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Is Santa silly?

Arran

I'm writing this as someone who doesn't celebrate Christmas in either a religious or cultural sense. From a young age I was told that Santa doesn't exist and is just a silly hoax that parents play on their kids. It never affected me in any bad way and neither was I expecting to find wrapped presents mysteriously appear on the morning of the 25th day of December. If anybody in my family received a Christmas gift then it was usually opened on the same day. A downside to this is that even from the age of 4 or 5 I went round telling kids at school "Father Christmas isn't real, it's all made up, your parents buy Christmas presents from the shops" which often resulted in me getting into trouble whenever they got upset. I once had to report to the head teacher after completely reducing a classmate to tears.

Is the concept of Santa a silly nonsense or is it part of the joys of childhood? Do you tell your own children the truth or would you prefer to go along with the cultural norm? Is pleasing one's classmates more important than knowing the truth? What about children at school who follow different religions so do not celebrate Christmas - where do they fit in?

Parents

  • It's precisely because the real world is such a difficult, scary, pressured, exhausting place, that myths and magic are so easy and desirable to escape into, for adults.

    For children, it's something else (as stated above).

    I have no problem with someone having their beliefs, so long as they don't try to force them on others or criticise others for not thinking like them.

    There is much we don't know.  That may sound fantastical to most, but that doesn't mean those things don't exist.  The human mind is used a % of it's capabilities, many things are hidden from us by governments, not all of them mundane, there are dimensions we are incapable of understanding (and I'm talking about physics here) because we cannot see them or process them.  Some would call that magic, certainly those without the capacity to take it on board.

    Magic and mythology is a good thing, provided you don't by an appropriate age (which is an individual thing) have delusions about it and are aware what everyday reality itself comprises.

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  • It's precisely because the real world is such a difficult, scary, pressured, exhausting place, that myths and magic are so easy and desirable to escape into, for adults.

    For children, it's something else (as stated above).

    I have no problem with someone having their beliefs, so long as they don't try to force them on others or criticise others for not thinking like them.

    There is much we don't know.  That may sound fantastical to most, but that doesn't mean those things don't exist.  The human mind is used a % of it's capabilities, many things are hidden from us by governments, not all of them mundane, there are dimensions we are incapable of understanding (and I'm talking about physics here) because we cannot see them or process them.  Some would call that magic, certainly those without the capacity to take it on board.

    Magic and mythology is a good thing, provided you don't by an appropriate age (which is an individual thing) have delusions about it and are aware what everyday reality itself comprises.

Children
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