my mum used to label my christmas presents 'love santa' so 1 year when i was about 5 i asked her in all seriousness why her and my dad didn't buy me any presents. She swears thats the closest shes ever come to hitting me!!

santa claus

One year, when I was a kid and still believed in Santa, it was a cold but snowless Christmas Eve in Chicago and I wanted to wait for Santa to show up. I didn't go to bed as I was supposed to but instead waited and waited and kept on looking out my frosted bedroom window. All of a sudden my Dads car pulls up in front of our house. My Dad gets out of the car and then, lo and behold who gets out of the passenger side but none other than ole Saint Nick ( my Dads slightly lubed buddy dressed like Santa) himself. They open the trunk and remove a bag of presents and walk up to the house. I'm excited as all get up but my young mind is thinking...hey..what's up with this?

Well they come in through the front door and to their surprise ( their plan was for Dad was to slip into bed with Mom and then Santa was to make some racket to awaken us ) I'm already at the bottom of the stairs yelling out at the top of my lungs "Santa Clause is here" which then woke everybody else in my family up.

Well after Santa gave us our presents, the wheels in my young head started turning again and I looked at my Dad and asked...Daddy, why was Santa in your car and where is his sleigh and reindeers???

My Dad was stumped but Santa, with a glass of eggnog in his hand, looked at me, paused and then said "Johnny, as you can see, there's no snow on the ground or up on your roof for my sleigh to land on... so I called your father and he picked me up at O'Hare airport.

That made perfect sense to me!

Anon

I used to believe that, if God would die, Santa Claus would be boss.

Judith

When I was in kindergarten, in the school bathroom the light was a circle with a black dot in the middle. Since people said santa is always watching I thought that it was santa's eye. So I didn't know why the heck an old man would want to watch little kids go to the bathroom, so I stopped using that bathroom

~Cucmber~

Just as I was starting to disbelieve in Father Christmas my parents got a neighbour to dress up as him and fill the stocking at the end of my bed. He trod on, and smashed, the airfix planes I had layed as a trap and woke me. I was too paralysed with belief and fear to apprehend him and carried on believing for a few years.

sam

Whilst on holiday, a little boy approached my father-in-law and offered him a sweet in the belief that he was father christmas (my father in law really is the spitting image of Santa). The boys' mother and my mother-in-law played up to this and explained that Santa needed a holiday as well after all his exertions at Christmas and that he had cut his beard because it was too hot. I just hope the little boy received what he wanted that Christmas after going to the trouble of bribing Santa!!

Steph

When I was little, my brother once told me that eating the crust on your bread would make Santa Claus turn brown.

Although I no longer believe in Santa Claus, I still don't eat the crust on my bread.

Bunny

When I was about 6 or 7, we had a church Christmas party. My dad dressed up as Santa Clause and all the kids sat on his lap and he gave them candycanes. when I got near the front of the line, I finally recognized him. I was shocked! I couldnt believe my dad was Santa! I didnt tell dad .I didnt want him to be upset because I found out his secret.

Santa's daughter

when I was six years old I was under the impression that Santa Claus' sleigh was on my room. I looked out the window every so often. I looked on last time and was sooo convienced that it was his sleigh, but it was the our Gutter that's all! I was totally mistaken and sad...

thumper

When I was younger I'd spend ages choosing what to leave out for Santa & Rudolf. In the end, I decided on Rice Krispies for Rudolf, because he "must get bored of carrots". On Christmas morning I was so excited when I saw that the Rice Krispies had been spilt everywhere, surely only Rudolf could have done that? Oh dear.

Anon

I saw my Dad putting Christmas presents under the tree and I whispered his name and he didn't answer so I was convinced that Santa dressed up like everyone's parents to get into the house without anybody calling the police.

Terri L. Dipperstein

I used to believe that you need to hide from Santa Clause, cause my parents always told me to wait in the bathroom until he was gone :))

soja

When I was 4 I went to live with my Great Grandfather. On Christmas Eve I pretended to be asleep and I saw Grandpa go to the table and drink the milk and eat the biscuits we'd left out for Santa. I was in absolute awe and so excited - I exploded out into the neighbourhood on Christmas day convinced that Santa lived at my house.

Tracey

I believed superheroes got their powers by taking special pills, and if I asked Santa for those pills he would give them to me, too.

Anon

The beleif that santa is real is the most common for kids, i know, but my beleif was probably a little stronger. This was due to the fact that every christmas after I went to bed my dad would trash the living room. He would throw dirt around, put boot marks everywhere, spill the sherry i left for santa... one time he even lodged one of his wellies in our fireplace. we had to leave it outside for poor santa to collect! Of course, this gave me a terrible impression of santa, a messy drunk intruder!

Chinky Lil

When I was a little kid my sis told me santa had a red suit cause he dyed it with the blood of naughty kids. I believed that for a while, not anymore though. I still find him creepy.

Anon

We didn't have a chimney in our house. Father Christmas had to come in through the letter box.

Ginnean

My parents used to tell my brother and I that if we were bad around Christmas time, that Santa would send his elves to take away the Christmas tree and that the elves checked on us during the night from outside our bedroom windows. To make it more believable, my dad made some scrapings down the snow covered sidewalk and made little mitten prints on the outside of our frosted bedroom windows, and told us the next morning that he saw the elves dragging the neighbor kids's Christmas tree down the sidewalk and that he also saw them come and check on us, then proceeded to show us the drag marks and the mitten prints - we were both mortified and we never did dare go to the neighbor's house to see if the tree was really gone or not for fear of being associated with "bad" kids in Santa's eyes!

Dawn

I was told that for every christmas carol i sang before christmas time santa would give me one less present!

K

At the age of eight or so I found out that Santa didn't really come down the chimmney and leave behind presents, but I refused to believe that he didn't actually exist; instead I insisted that he had a remote control that he used to make my parents buy me toys at the right time of year, because he was so old that he was probably retired anyway, and besides, my parents would NEVER buy me toys on their own...

bubukaba