When my little brother was about 3, he used to say that if he put his face in his pillow hard enough, and opened his eyes he could see things,father christmas, fairys etc, funny he never saw my dad coming up the stairs, to tell us all to get back in bed though, hope you dont still do this ian.

older sis

I always knew that the whole Santa thing was a bit far fetched, yet had no problem at all believing that the local Lions Club bought presents for all the kids in town and let themselves into our house without my Dad minding too much to put presents I'd never told anyone I wanted except my Mum.

I'm still not sure what the lions club do exactly, except collect money on the street, put on a fireworks display each year, and of course buy all the kids presents!!

Pip

When I was about 4 years old, Santa delivered a Dolls House to me for christmas. The livingroom in the dolls house had carpet which matched our livingroom carpet exactly. And the Dolls House kitchen had lino on the floor which matched our kitchen floor exactly. I was SO impressed that Santa knew so much that he could make a house just like ours. Of course I found out years later that my mother had helped him out!!

Elaine

Our mum ate the chocolate tree decorations and told us that Rudolph had eaten them. We were really impressed that he managed it without knocking the tree over!

Anon

when i found christmas presents under my parents bed - my dad assured me that because santa was soo busy each year, that they bought the presents for him, wrapped them up and then on christmas eve santa would come along and put them at the end of my bed for me - this got me through a few more years of believing in santa!!

stormfairy

I was Santa for my four-year old's school, but despite my best efforts, he saw trhough the costume (as did his best friend, who came out with "Santa looks just like Alex's Dad...")

He now thinks
- When you wear the costuem, you're not pretending to be Santa, you ARE Santa.

- Becuase the real Snata was too busy to come to the party, but Dad took a day off work, then Dad is better than Santa, who is now some absentee, workaholic father figure... Yes, i turned Santa in to my Dad in a brand new way...

Pete Darby

When i was about 5 the old man that lived behind our terrace of houses dressed up like santa and had all the parents get the kids to look out the window at the same time so we all saw santa run accross the garden. I've never tried to fall asleep as quickly since.

Anon

My parents told me and my sister that in the month before Christmas fairies were sent to live in the house to make sure we were being good, ensuring our good behaviour for a whole month. It was a different fairy each year, like fairy snowflake, fairy holly etc. We put out Ribena and biscuit crumbs in our dolls house tea set and the fairy in residence would always eat it! My parents were finally rumbled when the fire fairy was in residence. My mum said she had long red hair as one might expect but upon independantly interviewing my Dad he said she had short red hair (which lets face it would be more practical if you're dealing with fire all day). My sister and I smelt a rat and I'm afraid after that it was curtains for Father Christmas as well.

Claire

i used to think that santa was real every night i would leave food and drink out in the morning it was not there.one year i made a mark in the carrot to see if my parants had put it back, because they do not eat raw carrots. i checked the carrot basket in the morning and it was there that proved he was not real.

emma hann

i used to belive in santa claus every boxing day i would write a letter to thank him. but i head my parents saying they would tell me santa is not real

Anon

I came from a poor family but, nonetheless, my parents always made sure I got a toy for Christmas. My father would bring me to see Santa and tell me that Santa didn't like it when you asked for too many things because if he gives you all those things there wouldn't be enough toys left to give to the other kids.
When I sat on Santa's lap, he would ask me what I wanted and I would say only one thing. I had to think really hard about the one thing I wanted. No matter how many times Santa would ask me, "and what else, little girl, would you like Santa to bring?" I would only tell him one thing.

Angela

I used to believe that Father Christmas's elves would come and tickle your toes at night if you where naughty.

yvonne

I used to believe Santa stopped his sleigh on the roof, and then came through the sliding door (2nd level) that we left open for him because we didn't have a chimney. Then when I was six, some of my mates and I were talking in class and one of them said that Santa didn't exist. Straight away everything clicked. I never told my parents, realising that they had as much fun pretending to believe in Santa as I did. I'm now 18 and although my older sister has admitted to being a non-believer, my parents and I have a silent agreement to keep him going... At least until I move out for good.

Anyway, the older I get the more I want to believe...

sparky