Don't Lie about Santa Clause!

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It seems to me that the evilness of lying (not telling the truth) about something goes out the window when people tell little kids about Santa Clause and how he is real and lives in the North Pole, etc etc. I don’t see why we should feed our kids lies because people think it’s one of the “joys” of Christmas for little kids. I say tell them the truth that Santa is just a myth, or better yet, tell them about the real St. Nick who lived back in the 4th century!

Am I being anal?
 
What:confused: Santa Clause is not real? Next thing you will be telling me is that Professional Wrestling is fake too.
 
Guardian said:
It seems to me that the evilness of lying (not telling the truth) about something goes out the window when people tell little kids about Santa Clause and how he is real and lives in the North Pole, etc etc. I don’t see why we should feed our kids lies because people think it’s one of the “joys” of Christmas for little kids. I say tell them the truth that Santa is just a myth, or better yet, tell them about the real St. Nick who lived back in the 4th century!

Am I being anal?
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Why take away one of the pleasures of childhood, both for the parents and the kids? Seems to me that we are trying to get rid of any traditions that folks have. Having lived probably longer than you, and raised kids, I say let them believe. They are young so short a time. I don’t approve of lying, and if you don’t want to encourage a child to believe, don’t. But I can promise you that his/her friends will “set him straight”.
 
Don’t lie, tell them the truth.

Santa Clause was a Bishop of the Catholic Church who was very generous. We remember him before Christmas on the 6th but it is ok to remember him on Christmas, as long as we put Jesus first.

Then explain that candy canes are fashioned after Bishops staffs and how Christmas is a Catholic holiday that most the world celebrates.

That is what I told my kids, it doesn’t take away from Christmas, heck I never believed in Santa Clause (the commercial one) as I never had a fireplace as I was growing up.

In Christ
Scylla

stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=38
 
So! You are the unbelieving mother in “Miracle on 34th Street”
 
I’m with Guardian. A lie is a lie is a lie. Period.

If we tell our children about Santa Claus, and then we tell them about Jesus, and then they discover that we’ve been lying to them about Santa Claus, what are they going to think about what we tell them about Jesus?

DaveBj
 
mary_bobo said:
Why take away one of the pleasures of childhood, both for the parents and the kids? Seems to me that we are trying to get rid of any traditions that folks have. Having lived probably longer than you, and raised kids, I say let them believe. They are young so short a time. I don’t approve of lying, and if you don’t want to encourage a child to believe, don’t. But I can promise you that his/her friends will “set him straight”.
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I don’t have a problem with traditions, as long as they don’t violate the laws of God.

Almost as importantly, I want my kids to trust me when I tell them something. I was really upset when my parents finally told me that Santa Clause was not real. Not only because Santa Clause didn’t exist, but because my parents lied to me all those years as an ignorant kid. Maybe wonder what else they were lying about that I could not prove. I still hold that against them.
 
DaveBj said:
I’m with Guardian. A lie is a lie is a lie. Period.

If we tell our children about Santa Claus, and then we tell them about Jesus, and then they discover that we’ve been lying to them about Santa Claus, what are they going to think about what we tell them about Jesus?

DaveBj
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Exactly.
 
From the time they were born, we told our children that at Christmas time, we pretend there’s a Santa Claus.

We pretend he lives at the North Pole and has reindeer and Rudolph and makes toys and flies out on Christmas Eve to deliver toys and he eats the milk and cookies we leave out for him.

It’s fun to pretend, isn’t it?!

This explanation satisfied them as to why there were so many different Santa Clauses, including black and yellow Santa Clauses–they’re all pretending, just like we pretend! It’s as much fun for them to pretend as it is for us!

Our two daughters were fine with pretending. They weren’t left out of childhood Christmas traditions, but they didn’t have that depresing revelation that Santa’s a fake. They knew it all along, but they still had an awesome good time pretending he’s real.

When they were still fairly young, we all (mom and dad, too) learned about the real St. Nicholas (we were evangelical Protestants) from a wonderful Protestant book called Santa, Are You For Real? by Harold Myra. This book gives a great explanation for Santa by describing St. Nicholas.

From that point on, it was even more fun to pretend, because we knew the history and origin of Santa Claus and we enjoyed honoring NIcholas’s memory by pretending.

Perhaps that book was one more thing that helped us as as Protestants to have no prejudices against Catholic Christians; we considered them Christians. In fact, we admired them for their knowledge of people like St. Nicholas.

One thing we did that was so much fun is celebrate Epiphany, yes, even though we were Protestants. It was fun to get shoes full of gifts two weeks after Christmas. (Cheaper for the parents, too!).

BTW, my older daughter grew up and became a theater professional, so “pretending” is now her bread and butter! So I don’t think we hurt their childhood by letting them in on the secret of Santa from the very beginning.
 
🙂
DaveBj said:
I’m with Guardian. A lie is a lie is a lie. Period.

If we tell our children about Santa Claus, and then we tell them about Jesus, and then they discover that we’ve been lying to them about Santa Claus, what are they going to think about what we tell them about Jesus?

DaveBj
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I told 5 children about Santa and about Jesus. Now they are ages 26-almost 18 and none suffered from any ill effects when they found out Santa was a myth. They all still believe in Jesus and never questioned it.
I’m sorry, but I enjoyed that wonderful, magical time. Just as my oldest is now with her 3 little ones:love:
 
kim3260 said:
🙂
I told 5 children about Santa and about Jesus. Now they are ages 26-almost 18 and none suffered from any ill effects when they found out Santa was a myth. They all still believe in Jesus and never questioned it.
I’m sorry, but I enjoyed that wonderful, magical time. Just as my oldest is now with her 3 little ones:love:
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So lying is only wrong when it causes ill effects?
 
Pretending is cool. No problem with pretending. We have the Santa Clause movies, and other Santa flicks, but if anyone asks us will will say that they are fantasies with no basis in reality (with the exception of a tenuous connection to Saint Nicholas, who probably never saw a reindeer, much less one with a red nose).

DaveBj
 
Guardian…what’s your address??? I want to send you a lump of coal! And for future reference, it’s Santa CLAUS…NO E
Kathy
 
Guardian said:
Am I being anal?
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No.

So take your pick.🙂

I always told my kids that I was Santa’s helper . . . they drew their own conclusions. I never said he was real or fake, and they could tell at about age 8 or 10 that he was pretend.They know I never lie to them, truth telling is a big deal in our house, so when I wouldn’t answer they always figured it out.
But I like the idea of “we pretend he’s real” much better.
That keeps it fun.
 
DaveBj said:
I’m with Guardian. A lie is a lie is a lie. Period.

If we tell our children about Santa Claus, and then we tell them about Jesus, and then they discover that we’ve been lying to them about Santa Claus, what are they going to think about what we tell them about Jesus?

DaveBj
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You want to hear a good one?

When my son was little we had very little money and remembered how it bothered me when I was a kid that the kids with well-off parents got great presents no matter how bad they were whereas if your parents were like mine with a lot of kids whom they didn’t believe in spoiling you got less.

So I explained there is no Santa Claus, who St. Nicholas was, that parents really bring “Santa’s” gifts.
The next day he came home furious, “You lied to me!”
“Huh?” was my brilliant response. It seems the teachers took all the kindergrteners to the office so they could talk to Santa long-distance from the North Pole (no doubt one of the teachers sitting in the next room). That settled it for Matt – for some reason I had lied and tried to ruin Christmas for him, just color me Grinch.
Of course if I had been fast on my feet I would have clled the ACLU and sued the school 😃

To add insult to injury my wife’s church dropped off a bunch of stuff tagged “to Matt from Santa” as well that year.

So to me, your thread title “Don’t lie about Santa Claus” has rather a different meaning 🙂
 
Guardian said:
II was really upset when my parents finally told me that Santa Clause was not real. Not only because Santa Clause didn’t exist… I still hold that against them.
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It’s time you got over it, Guardian. Forgive us as we forgive others and all that. Probably a more healthy course of action, both emotionally and spiritually, than whining on the internet about how evil Santa is.

– Mark L. Chance.
 
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