father christmas

when i was little, on christmas eve i would never want to sleep, so my dad told me i had better or santa would "skip the house." i thought this meant he would stand right in the center hall and skip, really hard so the house would fly up and land sideways! i was so scared.

Kendra

I used to believe at Christmas time that the red lights from radio towers were actually Rudolph's nose blinking to show Santa the way to my house.

Shelly

I am now twelve and 2 years ago i believed in santa.
The christmas before that, i recieved bike gloves in my stocking. the next year i was at canadian tire, and i saw a pair of bike gloves on the wall. "hey dad, where'd you get those bike gloves you bought me last year??" "MEC. Why?"
"just wondering." that gave it away.

Alex

One christmas, I think I was about 7 or so, I woke up really early and proceeded with the usual stocking check. However, when I entered the lounge room, I noticed Santa had left his wrapping devices (ie. sticky tape, wrapping paper, the same our presents had been wrapped with, and scissors) on the coffee table.

k.c.

When I was really young, I would believe that the blinking lights on top of those massive electrical posts that are metal where Rudolph.

My mother would tell me during the summer "honey, its rudolph and Santa watching over you all year around."

I would cry because I never got to see the sled - only a blinking red light, that I mistook for a reindeer nose. :)

Confused

i used to know that santa wasn't real, but someone was really dressed up as santa because they had a huge scar down their body from where the presents came, and he had to wear the costume or he would scare all the kids.

simon white, buckingham

When i was just a young boy, i do remember the teachers at school after christmas called up every child who believed that they had meet santa. They were told to describe what he looked like and what he sounded like, now i remember why all of the teachers were laughing at the time.

Matt, Coventry UK

Whenever Christmastime rolled around, my dad would call up my aunt and ask her to pretend to be Santa Claus for me. Then Dad would put me on the phone, and my aunt would affect a husky voice and asked me what I wanted for Christmas. Once I asked my dad if I could have "Santa's phone number" but he told me I would have until I went to college, like all the other adults. Saved me the trouble of writing a letter, I suppose...

Also, one year on Christmas Eve, I heard a loud noise like metal crashing somewhere outside my bedroom. I assumed that Santa had fallen down the flue, banging against the grille in front of our fireplace. So, the next year, I asked my parents to move the grille out of the way so that Santa wouldn't bump into it.

Kitty Kat

i used to believe that santa and my parents were good friends who talked all the time. this is cause when i was bad one day, my father called up my uncle and told him to tell me on the phone that he was santa, and that i wouldn't get any presents if i didn't stop being bad. so "santa" told me i was bad and had to behave myself, and then i cried not knowing it was my uncle until years later

nikki

When I was little I remember being so scared I would cry myself to sleep on christmas eve cause I didn't like strange people in our house, even if it was father christmas.

Anon

When I was little and we went Cristmas shopping I wen to see Santa while in the department store. When we went to another department store to do some more shopping, my mother told me that Santa had just moved over there, and I believed it.

Stomper

I was an army brat, and believed my mother when she told us that all the
"extra" Santas were his "helpers". How else could the newsman announce Santa's departure from the North Pole right after I'd seen him waving from a helicopter on the military base AND ringing the bell for the Salvation army kettle (in several locations I might add). I was perplexed as to how you could tell who the real one was. My mother told me that you could never be sure, so I'd better be nice to them all....

Since we moved every year and even lived in Germany for awhile, my mother was forced to be very creative in explaining the different customs and Christmas quirks wherever we lived. I don't kow exactly when I outgrew my belief, I guess it all just strained my credibility too much. But the highlight of my life was singing Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer while sitting on Santa's knee in the crowded town hall for Ogden, Kansas when I was 9. My friends excitedly told me the next day that I'd been on the radio! With Santa no less. I was quite a hero with my crowd for a while, especially since I had recieved an extra large "special" stocking stuffed with toys and candy from him for my song.

Ladybug2535

My mom was frequently laid off from work around Christmastime when I was a kid. I never understood why she was so worried about financial stuff around Christmas. She explained to me that Santa made the gifts himself and brought them for free, but she had to pay the post office a fee for him to deliver them.

Anon

Where I grew up, I lived in an apartment with a porch but no fireplace. One year I got a present from Santa on the porch. Being morally afraid of Santa every year of Christmas (until we moved) I would make sure I would lock the porch door tight and place booby traps so Santa wouldn't come through. But every year I would get a present.

Angela

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

My father told my sister and I one year on Christmas eve that Santa and the reindeer were getting really tired of all of the milk and Christmas cookies that all the nice girls and boys left him and that what Santa would REALLY like was just a beer and a salami sandwich.

Did we leave it for him? You bet!

Look for my dad's story about the children in China above!

shallahb