theimagemagazine Feb. 19, 2020
Spoiler alert:
Lifestyles
Secrets revealed, childhood legends ruined VIJAY VISWANATHAN • Staff Reporter •
Characters such as Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy can be cornerstones of childhood. But every year, children have their hopes dashed when they find their legends aren’t what they seem. “I woke up in the middle of the night because my dad had his hand under my pillow. I asked him ‘So does this mean the Tooth Fairy isn’t real?’ He shouted, ‘NO!’ and ran off.” Eric Allison, 12
“I went to the bathroom at three in the morning and I saw my mom stuffing my stockings.” Cameron Eltoft, 9 “When I was younger, I had no idea that Santa Claus wasn’t real until I woke up one morning and my mom walked in, and I saw her moving the Elf on the Shelf, but she didn’t know I was awake, so I knew that my mom was moving the Elf on the Shelf and that Santa Claus wasn’t real.” Lindsey Lohr, 10 “I have an older brother that ruined it for me. As soon as he found out that Santa Claus wasn’t real, he told me that Santa wasn’t real. I think I was 4 years old at the time.” Tracy Gladden, language arts teacher “When I was maybe 5 or 6, my Dad played Santa Claus at my church, but I just accepted that he was merely playing the role because the real Santa was busy at the North Pole. I remember being in bed on Christmas Eve was, and I heard my parents putting gifts underneath the tree.” Jennifer Ingram, language arts teacher
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Ava Dean, 9
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Brad Balog, teacher
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Erin Thorley, 11
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Geoff Ladue, 12
I found out Santa wasn’t real when one year I put my phone in a grocery bag to hide it and I cut out a slit for the camera. I put the phone on the charger and deleted almost every photo, aimed the camera toward the living room and tree and started a video right before I went to bed. [I said] ‘Let’s see who he really is.’ My parents were like, ‘What do you mean?’ And they took my phone and rewatched the video and deleted it, so I just assumed they were Santa because they were so protective of the video.”
I was in 5th grade. I lived in Dallas, and I remember sitting around in my house, and I was just joking around with my mom, like, ‘Yeah! Santa Claus isn’t real! There’s no way Santa Claus is real!’ But I still totally believed. I was being a smart-Aleck, and my mom goes, ‘Yeah, you’re right. He doesn’t.’ I went, ‘Wait, wait, what?’ And I had this feeling of total shock and dismay because she just decided at that moment, so it just shocked the living daylights out of me when I found out. It rocked my world because I was being a smart-Aleck 5th-grader and then found out Santa wasn’t real.”
I was in 3rd or 4th grade, and I was pretty sure the Tooth Fairy wasn’t real. But I am such a believer it killed me to think that I was letting down the Tooth Fairy if I stopped believing. So I made a plan. I called it my Tooth Fairy trap. The next time my tooth fell out, I told my parents and had a normal level of celebration, but I didn’t put it under my pillow. I told my parents I was going to wait a few days to see if the Tooth Fairy would remember me. Then I put it off and put it off and three weeks later, the Tooth Fairy didn’t come, and my tooth was still under my pillow. I finally knew she wasn’t real because no Tooth Fairy would ever forget a child. Coincidentally, this was the last tooth I ever lost.”
I was in the car and reasoned that if one person didn’t believe in Santa, then he couldn’t exist. I asked my dad, and all he said was ‘Santa Claus is the spirit of Christmas.’ He neither confirmed it nor denied it. So I hold out hope that he still may exist.”
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