Don't Lie about Santa Clause!

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Imagine23 said:
I agree, why spoil it for them? Unlike many of the Church’s teachings, the stories of Santa Claus are harmless. I figured out that the stories of Santa Claus could not possibly be true around the time of kindergarten or first grade. But even after that, Christmas was still fun. Catholicism took a little longer. That may have been due to the fact that many of the adults around me seemed to believe in the idea of God and the teachings of the Church so that influenced my young mind a bit. When I was in around the third or fourth grade though I realized that almost all of the biblical stories were mythology and I think I completely rejected the idea of God a few years after that.
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Great…an athiest is hijacking a Santa Claus thread…go spew your garbage in an apologetics thread.
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rayne89:
I believe childhood fantasy is a very important part of being a kid and that is how I chose to raise my daughter. I was allowed to believe in Santa and it did absolutely no damage. Such strong statements about lying and such are obnoxious and I just stated my opinion.
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Look, I don’t give two poops on how you raise YOUR kids, you will be subject to God on that and it’s none of my business. All my OP was stating was the objective wrongfulness of lying, regardless of the subject matter, and specifically in regards to Santa Claus. If you want to tell your kids Santa is real and then have them figure it out years later you were telling them a falsehood, then you go right ahead.
 
I remember when I found out there was no Santa Claus from my friend and it caused a fight and then finally my parents had to settle the situation by telling me. Then I asked, “Does this mean I am not going to get any more money for losing teeth since I assume the tooth fairy isn’t real either.”
 
Guardian said:
Great…an athiest is hijacking a Santa Claus thread…go spew your garbage in an apologetics thread.

Look, I don’t give two poops on how you raise YOUR kids, you will be subject to God on that and it’s none of my business. All my OP was stating was the objective wrongfulness of lying, regardless of the subject matter, and specifically in regards to Santa Claus. If you want to tell your kids Santa is real and then have them figure it out years later you were telling them a falsehood, then you go right ahead.
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Nice attitude. You have your opinions, these people gave theirs, what did you expect a bunch of “yes” people agreeing with you down the line. :banghead:
I don’t believe in Imagine23 point of view either, but insulting him’her, not nice or very Christian like.
As for Rayne, she was stating basically the same as me, Santa is a wonderful, little fairytale for our children, please do not call us liars for wanting that for our kids.

Merry Christmas
 
I think we should all get together over Coffee ( Starbucks) and cookies( chocolate chip) sing Christmas carols ( Santa Claus is Coming To Town) around a tree( Douglas Fir) and then hang stockings and wait for St. Nicholas (aka SANTA CLAUS!) to land on our roof and bring us presents. And don’t ANYONE spoil it!
Kathy
 
mark_a said:
No sir. You are not.

I had a 12 year old nephew pull my aside at a big Christmas eve party to ask me if Santa was real. I decided right then and there to give my kids the scoop as early on as possible.

Against my wife’s wishes I told each of my kids the truth about Santa, and I’m glad I did.
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I suspect when he got back to school he told all his friends that his Uncle actually fell for the old "is there a Santa Claus " trick asked by an older child. We used to love to pull this gag up until around the start of High school.
 
Imagine23 said:
I agree, why spoil it for them? Unlike many of the Church’s teachings, the stories of Santa Claus are harmless. I figured out that the stories of Santa Claus could not possibly be true around the time of kindergarten or first grade. But even after that, Christmas was still fun. Catholicism took a little longer. That may have been due to the fact that many of the adults around me seemed to believe in the idea of God and the teachings of the Church so that influenced my young mind a bit. When I was in around the third or fourth grade though I realized that almost all of the biblical stories were mythology and I think I completely rejected the idea of God a few years after that.
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Must be preety sad being an atheist. Having to conatntly convince themslves that there is no God they even resort to hijackng a Santa Claus thread to denigrate others religious beliefs. Tomorrow, on the remebrance of the birth of the man who died for the sins of all ( even those who dont belileve in him) I’ll praying for you.You wont care, HE will.
 
Cat said:
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?!
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Oh thank you so much!!!
You are the answer to my prayers!

When a family homeschools, no one tells the kids that there is no Santa. My older daughter turned nine and still believes. I was looking for a way to tell her and not let her think I was lying to her all these years. We do “Jesus Birthday presents” that come from Mommy and Daddy. The focus in our house is on Jesus and not Santa, but it doesn’t make it any easier.

This year we ran into a bigger problem. At our Polish Dance party, my (tall) nine year old was called to be the first to sit on Santa’s lap. Santa kissed her then asked her to kiss him back. I walked into the room for the end of it and flipped out. She will not sit on a Santa’s lap again.

Tomorrow, after the hoopla and before bed, I’ll talk about pretending and say a prayer in thanks for your post. God Bless you and Merry Christmas!!!
 
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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++ It’s not a lie - it’s make-believe. Lies are always evil, because they are statements, true or false, which are uttered with the intention - at least implicit - of deceiving another.

Make-believe does not deceive - to do that, it has to be intended deceptively; but talk about Father Christmas is no more deceptive than talk about hobbits or dragons, because no one in their right mind believes these are real in the way that elephants, presidents, or atoms are real.

Or do we go ahead & ban all imaginative literature ? After all, the Odyssey is only that liar Homer spinning falsehoods. 🙂 This debate goes back to Plato, who would have banned all poets from his ideal state, because their tales were at two removes from the truth.
 
estesbob said:
I suspect when he got back to school he told all his friends that his Uncle actually fell for the old "is there a Santa Claus " trick asked by an older child. We used to love to pull this gag up until around the start of High school.
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Anyway, my answer was “yes, Santa Claus is real” because I didn’t think it was my place to ruin his life.
 
Guardian said:
Look, I don’t give two poops on how you raise YOUR kids, you will be subject to God on that and it’s none of my business. All my OP was stating was the objective wrongfulness of lying, regardless of the subject matter, and specifically in regards to Santa Claus. If you want to tell your kids Santa is real and then have them figure it out years later you were telling them a falsehood, then you go right ahead.
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Have a blessed Christmas! 🙂
 
Guardian said:
So lying is only wrong when it causes ill effects?
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Duh…

You can quote all sorts of biblical passages and stuff, but you come off as non-sensical if you try to claim that all lying is evil no matter what.

I can give examples but I would like to assume everyone can think for themselves and realize many cases where it’s obviously not bad to lie.

Lying, as well as anything else, is only evil when it hurts people and causes unnecessary harm.

Everything is only wrong when it causes unnecessary harm.

I know some of you might see it differently but unfortunately it’s not the case, and if you think like that you can often end up causing lots of harm.

Think of the crusades, the inquisition, the witch hunts, 9/11, the London bombings… bad things happen when you focus on set in stone overly simplistic principles and stop thinking about what you are actually doing.
 
rayne89 said:
I wasn’t being catty. Honestly if someone feels allowing their kids to believe in Santa is wrong then it’s their right to raise them that way.

The poster made a pretty strong statement against it including using the word “evilness”. Every year we get posts about how Santa steals the meaning of Christmas and parents are wrong to allow it. The kids are going to grow up to be atheists and all that.

I don’t tell people they absolutley should allow their kids to believe in Santa and I don’t think they’re evil if the chose tell their children Santa is myth.

I believe childhood fantasy is a very important part of being a kid and that is how I chose to raise my daughter. I was allowed to believe in Santa and it did absolutely no damage. Such strong statements about lying and such are obnoxious and I just stated my opinion.
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Sorry if I offended. I agree with much of what you said about Santa. Out pastor even asked the little kids at Mass this morning if they were ready for Santa. He told them he hoped Santa would get thru Denver okey. I hope so too because my youngest daughter and her DH are coming in tonight from Denver.Believing in Santa never hurt anyone, and my DH and I have great memories as we sit by the tree and recall some of the fun of the most memorable Christmases–like the time that the holes to assemble stove and refrigerator for daughter were drilled wrong and DH and father-in-law had to redo the whole thing. Fun.

Christmas is magical for kids and I feel sorry for those who will not let their children share in that. But parents are certainly entitled to raise their kids any way they want to. But don’t feel bad when they little ones come home from school and say that their friends say this is too a
Santa.
 
estesbob said:
Must be preety sad being an atheist. Having to conatntly convince themslves that there is no God they even resort to hijackng a Santa Claus thread to denigrate others religious beliefs. Tomorrow, on the remebrance of the birth of the man who died for the sins of all ( even those who dont belileve in him) I’ll praying for you.You wont care, HE will.
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It’s actually great being an atheist. I’m able to use logic to arrive at conclusions about important issues rather than resort to passages from a book written 2000 years ago and some old men in the Vatican on the other side of the globe.

I don’t need to constantly convince myself of God’s non-existence. To understand how this is so, remember that you feel no need to convince yourself constantly that Allah is not the one true God.

I am an American though and celebrate Christmas, so Merry Christmas to everyone. (I mean it).

I do think there are some interesting parallels between the stories of God and Santa Claus. They are both allegedly omniscient and can perform feats that defy the physical laws fo nature.
 
Through out history children have been told “lies” in the form of fables and fairy tales. Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm and many others have written wonderful stories that have entertained and thrilled children down through the ages. Who hasn’t read about Superman and wanted to fly?

But now, some are questioning the wisdom of telling their children a lie thinking that they will grow up believing that telling a lie is ok or not being able to separate the truth from a lie. Worse, perhaps it might cause permanent brain damage if they found out Santa Claus was a lie. Holy Cow Batman! Santa not real!

Rest easy, we will always have those who grew up with distorted thoughts and are intent on passing them on to their children to protect all children from irreparable harm caused by fairy tales. Thank God these over protective parents are in the minority. Imagine the world without Santa Claus, Little Red Riding Hood, Rip Van Winkle, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.

What child hasn’t dreamed of being a Knight in Shinning Armor or wanted to see Santa delivering his presents. That was the fun part of being a child. Experiencing the make believe world of Willie Wonka and Jack and the Beanstalk. More! I say, let a child be a child. Let them believe in fairy castles and knights and Robin Hood, for soon enough they will leave behind those things and enter the grownup world.
 
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