Santa Claus Is Over

[DeeDub]

Then I figured out that the Santa who appeared on local TV and once read my letter on the air looked and sounded very much like the guy who played Bozo The Clown on the same channel, and further suspicions dawned.

I figured out the truth about Bozo when he reached out and his wristwatch showed. It was a real, grown-up wristwatch with a Speidel Twist-O-Flex watchband. I knew the real Bozo wouldn't wear a wristwatch with a Twist-O-Flex. Then all the pieces began to fall together--Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, the whole phony lot of them.

 

[Weston]

It would interesting indeed to hear for FL's that may have experienced a reality based holiday and how it has effected them. Anyone had that experience?

-dixon cannon

I'm not sure what you mean here – a reality based holiday? I'm not trying to take premature offense, but what sort is that? Is Christmas, Halloween, etc the one you mean? Not quite sure.

There are a number of parents that I am aware of who, out of good-hearted Christian intent, believe that involving Santa Claus in Christmas cheapens the true meaning of the holiday. I am not of that group. I firmly believe that some measure of magic, while it can be had here, is invaluable to a child's development. I can understand why some people do what they do...

But it's my hope that an imaginitive youngster is not born to those with no fancy or imagination. To crush a child's delicate joys that are so simple just because of cold, adult logic with which they must deal for the rest of their lives seems cruel.

 

[Dixon Cannon]

I'm not sure what you mean here – a reality based holiday? I'm not trying to take premature offense, but what sort is that? Is Christmas, Halloween, etc the one you mean? Not quite sure.

There are a number of parents that I am aware of who, out of good-hearted Christian intent, believe that involving Santa Claus in Christmas cheapens the true meaning of the holiday. I am not of that group. I firmly believe that some measure of magic, while it can be had here, is invaluable to a child's development. I can understand why some people do what they do...

But it's my hope that an imaginitive youngster is not born to those with no fancy or imagination. To crush a child's delicate joys that are so simple just because of cold, adult logic with which they must deal for the rest of their lives seems cruel.

Hi Weston. No need for offense, premature or otherwise - we're talkin' about Santa Claus! We're talking about the Christmas Holiday that involves Santa Claus as it's main protaganist in the Christmas story and about the "magic" and the "wonderment" of the fantasy story.

No one has suggested crushing a child's delicate psyche with cold logic. I had said that my childhood was filled with several fairy tales and "magic" stories. Surely there are parents who are wise enough to create a joyous childrens holiday without lying, deceiving, and mendacious activities that have become this modern celebration of Santa's Excessmas.

Some might choose to make it a strictly religious observance, but I'm not suggesting that that's what it must be. Some might still celebrate with all the traditional customs, including Old Saint Nick. What I'm about is doing it with honesty, truth and forthrightness, not perpetuating this myth as if it's 'gospel' and cast in stone. Kids have imagination and enjoy play time and fantasy - we all did. But I do not believe that it is necessary to participate in a cultural deceit that urges us to do almost anything to make kids believe in something that isn't real. Feeling "heart sick" when the child discovers the truth that the whole thing was a put on, a charade and a lie. The adamacy to maintain that fiction borders on paranoid psychosis it seems sometimes.

I'm all for fantasy, kids playtime and celebrations. I just believe that lying to kids about something that IS NOT REAL is mendacity pure and simple -no matter how cute, wonderous or magic it may it may appear.

(A good case in point: All kids love McDonald's and Ronald the clown. But do we ever brow beat kids into believing that he's real and if they're naughty that he won't appear or he will put anthracite in their Happy Meal? I don't think so.)

Lovingly!

-dixon cannon

 

[dostacos]

my mother tells how when she was a child they NEVER had a tree until Christmas morning, and it was always huge fresh and full [I think that might be a fuzzy memory ]

My wife found out when she realized Santa and MOM both had the same hand writing

I had some random kid walk by and tell me Santa was not real. This was not even the season! I went home crying. Mom figured that it was time

I have 3 sons and the oldest kept up for the next 2 then the middle one held off saying anything until the youngest found out on the street...

NOW I have kids thinking I am SANTA! I have kids come up and tell me what they want for Christmas well that and I work in a children's orthopedic hospital and the other staff tell' em I am Santa, many times as I make it possible for them to walk oh and we NEVER charge the patient for anything [or insurance or government, we give away all our services, orthotic, prosthetic, PT,OT surgery EVERYTHING:eusa_clap ] so yes Santa is still alive!

 

[Kishtu]

Now I can't believe no one has posted a link to this, but maybe you all know it too well by now...

http://www.newseum.org/yesvirginia/

Kind of sums it up for me. Do I think Santa exists as a real, living, being? No. Do I think Santa exists as a personification of everything that's good about the festive season? - yes, oh, very yes.

I hate the "extras" on DVDs that show you The Making Of.... I know Stuart Little isn't a real mouse, but even at my age, I would rather believe that he might be, than that he's a CGI drawing I guess my feeling is that there should always be some room for a comfortable doubt. The fact that I have never met, and never had dealings with, the real Santa, doesn't mean that he isn't out there....

 

[Sin Khan]

Santa Clause is real, and I can prove it.

What is not real is that he drives a sleigh with flying reindeer and somehow magically squeezes down your chimney to place presents under the tree. The real part is that some people actually go out and become Santa to real children who have never had parents or who have lost their parents.

And let me tell you, they are just as thrilled to see the real Santa’s and their helpers as your kids are in believing in the fairy tale Santa. In fact, you can make Santa real for anyone if you really want to.

The story goes that a carpenter decided to make toys for the children of his small town and every year, on the birthday of Christ, he took his sleigh and went door to door delivering them to all the children. He was the real Santa and if you wanted to you could do the same thing he did. Any one of you could be a real Santa to children around where you live. It’s not that hard, and it doesn’t even have to be for the underprivileged, but that’s fine also.

And if they seem surprised to see you this year, and then just wait until next year, they will be thrilled to see you for sure. I recommend doing this first for your coworkers and then go from there. Buy some toys, some tradition fun ones, and wrap them up and go get a Santa suit and go door to door to your coworkers and become the real Santa.

I know Santa is real because I’ve seen him, and one day, I want to be just like him.

 

[Foofoogal]

I live to give beanie babies and hot wheel cars and blow bubbles for the children who come in the food pantry where I work. To see the faces light up makes me surely feel like Santa.
My grandaughters are so creative every day they are a different character.
My children are grown and I still put from Santa on their presents also BTW.

 

[Fatdutchman]

Santa is not my favorite "person". As a Christian, I never cease to be amazed at the number of people who think it is perfectly fine to lie to their children about a magical being, knowing that it isn't true. And they can be absolutely militant about it....woe be to anyone to suggest that it is wrong to tell this deceit to children.

I simply don't understand it.

And, yes, I "grew up with Santa Claus", and no, I'm not scarred for life because of it, but I now would rather not have had "Santa" deliver my presents. I would still have gotten the presents, I still would have enjoyed Christmas, but I can imagine that I would also have gotten a better understanding of Christmas at a much earlier age.

 

[scotrace]

Dixon, Fatdutchman - what did you tell your kids?

 

[Undertow]

I believe it is beneficial to preserve a sense of na?Øve awe in a child; although that sense of awe wanes with age, and finally disappears. However, I also think parents should help garner a propensity to analyze fact from fiction.

I don’t think allowing a child to be hoodwinked will cause them to grow up a moron. I certainly understand the points posted, and with all respect to D. Cannon, I simply think that can be a slippery slope. I don’t want to start in on a discussion regarding the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or anything similar.

Take, for example, some of us FLers’ love for the Golden Age. If anything, that’s good example of tricking ourselves. Yes, of course there WAS a Golden Age, and there wasn’t a “Santa” (please no heated retorts regarding a St. Nicholas, etc, I’m referring to the Hallmark-American Icon named Santa T. Claus), and sure, I can see the difference between the two. Yet, isn’t trying to recreate the feeling and the awe the same?

I haven‚Äôt had nearly enough coffee this morning to really discuss this but also consider some points made in a totally unrelated thread:The Matrix If it weren‚Äôt for our sense of na?Øve awe, who knows what we WOULDN‚ÄôT have discovered.

 

[Fatdutchman]

I have not been blessed with a wife and children (shocked, aren't you). If I were, there simply would be no Santa Claus at our Christmas celebration. No fuss, no muss. If the child were to ask about Santa, I would simply tell them that he is just a made up character, just like cartoons and movies.

As far as children needing "magic" and "fantasy"...they have plenty of fantasy already. Cartoons, Star Wars, the Little Mermaid, Superman, Hot Wheels, baby dolls, little rubber dinosaurs, etc. All this is fine, and they know it's just make-believe.

Of course, anyone can do what they wish, but for me, personally, it just doesn't seem like a good thing to do.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

I have not been blessed with a wife and children (shocked, aren't you). If I were, there simply would be no Santa Claus at our Christmas celebration. No fuss, no muss.

Oh, but fuss & muss are what make like grand!

 

[Paisley]

Several years ago, I read a Muslim account of Christmas in a campus newspaper. A student said, "We grew up Muslim, and my mom would say, 'That's not from Santa Claus. I bought you that damn present!'"

 

[K.D. Lightner]

I guess I don't get it -- does having your children believe something delusional make you feel like your children are still innocent or something?

When I was three years old, my mother told me about Santa Claus. I remember thinking, "yeah, sure: a fat man in a red suit is going to come down our chimney (which led to a very hot pot bellied stove) and leave me presents. Why, I thought, would he do that?! Won't he burn up? And flying reindeer -- I didn't know deer could fly."

So, when I came downstairs Christmas a.m., I saw all these presents under the tree and my parents standing there beaming at me. I wasn't sure what was going on, so ignored the presents because I wasn't certain they were really for me and did not want to make a fuss over them if they weren't.

I asked mother if she remembered telling me about Santa Claus and she said, yes, you were only three, but I could tell by the look on your face, you didn't believe a word I was saying.

I had to stay after school in grade school as punishment because someone in our 2nd grade class had told a kid there was no Santa and he'd run home crying to his parents, who angrily called the principal. Our 2nd grade teacher said to our class, who here does not believe in Santa Claus? Seven of us raised our hands. She detained the seven of us after school because no one would fess up as to who had told the kid the truth. It certainly wasn't me, I had learned to keep my mouth shut long before about my beliefs and disbeliefs.

Too bad I didn't tell mother about that incident. She would have gone after the school authorities like a beast out of the apocalypse.

karol


karol

 

[PrettySquareGal]

I guess I don't get it -- does having your children believe something delusional make you feel like your children are still innocent or something?

Yes.

I do not have children, but my opinion is that there are some kids that have plenty of reality at too young an age and need something to believe in, even if fictional. A young mind not yet able to fully reason that believes in myths and fairy tales does not make that child pathologically "delusional."

By the way, I LOVE Norad.

http://www.noradsanta.org/index.php

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Dixon, Fatdutchman - what did you tell your kids?

As you probably guessed; Dixon got no kiddies! Neither does the Grinch, so what does that make me?...some kinda Christmas Ogre? Huh? But my friends Mighty Mouse and the Geico Gecko can beat your Santa anyday! So bring it on! :rage: (Whoops! Sorry. I overreacted!)

(LOL, as it were!) lol

-dixon cannon

 

[Paisley]

"And there were, abiding in the fields..." etc., etc from Luke.

That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown!

 

[Fatdutchman]

"And there were, abiding in the fields..." etc., etc from Luke.

That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown!

:eusa_clap [angel] :eusa_clap

 

[Dixon Cannon]

"And there were, abiding in the fields..." etc., etc from Luke.

That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown!

Now that's a myth of a different color, but I'll keep my mouth shut! (Charlie Brown! Sheesh!) [or, that should be Good Grief!]

-dixon cannon

 

[PrettySquareGal]

Now that's a myth of a different color, but I'll keep my mouth shut! (Charlie Brown! Sheesh!)

-dixon cannon

Sheesh is right!