Santa Claus and friends bad for the kids?

[Kit15]

Honestly, I was much more devastated when I found out Snuffalupugus wasn’t real but a figment of Big Bird’s imagination.

XD

You know I was like…22…when I found that out? My husband has a better memory of Sesame Street than I do and he was the one who ruined it for me.

Though Snuffy did eventually become a “real” character and the human characters could see and talk to.

 

[Jennifer_J]

Honestly, I was much more devastated when I found out Snuffalupugus wasn’t real but a figment of Big Bird’s imagination.

Snuffy was ALWAYS real, the adults just always “missed” him
muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Mr._Snuffleupagus

 

[Matrix_Refugee]

XD

You know I was like…22…when I found that out? My husband has a better memory of Sesame Street than I do and he was the one who ruined it for me.

Though Snuffy did eventually become a “real” character and the human characters could see and talk to.

Hee, I remember that: I was about ten at time (still watching it, since I liked the characters; might be why I’ve seem to have managed to retain some of my childlike innocence and wonder even today) That was a huge frustration for me, ie. that the grown-ups never seemed to believe that Snuffy was more than an imaginary friend to Big Bird, thus it was a big “Finally!!” for me when they finally saw him.

 

[Mrs_Sally]

Jen, this sounds about like how we’ve done it. The kids know about St Nicholas and we have a little feast on his day (and St Lucia) in the middle of Advent. :christmastree1: We try very hard to keep Advent as Advent and don’t go to tons of Christmas parties or get overloaded on cookies and candy.

Dh and I both grew up in church-going households (neither was spectacularly religious). In my house as a child we always had advent calendars, wreaths, and went to midnight Mass. We also got presents from Santa (and presents from our parents and other relatives). It wasn’t overdone though and my parents didn’t do the whole dress up in a red suit and leave reindeer prints in the yard. It helped that we lived overseas most of my childhood! No mall Santas!

We did much less of the Santa stuff than our parents had done, but we also didn’t go around telling our kids that Santa was a lie and there’s no such things as elves! They figured it all out on their own pretty early on.

I will say that we love the old cartoon Christmas movies about Rudolph and Kris Kringle, but our favorite is The Little Drummer Boy.

OK–we’ve still got a little more than 2 weeks before school even starts, let alones Advent or Christmas. I’m going back out to the pool! :tanning:

Let me try to 'splain this again. I was brought up with very little in the way of religion or faith. We were very secular. Santa and the Easter Bunny were what the holidays were about. It was empty and the holidays were all about getting (and giving, but mostly getting as a child). Each holiday was a huge let down after the ripping open of gifts…

I don’t want that for my children–I want it to mean more. So we de-emphasise or refocus Santa to St Nicholas–we celebrate his feast day and talk about his giving. We do an advent calendar and wreath. We keep advent as advent-y as possible (ie I hold out on the Christmas music as long as I can, which is very hard for me!). We put up a tree and exchange gifts on Christmas (after Mass). We even put up stockings (we talk about the stocking thing on St Nicholas day), but Santa takes a huge back seat. The children know the day is honoring the birth of Christ. We adopt a family through a giving tree at the kids school.

Please remember I had nothing to draw on from my childhood–no role model, no religious traditions. It was easier to just let go of Santa. I know not everyone can understand this, but the secular focus on Santa was damaging to me. I’m happy so many of you can do it and give it more meaning. I couldn’t figure out how to do it. I’m grateful that the Catholic Church has so many rich traditions that I can draw on to make holidays so much more meaningful.

 

[Gordon_Sims]

We’re a very pro-Santa family. My younger ones believe, although my son was devastated when he found out. I explained to him that Santa is an embodiment of giving, love and good will and that I never lied to him because I firmly believe in those things, so saying Santa was real wasn’t being dishonest. I make sure my kids understand the true meaning of the season and put a much greater emphasis on giving than getting (the only gifts I get on Christmas are from my kids, although I give to quite a few people).

The biggest problem I have with the whole Santa debate are the militant anti-Santas. I worked with a guy who was so opposed to the idea of Santa that he would send his kids to school with home-brewed pamphlets, each targeted to the specific age group of his kids, and have them hand them out to the other students. He always acted dumbfounded when there would be negative consequences (over the years his kids were teased, his house & car were egged and he was punched in the face, among other things). He would do the same thing on Easter and whenever he heard about a kid in class losing a tooth (the kids couldn’t celebrate Halloween, either, but were allowed to bring in a whole different set of pamphlets that day). He was just as dumbfounded by my lack of sympathy for him after a while.