By Justin Blunt; The Whetstone

Junior Gabriella Monzo said she was upset when she found out that Santa Claus wasn’t real.

She was 7 years old and she thought her whole life had been a lie.

Gabriella Monzo

She found out from her parents. They told her Santa was more of a spirit than a person.

“I never tried to see if he was real,” she said. “I just believed what everyone told me when I was a child and took it for what it was.”

Santa Claus is everyone’s favorite holiday character. On Christmas, he brings joy to boys and girls by going around the world and dropping off presents to the kids.

“I used to creep down the stairs at nighttime and wait for Santa Claus,” freshman Trent Williams said.

He wasn’t surprised that Santa wasn’t real because he has never seen anyone give away stuff secretly.

“I felt satisfied because I was right that Santa wasn’t real,” he said.

Williams said he discovered that Santa wasn’t real when he heard a loud noise. He went to go see what the loud noise was and saw his cousin putting presents under the tree.

Senior Drew Gardner was surprised that his suspicions about Santa were right. He put clues together to figure out that Santa wasn’t real. His dad ended up breaking the news to him.

“I felt a new sense of maturity because I knew something that a lot my peers and younger siblings didn’t know, so it made me feel like I was one of adults now,” he said.

Drew Gardner

Gardner said he had once set up a tripwire with a fishing line by the milk and cookies to try and catch Santa when he was little.

Sophomore Brooke McCormick said she found out Santa wasn’t real when she was 10 years old.

“My friend came up to me in class during our Christmas party and we were talking about what we asked Santa for Christmas and when I told him, he then told me that Santa wasn’t real,” she said.

She was so upset about finding out about Santa.

“When I found out I was very upset and mad at my parents because they had made my whole childhood a lie,” McCormick said. “I also told them I never wanted to celebrate Christmas again.”

But she still celebrates Christmas.

Professor Ron Douglas said he didn’t have a great experience either about the Santa situation.

“My grandparents’ neighbor, who was also 5, had parents who told him the truth,” he said. “He told me Santa wasn’t real and I got in a fight with him.”

Douglas said he used to defend the truth of Santa all the time as a child.

But after he discovered Santa was fake, it helped him develop traits like being able to seek the truth and dislike people who lie and deceive.