What are your thoughts on Santa Claus and kids?

Question

When I was a kid, I never believed in Santa. Not because anyone told me not to, but because I learned somewhere along the way that it was about Jesus...

the other reason being that I noticed that all the presents from "santa" had my mom's handwriting.

I always thought that I would teach my kids that Santa is fictional. And that the true meaning is about Jesus, etc.

My hubby thinks it's better to teach him about Santa. But I think that just sets him up for disappointment when he learns the truth.

What did you think as a kid and what did/will you teach your kids?

Just want to get some various opinions on the matter.

no need to be mean folks. i never said i was againt imagination, pretend, or ant if that, just that perhaps kids should also be taught the difference.

I love supernatural tv shows, movies and stories, like smallville, harry potter, hobbits, and the like.

I am also not against teaching Santa as a SYMBOL for giving, etc. But I wouldn't want to have him thinking that we can REALLY travel through time or that Unicorns are real. But that there is nothing wrong with make-believe and pretending anything your mind came dream up.

Answer 1

When my kids were 7 and 5, I told my kids a story about a wonderful man who believed in Jesus and because Jesus said to Love God and Love your neighbor, the man would make gifts all year and on Jesus birthday, he would go around his town and leave gifts on the doorsteps of every house. This way when the people would leave their house to go to church to celebrate the birth of Christ, they would find the gifts. Now some people started to figure out who brought the gifts and talked about St. Nick (for that was his name, Nick) and this went on for many years.
Many people went to Nick and thanked him for the thoughtful
gesture and Nick would tell them that Jesus gave me the gift of eternal life and I do this to thank him and let others know
of Jesus love and His gift to man.
My kids asked what happened to the man and I told them that his reputation traveled all over the world and the media made up the story that is told today and that many people carry out the tradition of giving gifts at Christmas in his memory.
This way they could believe in a Santa Claus, because he really lived, and know the real reason for the season is Jesus.

Answer 2

To me, santa is an allegory - an example of the attitude, behavior and spirit of the season. The spirit of giving to others, of happiness, of being jolly. Rewarding good behavior and punishing bad.

Your child is going to find out about santa anyway - but ifyou teach them about santa as the spirit of the season, then they will understand that he isn't really real.

Trying to protect your child from disappointment is a nice ideal, but it is more harmful in the long run, IMO. Your child needs to learn that life is NOT fair, that people can and do disappoint as often as they fullfill or suprise you. Learning how to cope with small disappointments now will make the bigger ones easier to handle and overcome.

I'm going to suggest a great book, written in 1902- The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus By L. Frank Baum. It's a great story about how santa became santa, but the important part of the book is at the end, where santa starts to rely upon the parents to help forward the spirit of goodwil and giving.

I read this book to my children, and they understood early on that he wasn't real, but the spirit of giving.

We also helped by making the gifts that santa gave limited to what was in the stocking and a few inexpensive toys and or books under the tree. The "important" and expensive gifts have always come from mom and dad.

The spirit of santa still lives in our family - even my parents still give each other santa gifts.

Answer 3

Its just santa. Yes at some point you get a clue and realize its all your parents, but it usually isnt all at once. You get older and you start hearing things at school and then you understand its all a tradition. I dont know any kids that were crushed or betrayed because they found out santa, the tooth fairy and the easter bunny arent true. I saw my santa gift in the trunk one year and that confirmed it for me and all I thought was ha ha, I knew it. Of course I kept playing along so I would get the good santa presents.

Let kids be kids already. Are you not going to let them watch any tv shows or movies because they might think its actually real? When you take them to disneyland are you going to point to Mickey Mouse and say, thats just a guy in a costume. Your poor kids.

Answer 4

its a fun way of celebrating the holiday, I never thought Santa took away the meaning of Christmas but Displayed the spirit of giving that is taught by Jesus. teach your children the Story of Saint Nicholas and let them have fun waiting for santa clause to come. dont take all the fun out of Christmas its tradition

Answer 5

How truly sad. Kids thrive on fantasy and make believe It is part of helping them to grow into well rounded adults. Did you never have imaginary friends or make believe tea parties with your toys? What bothers me is that so many christians who call the Divine Mother/Father God. think of that god as the great Santa Clause in the sky just waiting to shower them with everything they ask for. That is the fancy that needs to be corrected. I think it was your Paul who said, " when I was a child I thought like a child, but now that I am an adult it is time to put aside childish things." Not an exact quote, but you should know about it.

Answer 6

My husband and I decided to tell our kids that Santa is fun to believe in at the holidays, but he's not real. After all, if you tell your kids Santa's real, isn't that a lie?
My parents told me Santa isn't real and my husband's parents taught him, he was.
On a side note, nowhere in the Bible does Jesus mention celebrating His birth nor is there any mention of Christmas. So why do we celebrate it as such? Think about it.

Answer 7

Santa is adults lying to their children.Jesus is
truth.

Answer 8

Can you prove there isn't a Santa?
Didn't think so.

Answer 9

Why teach your children a lie ?
If you must follow this pagan holiday ,don't make it worst be lying to your children.

Answer 10

I think most of the people who don't tell their child there is a Santa Claus, claiming that it will scar them for life or just set them up for heartache, are the people whose parents felt the same way.

No one, and I've asked lots of people, I know, who believed in Santa Claus as a child, were horribly emotionally scarred from it. Yeah, it SUCKED the day you found out and knew for sure that there was no such thing as a fat dude in a red suit who flies all around the world giving presents to every child via flying reindeer and chimneys, but when handled properly, you get over it, and most of the time, those people repeat the same "mistake" with their own children, which kind of hints at the fact that it isn't that horrible.

I'm not sure how, but when I was growing up, it never occurred to me that the Jesus part of the holiday, and the Santa part, were exclusive. We celebrated both, and it never seemed odd to us. I think it was because not only was Christmas about Christ, so much more was throughout the year. And the majority of the holiday seaon was based on that, with Advent and that kind of thing. Santa was purely an at-the-mall, and a Christmas-morning type of thing.

I think there are certain things you have to keep in mind, though, from the very beginning.

The kids who find out about Santa and are just completely incapable of getting past it and being able to have faith in anything, and who end up hating Christmas, Santa and all other fantasy worlds, are the ones who were taught that the main thing about Christmas was getting stuff from Santa. It's a fun tradition, but if you let everything your child believes in revolve around Santa, yes, it's going to tear them apart when they realize everything they base their love of the holiday season on is a fake. So have Santa be a PART of Christmas, but don't make it so that he's the number one, single thing you focus on, focal point of the Christmas season. Make it about Jesus, or just giving, goodwill, doing nice things for humanity, snow, family time, whatever. Have it all in there, and losing the belief in the "real" Santa isn't as heartbreaking.

Also, there's a proper way to go about letting them know that, no, there is no big guy called Santa Claus who brings presents. If a child comes to you and asks you to tell them honestly, "Is there really a Santa Claus," that's the time to have "the talk." Don't look them in the face and lie to them when they are asking you outright to tell them the truth. At that point, they probably already strongly suspect the truth, and if they're going to get up the courage to ask, you need to have the decency to tell them.

When I found out, it was a double-whammy. I realized Santa and the Easter Bunny were BOTH pretend! I asked my mom about it, and she talked to me, told me that yes, they had let me believe in Santa and the Easter Bunny because they saw how excited I was when I believed in all that stuff. She asked me if knowing the truth made me wish they had told me all along, or if the happiness it brought me made it worth it, and at that age (I think I was nine), I was able to say I'm glad they did it, because it WAS worth it. Then she asked me if I could pretend for my younger sisters, because just like they wanted me to believe for as long as possible, they wanted them to, as well.

And she reminded me that even though I would never look at Santa the same again, the basics of the Christmas season were still there. And she was right. Since she and my dad had never allowed us to believe Christmas was JUST about Santa bringin' us stuff, we didn't lose everything. We still did the Santa stuff, because it's fun, but we still celebrated as a holiday centered around the birth of Christ, traditions, family time, giving, goodwill, and all the other aspects that were always there.

And we were told that even though there was no "real" Santa, he symbolized the true importance of what it is to "give". With almost everything else, if a person gives something, there is something given in return. Santa would give toys to kids, and be long gone before they could even wake up and thank him.

I'm a Christian, and I don't want to have this be taken the wrong way, but even with Christ, there is a certain amount of implied give-and-take. Totally worth it, but Christ came and made the ultimate sacrifice, and in return, all we have to do is live by his rules. To a mature believer who is able to see that as it really is, that's understandable, and the very defintiion of unconditional love. To a child, it's something of a distant concept.

We're doing the same with my kids. I dread the day my kids realize there is no real person of Santa, who comes and leaves them toys, but that doesn't mean I dont' allow them their fantasies right now. Being able to see magic and believe in something like Santa Claus is a talent only children have. And I believe there's something to be said for the ability to believe in make-believe, and to have rich fantasy lives. It's the kids whose parents never let them believe in stuff like that who often end up being cynical and sad too early in life.

A note: There is one aspect of the Santa story that I am adamant about not telling my children. I do not let them believe that Santa brings presents to "all the good children in the world", and that kids who don't get gifts from Santa are bad. Many people don't celebrate Christmas with Santa, either for religious reasons, financial reasons, or just because they don't for one reason or another, and I will not allow my children to make the assumption that those kids are bad, since Santa didn't visit them, and that they must be better, because Santa did visit us. I know some great little Jewish kids who don't celebrate with Santa for religious reasons, and I know some real stinkers whose living rooms resemble Toys R Us every December 25th. While songs like "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" are still allowed, I don't build up the fact that they need to be good "because Santa is watching."