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No kids of my own, but I believed for a long time. Mom and dad thought that kids were happier when we thought that Santa set up the tree, delivered the gifts, etc. Therefore they didn't mind going to the extra work of setting up the platform (kept in a relative's garage), garden, trains, etc. on Xmas eve when I was in bed. Worked thru the night with no sleep.
If mom said that there is a Santa, then there IS a Santa, regardless of what the neighborhood and school buddies said. So I must confess to believing in Santa until .... the 3rd grade, age 8 or 9 and only because mom fessed up. Otherwise I might have believed until age 50.
That was old, even for the early 1950s, and I wonder at what age most kids stop believing today.
PS- If my wife and I would've had kiddos, you can bet we wouldn't have made the sacrifices that my parents did. They were special. When my brother came along -- 11 years my junior -- parents would begin setting up the tree and garden a week in advance, and tell him they were helping Santa out, which they should have done with me.
They never believed. They've always known Santa to be a mythical character part of Christmas folklore. They appreciate the folklore and find it fun, but do not "believe" he, like other mythical and fanciful characters, is real.
I had to tell one of my kids when she was little because she was so upset by the idea of some guy she didn't know and couldn't see watching her and judging her to see if she was good enough. I think she was 5 when I told her.
I told my son when he was 6 that Santa wasn't real because he asked me. When i said it was me who put all the presents, he looked at me and said" how did you come down the chimney?
He is 9 now and still didnt believe that it was me who gave him presents.
I can't remember how old my daughter was, only that it was around the time she was entering the pre-teen years, and that it wasn't me who told her.
I know for myself, my mom confessed the "truth" when I was 11, not sure how old either of my siblings were when they found out. (although it wasn't like we weren't hearing the "Santa is just your Mom and Dad" spiel from friends/classmates)
I was raised believing in Santa (hanging stockings, leaving a snack, writing a letter, the whole shebang). I'm not sure how old I was when I began to suspect it was my parents. Maybe about 8? The Santa thing was a lot of fun and even after I figured it out, I kept "playing along" for a few more years.
My husband's family were immigrants and didn't do Santa at all. They didn't even hang stockings and my husband saw little point in any of it. When we had kids, we compromised by agreeing to do the stocking-hanging but not make a big deal about Santa. So my own kids were never believers.
When my oldest child was 11, one of her friends was talking about what Santa would bring her and my daughter laughed and said of course it was just her parents leaving presents. I was not privy to this conversation but the other girl's mom called me and was LIVID. I'm embarrassed to say it had never occurred to me to tell my kids not to spill the beans about Santa. And I was kind of surprised that this girl was still a total believer (according to her mom) at age 11.
As an elementary school teacher I can't tell you how often a 1st or 2nd grade student confided in me that they knew that Santa was not real but I should not tell their Mom or Dad that they did not believe in Santa because they (Mom & Dad) still thought that there was a real Santa. IMHO only about half of all 1st graders believed and only about 20-25% of all 2nd graders believed.
Now many, many 3rd graders confided in me that they knew Santa was not real, but they pretended to believe because if they did not believe they felt that they would get a lot less toys for Christmas. IMHO, only about 10% of 3rd graders actually believed.
It's surprising that so many still believed when they were as old as and even older than I was.
Now I don't feel so bad.
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Otherwise I might have believed until age 50. 
