father christmas

When my sister and I were small, instead of leaving Santa cookies and milk we used to leave him cookies and beer. For some reason I never found this disturbing or unusual until many years later. I just thought that Santa was a beer drinker and never considered that it might be dangerous for him to drink and fly! He always left an empty beer bottle, a mess of cookie crumbs and great gifts so I'm sure he enjoyed it!

Stella

My mum used to tell me that the fairy on top of the christmas tree was a friend to Father Christmas, and so if i was naughty she'd tell him. i didn't like that fairy.

Em

I used to believe that the "real" Santa Claus was at Macy's in New York City. All the rest were fakes.

Marcia

When I was little, I belived that Santa would bring me presents. I belived this up until grade five because that year we were low on money and I was sure there was no way we would have christmas. However, when I went upstairs chirstmas morning, I found enough presents for myself and my whole family. I couldn't belive that the stockings were full and the tree had more than one present for each of us. I belived for another six months because of that. Then my parents told me that they had set money aside all year in order to have some for christmas.

I still prefer my version where Santa saved the day.

Kayle

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

when i was littel my dad said that santa was a alcoholic and he would drink all the bere so i should leave him 4 bottels of stella b ut it was my dad

kev da candy man

I also was told that due to not having a chimney, Santa had a magic key. I would listen intently, and I swore one year I hear the keys jingling then opening the front door!

anon

I used to believe that santa existed (stipid I know), and I really wanted to see him, so, somehow, I managed to get to sleep, or just about, with my eyes open.

I was so disappointed I almost cried when I didn't see him, and I still didn't make the connection between the presents and my mum coming in with a bag full of boxes until the next year.

Anyway, my eyes hurt like hell the next morning.

Kamikazejay

I used to worry about how Santa could get into our house safely. We had an oil burning stove and the Chimney was very small. Even if he had enough Magic to get down the Chimney..... it would burn him up when he got there. I was so upset about Santa burning up, that my Mama finally told me that, she left the door unlocked just special on Christmas Eve so that Santa could come in. That helped me to come up with special stories for my children when we had no chimney or fireplace for him to come down. I was thrilled, as an adult, when the movie "The Santa Clause" came out! That just answered all of my questions!

Lucynda

I believed in Santa Claus up until I was 8 years old. My father had given me a note from "Santa", but then I recoginzed his hand writing on the note and relized my father had written it. And that was the year I stopped believing.

Emily

Altho I was skeptical about Santa, each holiday something would happen to assure me that I should continuing believing in him.
1 - Daddy was unemployed for months and we lived off his savings account money, yet Santa delivered more toys for my brother and me that year more than in previous years.

2 - Another year we found his footprints and all his reindeer's footprints in the backyard snow. His prints led to the house and back to his sleigh and the reindeer prints were all lined up as one would expect them to be with one reindeer in front of the next. (They landed in our back yard because there was ice on the roof.

3 - One other year Santa arrived early in our neighborhood - about 5 pm. We were told that he had to start his nightly round extra early that year because there were so many more children to visit than in previous years. Our neighborhood was selected as an early visiting location. We had to stay in our rooms because Santa had to work quickly and did not want us in his way.
My brother and I hid in my bedroom at the end of the hall. We could hear the jingle bells growing closer and closer as Santa came down the street. I heard him come to the front door (since we had no fireplace). He knocked on the door, said Ho, Ho, Ho to my parents who talked to him as he unloaded his bag. Mom was making her comments like "Oh, she's going to love that...... He will have hours of fun playing with that"....
My bro. & I laid on our bellies trying to see through the crack between the bottom of the door and the floor. We could distinctly see Santa's boots with snow sliding off of them. Later when we came out of the bedroom, sure enough, melted snow remained on the carpet right where we had seen the boots standing.

Our parents thanked Santa for coming and he wished them a Merry Christmas. We heard him depart as the bells jingled on down the street.

All the kids we played with who lived on the our street had Santa visit early. We all shared our experiences and no one could have convinced any of us that year that Santa was anyone other then who we believed him to be.

Here was a community effort with assistance from the volunteer firefighters keeping the Christmas spirit alive for at least 10 little friends.

Our mother was known for returning Christmas gifts after Christmas, but never did she return anything that Santa left.

blfs

because we didnt have a chimney, my older brother used to tell me that father christmas used 2 get into the house to deliver presents by using his shrinking machine to become reallly small and jumping through the letter box and then becoming normal size and deliver the presents by Christmas tree

Anon

My older brother told me one Christmas Eve that if I was awake when Father Christmas arrived he would instruct an elf to sew me up in a sack and take me off on his sleigh forever-never to be seen again. No one was allowed to see Father Christmas! Needless to say I was petrified that night...

Anon

When I was young we had a wood stove in the living room, but one year my dad wanted to move it outside. I was upset and asked my parents, "How is Santa goign to get in the house now?" My dad quickly told me Santa would use the dryer vent, and I believed him. So after that I pictured Santa entering and leaving through the dryer.

MichelleLB in Cinci.

When my Dad and my uncle were boys, there beds were next to each other. One christmas, the tied a piece of fishing to the bottom post of their bed so santa would trip over it and they would prove santa was real...

it wasn't until the heard a crash in the middle of the night and found their dad tangled in the wire, that they thought they'd succeeded.

Steph Oakley

I always saw christmas movies which depicted the dream man that would come and sprinkle dust on you and make you fall asleep at night so you wouldn't disturb Santa. I used to think that he was also the one that slowed time on Christmas so tha Santa could get to every house. So if I woke up in the middle of the night I always thought the time was going real slow and I would move slowly sometimes too!! LOL!!

Lucy K.

We don't have a chimney so when i was little i asked my mum how he got into the house, he had a magic key apparently.

Emma

When I was younger, my little sister and I used to sleep in the attic on Christmas eve, and one year I couldn't fall asleep (too excited) and distinctly (according to my imagination) hear jingle bells and reindeer's hooves on the roof. In the morning, I told my sister about it, and for the next five years or so she stayed up late Christmas eve listening for Santa to land on the roof again.

Anon

I used to believe that Sinterklaas (a Dutch mythical figure who is said to come to the Netherlands every year around December, and then on the 5th of December -his birthday- he rides with a white horse on the roof to throw presents through the chimneys of houses where the good children live, while the bad children are taken away in a sack to Spain -as far as I know, Father Christmas was based on this figure) lived in the house next to that of my grandparents, because it was a big house and the inhabitants had stacked a lot of toilet paper in front of one of the windows, and I figured that was because Sinterklaas and all his Zwarte Pieten (Black Peters, the helpers of Sinterklaas) lived there, and because they were with so many people, they would need a lot of toilet paper. I believed this even though I also believed that Sinterklaas lived in Spain (while my grandparents lived in the Netherlands), and would often look outside my bedroom window in the hopes of seeing one of the Pieten (who I believed would only come out at night, for some reason I also believed that Sinterklaas and the Pieten would all be asleep during the day).

Belethchamien

I used to believe that since we didn't have a chimney, Santa would break the window or front door in the house and get his magical elves an yetis to fix it when he left.

Lauren