Okay, so my grandmother and I have having an ongoing debate.

She keeps telling my kids about Santa. I, however, am not sure I want my kids believing in Santa Claus. I kind of feel like it is lying to them and therefore I am betraying the trust they have in me by letting them believe in something that isn't true.

My Grandmother sees it more as a 'rite of passage' that all kids go through and is a life lesson to be learned by all children. According to her, all kids should believe in Santa and likewise grow out of the notion that such things exist.

So, what is your take on this?

Should kids be taught to believe that Santa comes to their house once a year with gifts or coal depending on a naughty or nice list?

And on that note :

Better Santa than Eddy Cullen breaking into your house. I think that fantasy characters are part of our lives, as adults as well. Storytelling, the credulity of childhood challenged and development of critical thinking skills as they get older, challenging authority.
The only problem I really see is the religious aspect for some.

-LS

Midi made me think of the first verses of Alien Sex Fiend's song Stuff the Turkey
Have you ever wondered
Why Santa's cheeks are ruby red?
He's not jolly
He's off his head!

The quoted part is really crude in some respects looking at it, but seeing the entire movie makes this scene extremely funny. Jeff Dunham is a great comedian, and I think this scene is what opened up the debate between my grandmother and I if I remember correctly.

IMHO, even though it is technically lieing - I remember being a kid, and believing in Santa, and it make Christmas more enjoyable, and more magical. I think it's a good idea to let them believe in something like this, and enjoy the wonder of it all.

Seriously, there is something about getting presents from Santa that really brightens up kid's faces - it seems they really enjoy it more than just a present from mum or dad. Besides, I don't hate my parents for letting me believe in Santa, nor do most people I know. And the fond memories of Christmas eclipse it any day.

hmmm....Thanks for that input, Prez. This is something I am going to consider.

I'm with you Midi.

I grew up beleiving in fairies, witches, princeses, the tooth fairy, Father Christmas- the whole fairytale thing and it did feel magical at the time BUT then at about 5/6 yaesr old I found out that in order to be a princess you had to either be born one or marry one, and that I'd never be tall enough to be a ballerina, the tooth fairy did'nt exist and neither did Father Christmas- and it scarred me- really, it did.. it broke my heart..

..I just wish that I had never belived in them in the first place, maybe talked about it as a nice idea (the way we did about God and his merry band of angels) but not told that they 'actually' existed. I think it's just cruel.

Plus- I'm not really sure what is the difference between 'God' and Father Christmas... both mythical in my oppinion.

Henry's gonna get the whole Santa thing because to this day my mom still puts presents from Santa under our tree for all of us.

I think it's a cute and relatively harmless tradition, much like the Christmas Pickle which you couldn't have without St. Nick.

I even have a few more fabulous fabrications I plan to tell Henry while he's still young enough to believe them. I think it adds to the imagination when you grow up thinking the world is full of wonder and mythical beasties.

~spidey

I have never heard of the Christmas Pickle before. That's pretty cool.

Mmmm, this is an interesting conundrum for us having 2 children on the Autism Spectrum. What do you say to kids who can't be bothered to care? We haven't made any effort to tell the kids a bunch of fairy stories they won't understand. They don't know about religion and it would probably do more harm than good to go down that road. So, we've just decided not to lie to them. We've started doing 'special stuff'(making cookies, brownies, watching holiday specific movies) around the holidays so that there's the family bonding. We watch Rudolph and the kids really like it. They are becoming more *aware* of the world around them.

I'm with Tish. I couldn't stop crying when I found out that unicorns didn't exist. Couldn't have cared less about Santa Claus. Growing up and seeing the policemen or fire department dropping off huge bags of loot every year around the Holidays kinda tipped me off. I always thought that it was insulting to my intelligence to be forced to fake belief 'or you won't get anything'. To me, not believing didn't take away any of the 'specialness'. It was still just as nice to get awesome presents, drink hot cocoa and tear into presents on Christmas mourning. To me the best memories were just being with my family.

This sounds like a real dilemma to me, and makes me glad I don't have to face that decision (no kids).

One of the funniest stories I ever heard about the old Santa Claus lie came from Teller (of Penn & Teller). Teller's parents (both atheists) had kept up the pretense of Santa Claus when Teller was a young child. But when Teller finally found out the truth about Santa, he was pretty angry. So he took his revenge by making up an imaginary kid at school about whom he told his parents all sorts of wonderful stories. Until one day Teller told his parents that he had been lying -- just as they had lied about Santa Claus. So there.

-- Nephele

That's awesome, Elphie! Mmm, Penn...who's Teller?

You know, I don't think I ever did "Santa Claus/Father Christmas" as a child?

As for Nephele, for me, the issue is largely academic. So, as I approach second dotage, it's nice to think there IS a jolly, large lady who brings presents come the appropriate time of year...

That would be Befana, of course! Best of all, Befana is a broomstick-riding WITCH! How gothic is that?

-- Nephele

And, I'm learning Italian because..?