Yea - umm while my kids still believe in Santa and the Tooth Fairy they know fully well that the Disney characters aren't real. Why? Because it never occurred to me to not tell them when we were at Disney last year, lol. So DD5 will say that fairies aren't real - except the Tooth Fairy
I'm pretty sure they both don't actually believe anymore but enjoy pretending.
They've known forever it seems that tv/movie characters aren't real. I'm pretty sure we never told them, or at least not specifically told them. That doesn't of course mean that the characters don't exist, just that what they are watching isn't really happening (at least in their minds).
At 5/6 it's so hard to guage what they really believe anyway as they like to pretend a lot around those ages.
ETA: Oh and knowing they weren't real had NO impact on enjoying meeting the characters. They both still loved it!!
