D.C. Area Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
QOTD - Santa when you were a kid
Mrs Handy is up for QOTD this week, but I don't see her post, so I'm going to go ahead and do today's.
When you were a kid, what were your beliefs about Santa, if any? Did you think he was REAL? Did you think he was sort of real, but didn't really believe he came down your chimney? Did you always know he was imaginary?
Sorry if this post is Christmas-specific in light of the "happy holidays" post, but I figured everyone is exposed to Santa, at least a little bit, through the mass Christmas retail blitz.
Re: QOTD - Santa when you were a kid
Off to the beach
DS 7/18/2010
Handy 2.0 Due Early August
2011/2012 Races
12/17/2011 Christmas Caper 10K
2/11/2012 Have a Heart 5K
3/17/2012 DC RNR Half Marathon
4/22/2012 10M Parkway Classic
10/28/2012 Marine Corps Marathon
I guess I kind of thought he was real. I never really gave it a ton of thought how it was possible. But one day I figured it out and I asked my Mom if he was real and she said "not that she knew of"
We didn't have a chimney so I had no idea how he got in.
Off to the beach
DS 7/18/2010
Handy 2.0 Due Early August
2011/2012 Races
12/17/2011 Christmas Caper 10K
2/11/2012 Have a Heart 5K
3/17/2012 DC RNR Half Marathon
4/22/2012 10M Parkway Classic
10/28/2012 Marine Corps Marathon
Hell yes Santa was real.
My mother even let my dad soot up his boots and walk on the carpet!!! My parents made it soooo believable, it was awesome.
One year, I think I was 5 or so, my dad was drunk and was making a ton of noise putting together a toy for my brother from Santa, and my mom started yelling at him because he was going to ruin Christmas. It's one of my earliest memories. And it's hysterical.
Anyways - I have a sister who will be turning 17 next year, so we had to keep believing in Santa for a looooooong time. The logistics of having Christmas in Savannah when I lived there one year was out of control - but we totally pulled it off and Santa found my sister!
We make the rockin' world go 'round.
If you ever saw the Merrifield Santa, like I know KelXOXO also did, you definitely believed!
I don't remember when I stopped believing though. I sort of just caught on...
Scout
Chocolate Blog!
as a very little kid, i totally believed in santa. but once i started school i started doubting. i think first grade was my last year of believing . . . in part because my mom left price tags on stuff. first grade was the last year i even sorta believed in santa and the following easter i straight up asked my mom about the easter bunny, santa, and tooth fairy.
He was TOTALLY real. We still get a present from Santa.
I always thought he was real. When I was growing up we would go out for breakfast on Christmas morning and then we came back the tree lights would be on and presents under the tree. I never realized that my dad would go in and say he wanted to make sure santa came first and do it before I went in the house.
At my grandparents on Christmas evening the adults stayed behind but me and my 3 cousins had to go for a walk around the block (regardless of snowing or not) and then when we got back Santa had come.
I thought he was real until I found my (filled) Easter basket under my dad's bed just before that holiday. I played along for another year *just in case* but after that I didn't believe in any of it anymore.
A funnier story, however, is my cousins.
Their parents are crazy into xmas. Like, my uncle would get on the roof, stomp around & ring jingle bells kind of crazy. All of my cousins believed, like HARDCORE believed/arguing with classmates, until the summer after 5th grade. Right before 6th grade (starting middle school), my aunt/uncle would sit them down & tell them santa wasn't real. While everyone was all together they figured it would be a good time to talk about where babies come from too. One of my poor cousins was so tramatized by that afternoon that he spent the rest of the day crying. Poor kid. Finding out santa/easter bunny/tooth fairy aren't real AND sex is basically a childhood ending conversation.
ditto! i am pretty sure that would ruin christmas for me for a looooong time!
Yeah, I totally believed. In my mind, he was magic, so things like not having a chimney were not an issue.
I remember the year before I found out, I heard wrapping paper cutting/tape ripping noises and asked my mom about it. She said that Santa had a lot of houses to get to, so sometimes he had to ask the parents to wrap the presents for him. Made sense to me!
I figured it out in second grade, thanks to the book Superfudge--spoiler! I figured out that the Easter bunny and tooth fairy weren't real at the same time. Which sucked, but I kept up the ruse for a few years for my brother, and that was almost as fun anyway.
TTC #2: BFP 12/17/11, m/c 1/7/12 and D&C 1/12/12
baby blog/cooking blog

I remeber believing at age 4-5 that Santa was real, but by 6-8 I knew he wasn't and I wanted to play Santa for my single mom and sneak out at night and leave her a present. (My gift to her from Santa was a wooden spoon, LOL). I was insulted that my parents would lie to me rather than including me in the giving fun. We switched to "playing" Santa and filling each others stockings and it has always been so much more fun that way.
Planning Bio
Santa was real. He drove a white van and came through our front door because we didn't have a chimney. He would come to our house on Christmas Eve and hand out the presents. When I started getting older, the neighbor kid said he wasn't real so I invited her over so she could meet Santa at my house. My grandparents had to scramble and change the name on a few presents from my name to hers so that she would get some gifts from Santa too.
I don't think I realized that it was the man who owned the local Dollar General until about 5th grade. The teeth and glasses gave it away. And I finally noticed the stack of presents on the front porch under a blanket.