My parents had to 'fess up about Santa Claus when I was about 5 -- when I heard sad stories about toy drives and collections for "kids who won't otherwise have toys for Christmas." I demanded to know why these kids didn't just write to Santa -- or get one of their parents to do it for them. (Surely parents wouldn't be so hateful that they'd refuse to write a letter like that!!) And ... well, that let the cat out of the bag at our house. As for sitting on Santa's lap, I refused to have one thing to do with that ever. They had pictures of my younger brother and sister doing that gig. But I always threw such a fit they stopped suggesting it early on.