Santa Claus...

[Mom2all]

Santa is real. You don't have to lie.. just rearrange how you veiw him. He is magic.. he is the sprit of giving to someone for no reason!

Yes... I let my children live the magic... but they were very aware that the man in the red suit in the mall was just a go between for the real Santa. That being said.. it was easier to move from waiting for Santa.. to them being Santa themselves when the time was rite.

For instance, the year my oldest daughter really confronted me about him, I put it of until rite before Christmas. We collected the wish list of 7 children from the Domestic Abuse center who's mom had moved out on their own that year. My daughter ( Jessie ) and I painted ornaments and traded them with friends and family for at least one gift off of those list's. On Christmas eve, she and I went into the back of the shelter and left them on the kitchen table while the parents waited in front. We never met a one, just the worker who opened the door. There was 7 garbage bags filled with toys!!!

When we left, we sat outiside in the car and talked and I'll never forget how she looked. 9 years old, in a red dress and bow in her hair. I asked her again if she wanted to know about Santa.. and then I told her. Santa is the sprit of giving.. without anyone seeing him come or go...started so long ago by such an amazing man. He still lives today.. he just doesn't wear a red suit with and hat. Instead, tonight for instance, he was a 9year old girl who wore a red dress, beautiful red hair with a bow in it, and with the most amazing green eyes ever!
I can see her face clearly now as it dawned on her that she was Santa for 7 little kids!!! She never shed a tear. And her smile went on for miles! My Jessica still tells that story to people. The magic was still alive that Christmas.. just altered a little.

So you see...Santa is real.. just sometimes.. he's a 9 year old girl~

 

[fallon]

A Child's Wonder

"Daddy," she said, her eyes full of tears,
"Will you talk to me and quiet my fears?"
Those bad boys at school are spreading a lie
'Bout the impossibility of reindeer that fly.
There's no Santa Claus, they say with a grin,
There's not one now and never has been.

How can one man take all those toys?
To thousands of girls and boys?
But I told them daddy, that they were not right,
That I would come home and find out tonight.
Mama said wait until you get home
Please tell me now that I was not wrong."

Her daddy looked at her questioning face
And puffed his pipe while his frantic mind raced.
He had put this thing off as long as he could,
He had to think fast and it better be good.
Whispering a prayer, he began with a smile,
"Well climb on my lap, dear, let's talk a while."

"Remember at church how we learned to pray,
Asking God to take care of us each day?
And you know how we say grace before each meal?
To this same God whom we know to be real
Though we never see Him, we know He is there
Watching his children with such loving care."

"God started Christmas a long time ago
When He gave us His son to love and to know.
A spirit of giving came with that birth,
And God's generosity filled the whole earth.
Man had to name this spirit of giving
Just as He names all things that are living."

"The name Santa Claus came to someone's mind
Probably the best name of any to find
There is, you can see, and I think it quite clear,
Truly a Santa who visits each year.
Spirits like God, whom we never see
He enters the hearts of your mother and me."

Each year at Christmas for one special night
We become him and make everything right.
But the REAL spirit of Christmas is in you and in me,
And I hope you are old enough now to see
That as we believe and continue to give,
Our friend Santa Claus will continue to live."

Author unknown

I took this from the older thread

 

[16th ave.]

maybe its the spirit of giving behind santa that makes it so easy to go along with the whole thing? i don't really know how to make you feel any better about the whole thing. but i can get where you're coming from. lying is a pretty big deal so why lie if there is no need to?

maybe its this?? which makes the most sense, to me anyways.
Santa Claus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(last sentence in 4th paragraph)
""""""Others point out that the Claus tradition is a good example of how children can learn that they may be deliberately misled by their elders; this will help teach them to be cautious about accepting any other superstition or unsubstantiated belief"""""""""
or even this one, 2nd sentence in 5th paragraph in the Early Origins.
""""""Nicholas was famous for his generous gifts to the poor, in particular presenting the three impoverished daughters of a pious Christian with prostitutes. """"""

that would certainly explain the whole thing if its true.
anyways, i get ya. and i don't really know how to make any easier.

 

[Dadu2004]

Mom2All - That was beautiful And I have to say something like that makes me feel a bit better.

Fallon - That was nice too, thank you.

16th - Tough, ain't it????

 

[16th ave.]

haha...Logan is going through the same phase right now

i wish i could show ya a picture of chloe. she's been going around with a 8 tiny reindeer for almost two weeks now. we gotta make sure they get out the door when we go anywhere and watch where we step and sit. :errh and the poop! her horse (not real) poops Everywhere!. chloe sure has a lot of work each day just cleaning up after them.:twitcy:

edit,
hubby is santa's elf. it started at work. see he's short, about 5'6", shorter than the boss and other employee which is not normal i guess at dh's work. the bossman told his kids dh was sant's elf. all the kids have met dh and the youngest really believes this. the bossman feeds into it a lot bringing up dh being santa's elf, has even called here on weekends asking to dh to talk to his son and remind him if he don't behave there wont be nothin' for christmas. dh has to call him christmas eve to check up on him too.:huh:

 

[Choppy]

This is just my personal opinion, but Santa Claus is an important step in a child's intellectual development.

Eventually the child will go through the exercise of weighing what he or she has been told to believe against the factual evidence that he or she knows to be true. Through this, the child learns to make decisions and trust his or her own judgement, rather than blindly accepting information.

 

[AmyBelle]

We present Santa as a myth, he's not a real person, dosent live in a toy shop in the north pole and there is no such thing as elves.

However, there is a myth, or a story that some people believe, and that story makes people happy.

We dont do the easter bunny or the tooth fairy either.

I dont think it takes anything away from Christmas, Christmas is just as magical in our household than it is in any other.

 

[Xero]

I talked to my mom about this last night. The way she put it was that she always related Santa directly to herself when she talked to her kids about him. She would say "Santa knows what you want for Christmas, because I talk to him and tell him" or "Santa knows how good you've been this year because I tell him" or that she gives Santa money to get presents, or whatever. When talking about Santa, she always directly links him to herself so that when her kids find out that its actually her its not this huge surprise, its just that they finally realized "OH, Mom IS Santa Clause haha" lol. You know what I mean? She explained it better lol.

Mom2All - That was BEAUTIFUL. Thank you for sharing that story. Really does make me feel better too.

Fallon, I loved that poem. It was adorable.

 

[Dadu2004]

Thats pretty cool what your mom does Xero. I like that idea.

 

[HappyMomma]

I think telling your young child Santa isn't real is equal to stealing a huge part of their childhood. Santa is magic and fantasy...we would probably be much happier adults if we had a little more of that in our own lives

I agree with this... I think shattering the magical fun of Santa Claus is worse. At the same time, during this time of year I do sometimes think to myself..."why is it ok to lie to our children at Christmas time?"

It really is a unique and strange situation, this Santa thing.

My ex-husband actually told me (when she was just an infant) that he didn't want to lie to her about Santa because he didn't want Santa taking credit for the presents that we got her. Of course I let him know how selfish that was.

 

[IADad]

I'm coming to this discussion late, and I haven't thoroughly ready all the replies but did scan them. I don't see anything wrong with having fun with Santa. Tall tales, fairy tales, myths and legend have been around probably as long as the spoken word. I agree on the intellectual development. Our world is not black and white. Dealing with Stories is not a betrayal of their trust, it's helping them learn that not everything in the world can be taken at face value, and that intentions DO matter. Does anyone here who gre up with a Santa tradition begrudge their parents for "perpetuating the lie?"

 

[AmyBelle]

I know DH does, but his parents went really over the top with it, Santa wrote him letters, they put snow footprints in the house, one year after misbehaving he was given coal, etc etc.

He believed up until he was in high school, then got a shitload of teasing, his parents kept it up that long aswell.

 

[bssage]

That's just wild, High school, I cant even imagine. I received presents from Santa into my thirties. We had footprints in the snow, sleigh bell ringing, even deer poop on the porch. I climbed down from my brothers roof dressed as Santa one year. I am pretty sure my nephew and myself figured it out about the same time as all of our friends.

Sometimes when we discuss topics here. I think the debates turn into more about the words being used. Santa turns into "lying", spanking turns into "violence" (and no I'm not getting that started. Just making a point) I don't know the proper word I am looking for but these words have a way of implying malice or something sinister. Normally this is where I put my disclaimer "I dont claim to speak for everyone here". But in this case I think I can safely say. No-one that I know on this forum would do these things in what we thought was a harmful way. If I/we thought we were harming our children we simply wouldn't be doing it. We do it because its good clean fun. We don't feel as though we were in any way harmed as a result of this as children. Or as a foundation for learning. When the label lie is used its like calling me a liar. And I don't like that. Like most of the "Santa" folks here I don't think of my self as a liar.

Personally I think some are being hypocritical. Tell me again about lying when you tell you kid his first music peice is the best you have ever heard. The picture on the fridge should be in a museum. Or he/she is the most beautiful in the land. When you tell them not to cry they really didnt hurt your feelings. That you didn't like the scary movie want to ride that spins. Whatever it may be I can go on and on (and probably have).

IMO if you dont lie your a mean parent.

 

[AmyBelle]

Hmm, see, I see it compeltely differently.

When I tell Bek "I think that drawing is beautiful" regardless of what it looks like, im presenting her with my opinion, not a fact.

If I tell her "Guess what there is a man in a red suit who flies reindeer" im presenting that as a fact, and not my opinion.

Were not a particually religious family, but we tell the kids that we celebrate Christmas because of in mummy's religion it is xyz, its not about presents, the presents are just one way that we express to people we care about that we love them and therefore I dont see for a reason for Santa to come into our family life.

 

[bssage]

tap

 

[ElliottCarasDad]

I think it's just basic human nature to "lie" to make other people feel better or not hurt someones feelings.

 

[MotherOknah]

First off, you shouldn't be worried about lying to your children, I do it all the time and they never know the better. Fact is, kids are extremely unintelligent and have trouble understanding lies, and the feelings associated with them. Don't be worried if you need to tell a lie every now and then :wubclub:

Second, I raised my kids on no presents, no santa, and if they attempt to bring any of that up it is straight to time-out! You need to be controlling in a child's life, otherwise they will not be molded correctly and all your work will go wasted.

I hope this helped! :smile:

 

[Dadu2004]

First off, you shouldn't be worried about lying to your children, I do it all the time and they never know the better. Fact is, kids are extremely unintelligent and have trouble understanding lies, and the feelings associated with them. Don't be worried if you need to tell a lie every now and then :wubclub:

Second, I raised my kids on no presents, no santa, and if they attempt to bring any of that up it is straight to time-out! You need to be controlling in a child's life, otherwise they will not be molded correctly and all your work will go wasted.

I hope this helped! :smile:

HAHA! Yeah right!

Here's to hoping you're a troll instead of a mom.

 

[Xero]

First off, you shouldn't be worried about lying to your children, I do it all the time and they never know the better. Fact is, kids are extremely unintelligent and have trouble understanding lies, and the feelings associated with them. Don't be worried if you need to tell a lie every now and then :wubclub:

Second, I raised my kids on no presents, no santa, and if they attempt to bring any of that up it is straight to time-out! You need to be controlling in a child's life, otherwise they will not be molded correctly and all your work will go wasted.

I hope this helped! :smile:

Wtf is wrong with you? I'm assuming you're a troll, but I wont ban you since Dadu didn't. I'm definitely hoping you don't actually have any kids as well.

 

[AmyBelle]

Goddamnit, NOW you tell me that buying my kids presents at Christmas has put all my good work to waste?

Damn damn damn damn damn. My kids are bound to be criminals now.