It's nice to see her looking for proof.

I remember being pretty young and hiding somewhere downstairs on Christmas eve to see if Santa was real, because I was having doubts. I'm not sure how old I was (maybe 5 or 6), but I remember that when I saw my mom putting gifts under the tree, I was not upset or mad at all. I had figure dit out, but just needed confirmation.

I didn't tell my mom about that until years later. She still enjoys the whole pretending and "magic" of the holidays (although she is not religious, per se, just enjoys holidays), so back then I just let her play along and just kept my mouth shut.

But I don't ever remember really being excited about Christmas, mostly because for as long as I remember I had known it was mom doing the gift-giving, and just saw it as another birthday, really, where I got stuff.

I wonder if I would have told a younger sister the truth had she asked me, but i'm an only child, so I can't say.

Shaun

That's funny. Sapient's right, at least she's looking for some evidence. My parent's used to set out cookies for Santa, too. What made me want to investigate was when I noticed that the gift tags that said "From Santa" were in my mom's handwriting. I stayed up for what seemed like an eternity (probably only 9:00 p.m.) and busted my parent's in the act.

She has asked how santa can do things and I just say magic. I'm hopeing later on in life that she'll think about concepts and question how close it sounds to magic then think about santa. I wanted to set traps for santa when I was little, I think my dad told me I couldn't put anything infront of doors or, if it was lite, the fire place. I wanted to leave the fire on all night to see if I still got presents. Looking back if santa was real that experiment might have been a little unethical.

Hahahhaha. I can see why your dad objected. Not for protection of Santa, but for himself or your mom....
I've mentioned on RRS before that I called my parents on the whole Santa thing when I was about 5 or 6.
Little Kat: "Hey mom, Santa isn't real."
Mom: "W-what makes you say that?"
Little Kat: (disgusted tone)"Well, reindeer can't fly."

And being honest, my mom and dad 'fessed up, and affirmed that Santa wasn't real. I can't remember if I told my brother, 'cause he would have only been 2 or 3. What I do remember is going to school and telling all the other kids. It seemed like important information. One girl cried. Most of the kids were excited by the knowledge that their parents had LIED to them, rendering many other parental absolutes potentially moot. And a few other kids flat-out REFUSED to believe me. They believed in Santa. So that was that, and I can take my lack of faith to that toybox thank you very much. Would be funny to run into those kids again and ask them about it.
"So do you still believe in Santa?"

When I was in high school, I wanted to believe in magic and the paranormal so much that I took to studying parapsychology. That was a mistake!

When I was younger, I wanted to believe in Santa so much that I never asked questions. I simply accepted the illusion as though it were real. But I always knew it wasn't. It just never clicked with me that it wasn't. My young mind never cooperated with my will, it seems, so that I always had this nagging voice saying "stop pretending!" So I played along until one day I told my mom that I was too old for Santa and didn't need to pretend anymore. I was five then. At that same time, I told my mom that I didn't like football, but didn't know how to tell my dad. It was quite funny, really.

One of the reasons that religious people become so overzealous about their religion is because of this factor. In their heads, they go through rituals that do not actually give them a sense of reality. They want to believe, but the belief itself in something so unreal makes it extremely difficult. So they simply do not want to hear their doubts spoken, lest they should then have to admit them.