Remember the times as kids where we had such big hearts in believing in the one and only Santa Claus, but as we got older we all had different awakenings to Mr. Claus. Maybe not being as real as we expected him to be. The Triton Voice spoke with twenty Triton students to get the most interesting stories when students here found out Mr. Claus wasn’t real.

Growing up with technology and cameras can give kids a lot of answers to things they weren’t necessarily seeking but, Kaia Cohen a junior took advantage of her technological use to catch Mr. Claus on camera. “So I grew up thinking Santa was very real but this one time I took a video camera and filmed my parents setting up the presents and my dad was putting them out and drank the milk and ate the cookies.” Kaia Cohen said. “They were stomping on all of the reindeer food I put out for the reindeers to eat. I was nine years old at the time.” Although Kaia was ultimately trying to get hard proof of Mr. Claus, she was left with the upsetting truth.

Finding out about santa doesn’t always end in positivity, for Kelley Frithsen it ended in tears. “When I was in 6th grade, I was in denial and sad he wasn’t real. But I found “fairy dust” in my cabinet along with notes I had written to Santa that I had found. I went straight to my mom and questioned her. She cried and I cried because I was lied to and looked like a fool.” Even though Kelley’s hard truth wasn’t a positive ending, it left quite an impact on her that affected one of her peers.

Sometimes friends have to give us a brief taste of reality, which is what happened to Morgan Monroe a close friend of Kelley Frithsen.  “I found out in sixth grade because Kelley Frithsen flat out told me that santa wasn’t real.” After Frithsens negative experience about Santa himself she decided to spill the word on Mr. Claus to a once big believer.

Parents overtime ponder when they should spill the beans on Santa Claus, for Luc Daniels mom she decided to just come right out with it. “When I was like 7 or 8 and my mom was like, “yeah sorry for the socks and chocolates, Santa doesn’t exist.” Luc’s experience wasn’t so negative, but it’s never fun to finally come to terms with the truth.

Aidan Lowry had quite the saddening discovery when the sweet treat he was looking forward to, turned into the cold hard truth, quite literally. “In fourth grade me and my friend went downstairs in his basement to get ice cream from his bottom freezer. When we got down there the freezer was turned off and when we opened it up, it was full of presents that said “from santa.” Lowry had a very negative experience on Santa, and not being able to indulge in a comforting sweet treat after finding out.

There are lots of of stories and tales of christmas legends, for Rylie Carter she got a little mixed up between a donkey and santa and found out the cold hard truth. “I was in third grade and someone told me about a christmas donkey, I got really confused and went to my mom to talk about said christmas donkey and she just told me he wasn’t real.” Rylie didn’t quite expect finding out about the truth about Santa and a christmas donkey and left a sad mark on all of her beliefs.

Even though lots of students find out about the harsh reality of Santa Claus not existing, Santa makes childhoods better by always having something to look forward to during the holidays.