How old were you when you learned there was no real Santa? How old till you stopped sitting on Santa laps at the store?

we never did the Santa thing. For us, Christmas was and is all about celebrating the birth of Jesus.

I never did the store Santa thing, so I only did the letter-writing. I don't remember when I stopped, although sometimes - when something particularly heartbreaking has happened - I find myself writing to Santa to ask him to fix things. It's cathartic to let it out like that.

(Being creative and a fiction writer, I tend to believe in the existence - on some level - of conceptual entities. Not that I wouldn't tackle someone in a weird suit doing B-and-E on the house, though.)

First grade maybe?

I was 12 or 13. I didn't want to stop believing.

I was 8