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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

  • Nobody has mentioned children who follow other religions and do not celebrate Christmas. Many of them will accept and respect the religious aspects of Christmas to Christians but find the Santa lie to be an absolutely ridiculous innovation and a completely bizarre aspect of British popular culture. What if they start going round saying in the school playground that it's all a load of nonsense and that parents are lying through their teeth? How do handle this one?

    There has been criticism levelled at the NAS that it is dominated by white middle class British people from the suburbs and shires, many of which claim to be defenders of multiculturalism but in reality have a weak knowledge of religions other than Christianity and neither do they associate with many people who follow these religions.

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  • Nobody has mentioned children who follow other religions and do not celebrate Christmas. Many of them will accept and respect the religious aspects of Christmas to Christians but find the Santa lie to be an absolutely ridiculous innovation and a completely bizarre aspect of British popular culture. What if they start going round saying in the school playground that it's all a load of nonsense and that parents are lying through their teeth? How do handle this one?

    There has been criticism levelled at the NAS that it is dominated by white middle class British people from the suburbs and shires, many of which claim to be defenders of multiculturalism but in reality have a weak knowledge of religions other than Christianity and neither do they associate with many people who follow these religions.

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