Santa Claus Memories

[blithe spirit]

Do you remember when you found out all about Santa? Did someone tell you or did you figure it out on your own? Did the story work for you?
Did you write letters to Santa...sit on his lap...tell him what you wanted...take a picture with him?
Thought it might be fun to share our Santa experiences...did anyone tell you there was no Santa? Did he scare you?

Those with kids...how did you introduce Santa to your kids?

[Karin M Fichtner]

I was raised with the jolly fat man, too. I don't know if I ever sat on his lap, but I have a picture of me standing next to Santa....with a very large fake reindeer behind me. I think I was about 8 when I started to see holes in the theory. When I was five, though.....my dad was driving for Greyhound.....and had just come in off the road the day before Christmas. We had no car at the time, and a friend of my dad's picked us up and took us to Christmas Eve services at church. My mom and dad never left my side. Yet, when we got home.....Santa had been there!! My previously empty Christmas tree was loaded with presents, and so was my stocking. It was the one and only time I was ever allowed to open gifts on Christmas Eve. Til the day he died, my father insisted Santa had brought those gifts. My brother was born 7 years after me, so I perpetuated the Santa thing for his sake, and loved doing it. My kids never admitted to NOT believing....even into their teens. It was kinda sad after they got too old for Santa secrets, though. And I missed the excitement and the toys. It was a bit more enjoyable when the grandkids came along....but I didn't get to be Santa anymore; I had to pass that onto my daughters. Now the great grandkids are all too old for Santa.....except for the baby. I find the absence of that old fat man is kinda sad. But it was great fun while it lasted.

[crestofwaves]

I knew from a young age that there was no Santa Claus.  I used to snoop, and the same presents I found hidden always ended up under the tree, ha ha.  However, when I did believe, I swear I heard bells on the roof of my house. As to presents, I can remember getting a couple of toys, then lots of necessities for winter.  And I was THRILLED.

It didn't matter to me that I knew there was no Santa.  Christmas was still magic for me, and I  played along.  I DID sit on his lap in Quackenbush's Dept store--and I remember the little gift he gave me at the time--a coloring book all wrapped up in pretty paper and ribbon.  

My father took us to NYC every year to see the tree in Rockefeller Center, and it was always so cold, but inevitably he would buy hot chestnuts from a street vendor.  It's not that I liked chestnuts so much, but they were HOT, so I volunteered to carry them.

My cousin Ross and I were very rambunctious.  One year in our Christmas stockings, we found an orange and some coal.  Didn't phase us one bit--we went on driving everyone crazy with our energy.  He later went on to be a priest for a while.

Christmas always meant lots of family.  One year my relatives who lived a couple blocks away had to sleep over on Christmas Eve because we had a blizzard. There were so many cousins in beds all over the place, and someone even made a bed out of a drawer for one of the babies.

I raised my kids to believe in Santa Claus.  Another tradition they enjoyed was the Advent Calendar where each day a window is opened counting down the days before  Christmas. Even when they were teens, they looked forward to that Advent Calendar.

Good memories.  Thanks for making us "go there," Blithe.

[Bill Ryan]

Do you mean there is no Santa Claus?

[frenchy]

hey bill, how ya doin ? welcome to the group .. you're gonna have  to make a post and tell us all about yourself so we can learn all about you .. 

as far as christmas goes i was one of them hard to fool kids .. we lived in the projects and there weren't any chimneys .. we were on the 5th floor of one and the 2nd floor of another building and they were all 6 and 8 stories tall .. so how was santa gonna get in ?? and then i'd ride on the bus and the train from my moms house to my aunts house and it took about 2 hours .. and i'd see all the houses inbetween .. and they'd say santa is gonna stop at everyone on christmas .. and then have some milk and cookies at every one ?? no way .. there just ain't no way .. of course i was told to shutup cause i was gonna ruin it for my cousin susie and nancy .. but i was like a little lawyer tryin to plead my case .. just tell me how in the world he's gonna stop at every house ?/it would take us 2 hours to go from jersey to new york and we didn't stop at anybodies house .. if we had to stop at every house ?? eeeeeeeeeeeeeee...so how was he gonna do it ?? even the ones with no chimneys ?? and then eat all them cookies and drink all that milk ?? he'll be so fat by the time he gets outta the projects he'll be pukin all over them poor reindeer..i was hard to fool .. don't get me wrong tho .. i wanted to believe .. but it just didn't flush if you get my drift .. 

[T2Friends]

 Anyway, when I was about 6 years old my two oldest sisters were attending a catholic high school.  Their school was running a charity drive, the students were collecting used toys for distribution to the poor.  I was growing out of my tricycle but I loved it and wouldn't give it up.  So my parents had a friend of the family call me just before Christmas and tell me he was Santa, (Ho Ho Ho and everything) see he needed a tricycle for another little girl and the elves couldn't make a new one in time for Christmas and would I consider giving mine away so this other little girl could have it?  I was so excited to be talking to Santa I said yes.  I don't remember any of the other details of that Christmas, but I do remember telling kids years afterwards that I knew there was a Santa because I had spoken to him on the phone.  LOL  

We didn't have much money when I was young.  Of course I didn't really know that at the time. I don't remember going to the store to see Santa but I remember writing letters to Santa.   In our house, gifts from Santa weren't wrapped, the wrapped gifts were what we exchanged with each other.  The toys that Santa brought were set up and ready to play with....I remember one year I got a large black board...I have no idea why, but on Christmas morning it was set that up in the living room by the Christmas tree and all my stuffed animals were gathered around it like students.  And over in the corner was my old play table and chairs with my old dolls sitting having tea with the new plastic tea set Santa brought me.  It made it seem like I was walking into a toy store or Santa's work shop....it was magical, even though it wasn't a lot.  

Eventually I stopped believing in Santa, but I have never stopped believing in the magic you can make for each other...with just a little bit of effort.  

  

 

[Lifesighs]

I think I was 8 when my older brother tried to convince me there was no real Santa, I told him off because number 1. I had just seen him live and real at the department store and number 2. There was no possible way my dad would have picked out those cool gifts. Brothers are so dumb.

[crestofwaves]

I "LIKE' all of these stories.  We learn so much about each other with topics like this.

[blithe spirit]

Probably becaame aware of the idea of Santa maybe around 3 or 4...I had a book with lots of pictures with the poem Twas the Night Before Christmas...I pretty much figured it wasn't real...sort of like a fairy tale...a made up story...but a story that adults seemed to enjoy.
I was the oldest of five kids so I read the book and the idea behind it to my siblings...With my Dad being in the military we lived on various bases with lots of folks who were far away from family. I remember many times we had actual visits from Santa....seemed to be a popular thing to do among many soldiers...we had black Santas...Hispanic Santas..German, French, Japanese, Turkish, Pakistani, and Iranian...a United Nations of Santas for years.
Didn't write letters but I did help the siblings write them...and we have pictures somewhere of several of the Santas.
We lived in Europe for a numbers of years so we did have Advent calendars and put our shoes outside the door for St. Nicolas to leave fruit or nuts on St. Nicolas Tag.
Always seemed kind of strange..the behavior of grownups but it was kinda fun.

[ProblemAgain]

you folks remember a lot of stuff. i sat trying to remember christmas and other memories and i guess i just didn't retain any. or they've gone away over the years