Poll: Did you believe in Santa Claus?

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

I liked the idea of him, but something about him made me think he wasn't entirely real. I just couldn't accept the idea of flying reindeer.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

What kid doesn't believe in Santa Claus??

 

[Scarim Coral]

Nope never did (blame my bro who ruin it for me when I was little).

 

[Yopaz]

Of-course, up until I was about seven or eight. As far as I know my little sister still believes in him.

Anyone who says no in the poll is lying or mistaken unless their parents never pretended that Santa was real since younger children are programmed to pretty much unconditionally accept whatever their parents teach them, no exceptions.

So you are calling me a liar for saying no because I was able to recognize my grandfather's voice when he showed up dressed up as Santa? I never believed in god either despite being in a Christian kindergarten and my parents didn't really care about religion one way or the the other. So despite being fed Christianity I didn't accept it because it didn't make sense and neither did Santa.
I knew that Santa wasn't real, but it was a nice tradition and I liked the stories around it so I didn't complain. Christmas wasn't Christmas without Santa, yet I knew that it was fake.

Childhood memories are notoriously inaccurate, you probably have retrospectively applied your adult-mindset into your past and forgotten when you did believe. While I don't doubt you recognised your grandfather at that point, unless your parents never attempted to trick you, you certainly would have believed in Santa sometime before then. There's no such thing as a sceptical young child as they don't have enough experience or knowledge to judge the truthfulness of a belief against, that's well-known psychology.

No, you are wrong there. Sure childhood memories are inaccurate, but I just called my mom and asked her about it and she said I didn't believe in Santa. I guess your hypothesis about this was proven incorrect.

Memories in adults are less prone to mistakes but they aren't fool-proof ( see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confabulation), since I assume this occurred well over a decade that certainly isn't "proof". Sorry but I'm not convinced that you were somehow immune to the learning stages which every child goes through. Critical thinking is something learned, not inherent, so assuming your parents did pretend that Santa was real at one point there's no way you wouldn't have believed it.

She actually remembered it in quite accurate details so I am pretty sure she remembers it correctly, She told me that my sister didn't believe in Santa, but wanted to believe in him. You're grasping at straws here when you're going to discredit both my memory and my parents' memories. Your link saying that memories aren't perfect is nowhere near proof. This is the kind of thing that occurred every year and they put some time and effort into planning our Christmas. From the gifts we got from Santa on the morning of the 24th to keep us waiting in patience to open the rest of the gifts when my father was done with milking and feeding the cows in the night and our visit from Santa. There's too much planning and emotions connected to the events for a big detail like the one that we didn't believe in Santa slipped by. She told me that even though both she and my dad knew we didn't believe in Santa she knew we thought it was a nice tradition in any case.

Now your explanation that kids are unable to reason this out "because you said so" is not proof. The fact that 6 different persons that are all of a different age can tell me I didn't believe in Santa is far better proof.

 

[WhyBotherToTry]

I did up until about 9 or 10, and then my brother told me he saw our dad putting the presents under the tree so that ruined it for me.

 

[PureChaos]

when you're a kid you believe anything your parents tell you. i believed in Santa for a while because my parents told me it was real but i soon realized the boring truth

 

[The Heik]

Given how many atheist/agnostic/non-Christians are on the site, I'm not entirely sure that I'll get a decent response, but I'm going for it anyway (I know some people who participate in Christmas anyways, regardless of religious beliefs). My input is yes, I totally ate up the Santa thing. Great part of my childhood, with so many fun memories.

Here's the interesting part for you. I still believe in Santa Claus. No, not the jolly old guy in the red jump suit at the North Pole, but rather Saint Nicholas. You see, I personally believe that we live through our actions, and when others take to heart the goals and ideals we set out for ourselves, then we live through them via their actions. So as long as people still take part in the spirit of giving, even if it's for only one month a year, old St. Nick will always be real, and will never truly die.

 

[SirDeadly]

I can't remember far back enough to a time when I did believe in Santa.

 

[thom_cat_]

Yup still do.
Santa is a better being to believe in tha God, Alah, Jesus, or whatever. No plagues, no dying for sins, no suicide bombers, nothing bad. The worst you get with Ol' St. Nick is coal for being a jerk.
What's so bad about believing in a fat man who brings children presents one night a year. It's not any different than Jesus, the Tooth Fairy, God, Bigfoot, Zeus, or the Jersey Devil.
I'll take Kris Kringle over any other mythical figure.

And the slavery of tons of little worker elves. You heartless, heartless bastard.

 

[Viral_Lola]

My parents were the stereotypical Asian parents. I never had a chance. When I asked about Santa Claus; they said, ?He?s not real. If you want presents, you have to work and buy it yourself."

 

[Ukasuy]

Definitely did. Probably until 10/11 or so. Believing in Santa made Christmas really truly magical. It's still fun now, but nothing compares to Christmas morning when you do believe in Santa.

 

[David_G]

I didn't. I don't know the reasons, my parents kept telling me that he's real but I laughed at them. It's most probably because my family is Orthodox and Christmas doesn't have the stuff the Catholics have, like presents.