That is, that he really does exist; and he really can get into your house, whether you have a chimney or not; and he really does know if you’ve been bad or good; and he has this really, really mean side nobody ever talks about . . .
We’ve seen his mean side. Ever watch the Rudolph special?
He didn’t make it to my house last night. Pretty sure my neighbor took him out with his AK-47 when the big elf trespassed on his property. He’s been on edge and hasn’t stopped yammering on about is 2nd Amendment rights ever since the shooting in Ct.
:eek: And Santa was bringing him a shiny new grenade-launcher, too!
He sees you when you’re sleeping…because he’s in the room.
You mean that he’s awesome?
Yeah! Message received!
The number of kids on the naughty list that end up in Christmas re-education camps every year is statistically irelephant. I wouldn’t worry them too much about it.
My son was 12 and entering the 6th grade. In some conversation, he mentioned that Santa would bring him whatever we were talking about.
My wife took me aside, and told me we can’t let him go to middle school talking about Santa. The kids will make fun of him. We argued back and forth about whether or not he actually knew, or was just playing along, or what. She was determined that as a smart 12 year old, he absolutely knew, and we just wanted to spare him derision if he started talking about it at school.
So, with my orders in hand, I sat on his bed at bedtime and laid it out. He never said anything, but tears started started rolling down his face. He didn’t know!
It was the worst thing I’ve ever done in my life. I felt like I did when I had to put my 17yo dog to sleep. I felt I had failed him, betrayed him, and lost his trust forever. I cried all night.
You tell your kids what you want to. I’m not saying a damn thing to anyone.
I don’t remember ever believing in Santa. We celebrated Christmas at my house with a tree, stockings, presents under the tree some of which were labeled from Santa. It was always understood that Santa and the elves were a fun game associated with Christmas.
That sucks.
I’m curious, if you could go back, would you tell your son the truth from the outset?
I ask because this is the very reason I was always honest about Santa Clause. We never played that game in my house. My mom thought it was borderline cruelty. (As did a lot of my family.)
I dunno why it bugs me, but my sister in law refuses to do the Santa thing with her kids. She thinks it horrible and awful that parents would willingly lie to their children about such things. And that it will ruin any trust your kids might have in you when they find out. I think she’s being ridiculous and I haven’t heard of anyone saying they couldn’t trust their parents any longer once they found out. Of course, she doesn’t know from personal experience. She was raised Jehovah’s Witness and thus never did Christmas, let alone Santa. I wish my brother had pushed Santa a bit more but I suppose he was happy she was even celebrating Christmas and didn’t want to push his luck.
That’s too bad. 
I had sort of the opposite when I told my daughter a couple of years ago, she was about 8. She gave me the :rolleyes: “ya’ think?” I was very proud she had realized it and accepted on her own.
I still sent her to her room, though. Dad is King of Sarcasm in this house. 
I think my 3.5 year old grand-daughter knows the truth about him already. She did not like the idea of some old guy she doesn’t know coming into her house in the middle of the night at all! Two days before Christmas she told her Mom she didn’t want any presents and she didn’t want him anywhere near their house. The day before Mom showed her some personalized video of Santa and as soon as she started it the kid screamed “Nooooooooooo!” and ran into her room and slammed the door.
Come Christmas Day she did like the presents though. I guess it’s never to early too corrupt our kids:cool:
Look, life sucks sometimes. Once you’re out of college and into the working, dating, flat tire-having, asshat boss, not enough pay world of grown-ups, you get by as best you can.
For some it gets better, for some it levels out where you’re 3 paychecks away from the street.
If nothing else in this world happens, I think a childhood should be a great, wonderful memory full of fun, adventure, toys out the ass, snow days every year, great pets, awesome treehouses, and lifelong friends. I spoil my kids rotten every day I can.
The magic and wonder of Santa is a part of that system that kids love and look forward to for at least 8 or 10 years. It’s bringing them happiness for a long time, and I’ve never know a kid that found out and got mad. They understand that it’s a gift of happiness that we give them, and now they get to play for the other team, keeping the game going for their younger siblings and cousins. They’re cool with it.
The asshat 13yo across the street told me when I was 6 “You know there’s no Santa, right?”
I’ve never forgotten that, or how bad I felt that someone blew the game so early on me.
If I had it to do all over again, I’d keep my mouth shut, and when my 13-15yo kids hear rumors and come and ask me, I’ll fess up.
It broke my child’s heart and mine too that night. Fuck that.
I saw one of those personalized videos, it was creepy as hell.
I think kids today, with all the “stranger=danger” we feed them, would be more skittish about Santa.
We were at dinner one night and the subject of Santa came up. We’d never really talked about it before that I recall. I told my 3 year old daughter that Santa is a fat man with a big white beard. He has a magic sled and goes to every house in the world Christmas night and gives presents to kids, and carries all those presents in a magic sack.
She didn’t buy it. Her grandfather asked her if this year she was ready for Santa and she said no, Santa is just pretend.
I’m glad he didn’t ask about God.
I give my parents credit with being rather clever with this situation.
As little kids, almost all the gifts had our names on them, with “from Santa” on the gift.
As we grew older, more gifts started showing up “from Mom and Dad” and they were equally good, if not better than Santa’s gifts.
I think I was about 8 or so when all of the gifts were “from Mom and Dad” and I never felt that deep sadness other kids felt when I eventually figured it out - sort of on my own, but given hints and listening to what other kids said.
Basically, I had the best of both worlds - a true believer in Santa when I was a child, but weaned off the concept as I grew older.
I have two small children; they’re both probably too young yet to understand ‘some old guy in a red coat comes by on Christmas Eve and gives us presents’. But they love The Polar Express, so they kinda knows this ‘Santa character’.
But my wife and I really aren’t all that cool with teaching our kids that there’s a make-believe magical guy living at the North Pole that knows if you’re good or bad and rewards the good kids with presents once a year. Especially since we’re not going to teach him there’s a make-believe magical guy living in the sky that knows if you’re good or bad and has all kinds of rules about what and when you can/can’t eat etc.
I mean, what purpose is Santa supposed to fulfill? My wife and I haven’t needed to invoke ‘Santa’ to have fun, magical Christmases with our kids. When I was a kid, I knew when I was 6 or 7 that Santa wasn’t real, but it didn’t make Christmas any less enjoyable or meaningful.
So ‘Santa’ in our household is going to be just a tradition - an ornament on a fun occasion. ‘Hey look, a pretend Santa!’ when we go to the mall. Santa isn’t going to be something I ever have to sit down with my son when he’s 7yrs old and explain, ‘actually we lied about all of that’.
There are more than enough weird, crazy, amazing, and wonderful things in the world that we can share with our kids so that they have a magical childhood without resorting to essentially meaningless lies.
I agree to a certain extent - and as someone who is not religious at all, you make a good point.
That said, the concept of Santa and the magic that is involved is something I think most people remember fondly. Sure, you can call it “the big lie” to your kids, but at the same time, you are allowing them to believe in magic - even if it is for a short time and for reasons you might not agree with.
Maybe I am wrong, but when your kids grow up and realize they never had the opportunity to believe in Santa, they might feel like they missed a rite of passage - the sheer wonder and excitement of all that leads up to this wonderful day that brings gifts and happiness to everyone…well, I guess you can say it is a cruel lesson to be learned, but life also has a lot of cruel lessons - so why deny them those few years of just blissful joy in believing in the fantasy? It is also kind of believing in hope - and even a cynical, non-religious guy like myself still thinks hope is a good thing to have on occasion.