What age did you tell your kids there was no Santi Claus?

[laundry_queen]

101. I haven't yet

My parents never, ever told me Santa wasn't real. My brother and I figured it out for sure when we found all of the goodies meant for our stockings hidden behind the shower in the basement. I was disappointed, but not traumatized, in fact, I realized then *I* could become Santa too and spent lots of money that year creating stockings w/gifts for my parents and I left the stockings out for them on Christmas eve after they went to bed (and saw my stocking out, lol, I was sneaky like that).

My oldest is a teen and I'm sure she's figured it out. We've had lots of talks about the concept of Santa and the spirit of giving but I've never come right out and said there wasn't any Santa. I always say things like, "some people believe xyz, some believe abc. I think everyone should form their own beliefs and come to their own conclusions." To which she replied a few years ago when she was 10 - "Well, I CHOOSE to believe in Santa! Even if he's NOT real, his spirit IS."

The kids have already figured out about the tooth fairy, because I'm terrible at remembering to be one. The old, "are you sure the tooth fairy didn't come last night? Have you checked under your pillow? Oh maybe it fell behind the bed....let me check...oh, here it is! I found it! You must've missed it!" got old, fast. My 12 year old lost 4 teeth in 10 days and I only remembered once. Finally, the next week I remembered (in the middle of the night of course) and the next day I gave her a bunch of money with an apology from the tooth fairy. I'm sure the whole Santa thing will follow but because my youngest is 5, we'll try to keep it going a bit longer.