa wraps presents. southern santa does not.

12/23/2014 2:09:21 PM

When I was born a Jew.

12/23/2014 2:18:13 PM

My parents knocked something over pretty loudly when they were putting out the Santa presents when I was 7. The railing looking down into the den was right outside my room, so there was no time for them to do anything to keep up the act.

12/23/2014 2:21:01 PM

>pretty much everyone 30+
>remembering back 20 years

f dat :3333

12/23/2014 2:24:12 PM