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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

  • With how many blind men have you discussed their perception of the colour blue?

    Or if you've not tested this hypothesis yourself, can you cite a research paper where others have done so?

    Personally I think they might have very good understanding of the colour blue. Their imaginations usually aren't in black and white.

    The problem is blue is very individual. Even sighted people see blue differently, especially at the blue green transition, where you can have really heated debates. Things are not actually blue, they just reflect that part of the electro-magnetic spectrum that look blue to you.

    You can assert all kinds of things to try to resolve an argument, but by themselves such assertions are not proofs.

    I've had conversations with drunks mind you, that run more or less the same way.

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  • With how many blind men have you discussed their perception of the colour blue?

    Or if you've not tested this hypothesis yourself, can you cite a research paper where others have done so?

    Personally I think they might have very good understanding of the colour blue. Their imaginations usually aren't in black and white.

    The problem is blue is very individual. Even sighted people see blue differently, especially at the blue green transition, where you can have really heated debates. Things are not actually blue, they just reflect that part of the electro-magnetic spectrum that look blue to you.

    You can assert all kinds of things to try to resolve an argument, but by themselves such assertions are not proofs.

    I've had conversations with drunks mind you, that run more or less the same way.

Children
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