Voice Box: How did you find out about Santa Claus?

Tribune News Service

How did you find out about Santa Claus?

INTERVIEWS AND PHOTOS BY COLIN MACDOUGALL, CONTRIBUTOR

Alec Ricks, 20, Brighton, web design

“I was 10 years old… My mom told me. She said, ‘There is something you need to know before you enter the fifth grade.’ I had started to suspect something.”

Tony Woodford, 32, Ann Arbor, graphic design

“First figured found out about Santa when I was about 5, through Dr. Seuss’s the Grinch stole Christmas… I think it’s good for children but as you get older you start to realize Santa really is behavioral model… It get children to behave good all year, so at the end of the year they get a bountiful harvest.”

Liz Thon, 23, Bay City, biology/zoology

“I was probably like seven and I wandered into my grandparents room and saw that they had presents addressed From: Santa, To: Liz and I was like ‘Huh, that’s a little disappointing,’ but in the long run, I think it was better. I don’t plan on telling my kids about Santa Claus because I don’t think it’s necessary now, it’s a way to make your kids behave.”

Logan Astrup,17, Ann Arbor, photography

“I was about 10 when I found out. It didn’t bug me, but it didn’t make me happy. It was kind of like an ‘Oh I kind of figured’ thing.”

John Harrison, 20, Ypsilanti, accounting

“I was about 10 years old. I remember my cousin and me watching a Santa Claus movie or some other holiday movie and what ended up happening was he said ‘OK, Santa Claus is not real’ like he got fed up with the movie so he kept saying, ‘Santa Claus doesn’t exist.’ I’m like ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about Santa comes down my chimney.’ I was kinda shocked. It was bittersweet, because I knew someone had a hand in the whole situation.”

Roderick Comer, 22, Ypsilanti, business management

“I pretty much found out in third grade. There was like a group of kids who said that Santa Claus is not real and a group that said he was real. I was a part of the group that said he was real. The kids who were saying he was not real were all the bad and edgy kids. Then we found out the truth and all the good kids were wrong…Which kind of hurt, but for my parents sake I still said Santa Claus was real because I knew I would get more presents.”

Madison Squires, 17, Ann Arbor, general studies

“No one flat out told me. After a certain age, I was kind of talking to my mom she said something like, ‘Yeah I bought you that or whatever.’ She didn’t flat out say it, but we both knew it, I’d say I was about 11. The whole concept of Santa is not the best because we are lying to our children to celebrate a religion.”