Well, is it? Assuming one is Christian or some half-assed variant… Think of it this way: you can tell your children a lie (and let them be crushed when they learn the truth) that gives you leverage for good behavior, or you can tell them the truth, encouraging them to be thoughtful and giving to others since the presents do not, in fact, come from the fat man. What do you think?
Well, a lot of parents tell their kids that there’s a disembodied anthropomorphic God hovering around in the sky above them, judging whether they’ll go to Heaven or Hell when they die.
I hardly think the Santa Claus myth is as harmful as that one.
In one of John waters’ books, he mentions this, saying its responsible for drug addiction.
The parents warnings about drugs are about as credible as their santa tales.
I disagree. I loved the idea of santa claus. Though I left the milk and cookies for the reindeer, who deserved them more.
I’ve always told my son there is no santa, becasue I simply don’t want to lie to him.
And yes, I tell him there is a God.
I don’t know about this…
Heck, this is a line that even Cecil won’t cross.
A lot, of course, depends on the child. Many aren’t particulary crushed when they discover there’s no Santa. It’s a game to them – make believe – and they love that. More serious kids might take it all seriously.
We taught our daughter about Santa Claus because it was fun. When she was five, she wanted to report a couple of her friends to the authorities because they didn’t believe. The next year, she was just as excited about Santa Claus as ever and we enjoyed what we thought would be our last year with her belief.
Then, on Christmas night, after all the presents had been opened and I was tucking her into bed, she said to me, in a very small voice, “Is it all right to pretend to believe in Santa Claus?” That was one of the sweetest moments of my being a parent.
Kids know early on that some things are stories. To them, Santa was exactly the same as ghosts and goblins and fairies and witches and ogres and giants - just an obvious story.
All our presents had real From cards on them. None said Santa.
Never had a fake Easter Bunny myth either, we’d make our own colored eggs in the kitchen and when I hid them in baskets, the kids knew I’d done the hiding.
The tooth fairy came when they were already old enough to know better, so it was an open secret it was Mom.
And on Halloween there was no Great Pumpkin.
No Santa :eek:
:: Walks away bottom lip quivering ::
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with telling your kids there’s a Santa Claus. It’s a fun story, and the kids get all excited when they see him in department stores. Jeez, do you tell your 3-year old that there’s an actor inside the Barney suit? Do you tell them that Elmo’s got a guy’s arm stuck up inside him? What’s wrong with giving a kid fuel for their imagination?
When my daughter finally confronted me and demanded to know if there was really a Santa, I told her no, there wasn’t actually one man flying around the world. But there was millions of people giving each other gifts and being a little nicer to each other, so we are ALL Santa. And now that she was in on the secret, she could help be Santa to her younger sister. That made her feel better about the whole thing.
I don’t believe in lying to children, and I’m not sure why Santa is such a socially acceptable lie. My kids have always known that Christmas is a time to give to each other, and we do lots of fun things together. A belief in Santa has never been necessary.
Naww, tell them it is a story, a good one. Children won’t turn into Eminem or Klebold the Columbine killer if you parents tell them the truth. I found it distressing that a Jehovah’s Witness lost a custody battle because, despite the fact he was documented to be a good father, the judge frowned upon the Witness’s telling his child that there is no such thing as Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny.
I caught my parents stacking gifts under the tree when I was six. That satisfied my suspicions. 
I suppose I do have a point to make. :rolleyes:
Kids will talk about Santa Claus on their own. I worked at a preschool for two years, and there was always one kid who knew who “Santa” really was and broke the news to the other kids. The seed of doubt gets planted… from there, well, it’s a matter of catching Mommy and Daddy in the act.
Well you probably won’t have to tell them, since the Santa story is out there, and they’ll bring it home from daycare or nursery school, like they bring home colds. So the question is more what to do about it.
And I think, unlike other viruses, it is not really a bad thing. And, like other viruses, you should let it run its course.
For very little kids, the memebrane between reality and fantasy is very pourous. Which, in a way, means they can accept a thing being real and unreal at the same time. So you can tell them fairy stories, and tell them they are “just made up” and it will effect their importance to the child not at all.
So, i think what I’m saying is, let the child believe in the story as much as he wants. And when he is old enought to express doubt (which is not very old) don’t lie to him.
I do think actively lying to a child who is asking a question always does more harm than good. if he’s old enough to ask the question, he deserves a real answer.
!!!When was this? That’s horrible.
What about when the child constructs a bear trap in order to capture Santa and hold the world to ransom? These lies can be dangerous!
…have been greatly exaggerated. Ho, ho, ho!
Zanta
I have never found the delightful little ‘fib’ to be immoral, responsible for churning out future brain damaged psychopaths, to cause the child to doubt the validity of the parents nor to turn away from Christianity (if that is the religion their folks believe in).
The Easter Bunny is, in my opinion, harmless also, giving the kids an exciting holiday to look forward to. I recall egg hunts as a kid, baskets laden with candy and Easter dinner as well as the general enjoyment of the holiday.
I don’t know when it began (probably in the 70s – early 80s) but there has been a discussion about Santa and the Easter Bunny on and off for years. I think some schools banned, for a time, celebrating Christmas because of the actions of that mouthy atheist B***h, who started suing everyone over religion – and who has since vanished along with a major amount of funds from her anti-religion organization – but that’s back now.
Every year there seems to be a movement to try to get rid of Halloween and at least one teacher in the local elementary school – (he’s a strict Christian, I suppose) ticks off his class of 7 and 8 year olds by not having any Halloween parties, or allowing any Halloween decorations like all of the other classes do. He tells his students that Halloween is a holiday worshipping the devil and Christians don’t believe in it.
Boy! He really pisses of his students – and many of their folks. Kids don’t think about any hidden meaning to the holiday, just that it is deliciously scary, they get to dress up, go to parties, and get gobs of candy and stay up late trick or treating with the folks. (Door to door trick or treating is slowly making a comeback here. With each group of kids, a parent is present.)
Naw. Let the kids have their holidays and fun figures of fantasy. Besides, Santa and the Easter Bunny promote good behavior. All too soon the kids will grow up and face the real world and all of the crap that goes with it.
Hey, vamp, tell your kids anything you want. Just don’t go telling MY kids what you want.
When my eldest (now 12.5) was 2 or so, the holy rollers down the street had a kid the same age. Come December, the little kid sees fit to tell my daughter that there is no Santa because Jesus is the reason for the season. Yeah, I’m sure a 3 year old just naturally proselytizes with no encouragement from her p’s. Mrs D’s wonderful response to the kid was, well, we know there’s a Santa in our house, because every Christmas he brings us presents. Oh - he doesn’t bring you any? And JC has never provided any such evidence of his existence.
Fuck that shit. We can play as nasty as you want to. And you will have a hard time convincing me that my kids were harmed in any way by having fun believing in Santa, the Easter Bunny, the tooth fairy, leprechauns, teling ghost stories, or enjoying other wonderful fantastic creatures.
The Santa myth proper doesn’t seem to me to be the problem but rather the way it is employed for behavior modification on little junior. The kid is acting like a kid so the folks tell him that Santa’s not bringing him any presents. “No presents?” he squalls and acts tramatized.
You know, old folks telling junior that he’s not getting any christmas presents is roughly equivalent to the boss telling senior that he’s not getting a pay check that week because he was one attaboy short. Not too kind if you ask me.
RealityChuck wrote:
Hmmm … this explains the Inquisition…
In 1989, my family got a Nintendo “from Santa”. That Christmas was the greatest because of that Nintendo. At the time, none of us (myself and three siblings) believed in Santa. Anyway…
When I have children, I don’t think that I’ll tell them about Santa. Well, they’ll know about the whole Santa thing, through Christmas movies and things, but I don’t plan to lead them to believe he is anything but a fun Christmas myth.