Merkuri said:
You see that one vote for 10-12? That was me. I believed up until middle school, which is when my parents decided I was too old and told me. I cried for that entire car ride. I was a gullible little sucker, I guess. The world just lost all its magic at that moment for me.
I see your 10-12 Merkuri and raise you a 13! Believe it or not, I was 13 and in my first year of High School in Australia before my parents told me that there was no such thing as Santa Claus. I remember my Mum crying when she told me, although I was pretty ambivalent about it (and so I should have been, I was 13 years old for crying out loud!
). I was a pretty bright kid so I don't know how I could marry up the whole flying around the world delivering presents to all the children in 1 night to the physical impossibility of that actually happening.
Looking back at it now, I think I "believed" in it, even though I probably knew deep down that it wasn't real. My friends at school used to give me so much crap about still believing in Santa but I didn't care. All I knew was that Santa gave me some kick-ass presents over the years and I didn't want to see them stop coming if I didn't believe in him anymore. I was just incredibly naive and gullible I guess!
I think my sister found out when she was about 10 (the year after I found out - I'm older). She was snooping through my parents room, looking for any Christmas presents that they had hidden away for us when she discovered a present with a tag saying it was to her from Santa. I busted her in the act and dobbed her in to my Mum who told her that Santa and the Easter Bunny didn't exist.
The best thing was 2 weeks later when she lost a tooth. She asked my Mum if she should put it out for the Tooth Fairy to collect (and get some money in return). My Mum said, "What for? There's no Tooth Fairy either!". My sister really shot herself in the foot on that one!
Olaf the (embarrassed) Stout