This is the same argument I heard from my grandmother oddly enough.

What about kids that are raised in religions other than Christian? Obviously they find out about Santa eventually (like from Christian friends in school) but I doubt they learn about Santa at home in those cases. I think back to the Muslim guy whose daughter asked if Santa would bring her presents for Christmas. She didn't know about Christmas or Santa before having that conversation with her friend, and I doubt she cared one way or the other about knowing beforehand. All she cared about were the presents (like any other typical kid I could think of). I'm sure there are exceptions to that, but still.

While I am Jewish now, I am Jewish by conversion, so I was still raised in a Christian (by name only) household and knew about Santa, so can't personally say how it would have affected me by not knowing. Most people I do know that were raised in another religion could not have cared less. My friend (who is agnostic) and his wife (who is atheist) do not teach their kids about Santa (at least I don't think they did, I'm pretty sure I asked at one time; just knowing him I doubt they do). They do give gifts at Christmas but there are no religious/"fairy-tale" connotations behind it.

Where I live, we celebrate St Nicholas (and sometimes also St Martinsday), not Santa Claus. Like Santa, it has a religious origin or meaning (although christmas of course has a deeper meaning), still visible in the bishop's clothes St Nicholas wears. But that meaning has watered down a lot. So much, that even non-christian families also have started to celebrate it. Also, this is probably more so where I live than in the USA, many people do celebrate christmas who are not or no longer christian. You just give the day a new, more personalised meaning. You could, I guess, also take the christian element out of Santa and make it about childhood magic moments and presents. That's what happened here, but we are a much more secularised nation and St Nicholas isn't celebrated as christmas. But in principle I see no reason why other religions couldn't celebrate personalised (secular) version of Santa Claus. It's up to the parents to decide if they want that, though.

Okay I've been giving this some thought and many of you might want to torture me for this but:

What would be so wrong in teaching (my) children something different that what is EXPECTED they know? True that Santa is the Modern, Western version of Santa, that does not mean I should conform or adapt those particular beliefs.

On a personal level, I think I may have liked it better to leave that a half goddess/ half fae who was a witch visited me and gave me presents. To me, this is just beyond anything in the realm of awesome.

To me, it is much like religion. If you teach a child only one way then that way is all they know to the point they either accept it as absolute truth or dismiss it and hate it later (or at least care less about it).

Also, in terms of those who don't know about Santa at all. To say you should tell about Santa because everyone else knows about Santa is a conformist way of thinking on my part. True, my kids are not myself and I do not want them to be outcasts. However, I do want them to be intelligent individuals who make up their own minds rather than having it be made up for them by the masses. I suppose I just do not like being dictated on the proper things to teach my kids.

On that note, I see nothing wrong with teaching about Befana rather than Santa. If I make sure my kids know that 'Befana' comes in all different forms and has different names, and explain it to them with every year (more in depth as they grow other) then I see no harm in it at all.

When my children start school it will not be that they do not know who Santa is, rather they know many forms of Santa. If, when they get older they'd rather conform the Santa tradition, then I will do so for them.

I suppose I just like for my children to be introduced to many cultures and not limit them because it is expected of me to do so in the hopes that they are 'normal'.

(And note this was in no way an attack to anyone, just personal reflections)

I certainly don't think badly of you for that Midi. I'm sure there are many, many people out there that don't teach their kids about Santa.

The concept certainly appeals to me, too! Befana seems a whole lot more magical to me than Santa. And teaching children about different traditions serves to enrich children in many ways.

I don't have kids, so I can't say whether it's good or bad to teach children to believe in things that aren't real. Personally, I think kids grow up too fast as it is in our society. I would opt for letting them have their fantasy and magic -- but also telling them the truth when they're old enough to start asking questions.

-- Nephele

Everything I said was intended to give you food for thought, nothing more. It's your choice what to teach your children. As for your children getting to know about Santa via other ways, that was meant as something to think about and maybe prepare an answer for, not to let you conform to a practice. Hell, I don't even do the Santa thing, so I don't care whether you teach your children about that or not.

Santa, the easter bunny, Befana, the green fairy, all up to the parents, if you ask me. Oh, wait, maybe don't teach young children about the green fairy...

Me and the kids just watched 'Rudolph The Red-nosed Reindeer' last night and it made me think of this thread. That's one of the things we always did as a family when I was growing up. Even though I quit believing in Santa at a young age it was always nice to watch Christmas movies and drink cocoa with the Xmas lights on the tree blinking and sticky hands from candycanes. That's Holiday Magic, right there.

I can't believe that I just had to look that up!

The stop-motion version voiced by Burl Ives?

If so... That movie is freaky. I love it, but it's so many years since I've seen it, because there are so many twee versions out there now. I remember that when I first saw it - when I wasn't very old myself (about 7?) - it scared the hell out of me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPG_xqp1QaM Have a happy horror xmas (advert)

I actually liked it growing up.... I miss that movie. I haven't seen it in years.

Yep, the one with the talking snowman! I've always liked claymation & stop motion animation. I guess it is a bit creepy, but I like creepy things! ^_^

I think that it's generally silly to keep up the pretense of Santa Claus, but I think it's not too harmful.

I never bought it as a kid, but my mom kept it up for some reason even though we were always too poor to afford presents, and I humored her. But you know, my mom told me that she was resurrected from the dead by jesus christ too. I was used to not trusting a lot of what she said after awhile.

This brings to mind a lyric from a Hole song "I don't miss God, but I sure miss Santa Claus".

Well, if Santa Claus was still endorsing smoking like he was in the 50s, then NO SANTA FOR THE KIDDIES!

My parents never taught us to believe in Santa, nor the Easter Bunny, Kwanzaa-bot, or the Tooth Fairy. At least, they never taught us to actually believe in Santa Claus, like in the "this is the man that makes global economics possible and we need to reimburse him with a ritual offering of cookies and milk and maybe some hard cider on Christmas Eve or else the world system will crash" kind of way. I never heard of a parent that actually teaches their kid to believe in the existence of an entity that they know doesn't exist - at least I hope there aren't any parents like that.

I mean, all kids need some whimsy in their young lives, because when you're at such an impressionable age, it's just a lot more fun. My parents (or at least my mom) were religious and they were of course more adamant in teaching us that God and Jesus Christ existed rather than Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny due to the whole pagan connections in both holidays. But they also read us fairytales along with Bible stories: we were just taught that one set of stories was fabricated and the other was real (but of course, you all probably know how I feel about the Good ol' Book now - way to go mom and sorta dad).

It's not like we were totally upset with not expecting to see Santa when we were younger: after all, if you were taught from a very early age that a particular entity didn't exist, then why would their non-existence upset you? It's not as if our family didn't have any less festive fun during Christmas since we still put up an X-Mas tree and made gingerbread cookies and had family gathering and such. The only difference is that no man in our family had to go through the humility of putting on a Santa outfit.

The only absence I was ever upset about during the holidays was that of my sister, who was almost always over seas somewhere around Christmas time so she was rarely home.

I wouldn't necessarily object to telling your kids about Santa Claus bringing them presents.... but, they are going to find out about the truth (and the Krampus within!) sooner or later - much sooner in this day and age rather than later.

In the end, don't be the type of parent who tells their kids that the world is a really, really sucky place at an early age and their kids spend their childhood being one of those deadpan and cynical six year old who don't have fun with anything (not saying that all kids are totally gullible and they have no capacity for intelligence, but like Roy sort of put it, just rear your kids so that they'll have an extensive imagination and not be total little jerks), or the type of parent that puts off telling their kids about the truth about some stuff (like the death and the sex) for too long and their kids ends up being emotionally fragmented for a big portion of their lives and look at their parents with bitterness and resentment.

That's all for now!

What is the relation between the JESUS CRIST and the SANTA CLAUS ? up to my knowledge in bible i have never read about the SANTA CLAUS in the Bible
Please tell me their relation. Is Santa claus is another form of the Jesus crist.