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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

  • NAS5794 said:
    Surely most children, by the time they work out the truth, are old enough to understand why their parents said such a thing? Maybe if this was not so then there would be trust issues between parent and child, but I doubt Santa is even remotely related to the trust issues that do exist in some families.

    Exactly.  I was never scarred by finding out Santa was a myth.  A myth, not a lie.

    Perhaps those who feel that way have overriding problems in their family dynamics and it's not about Santa being a "lie" at all, but those family dynamics.

    People on the spectrum do not lack imagination, it frequently gets confused by others with social imagination, which is impaired.  I think there is a delight in those myths that children can enjoy while they are children.  Anyone who believes otherwise is a killjoy of huge proportions.

Reply

  • NAS5794 said:
    Surely most children, by the time they work out the truth, are old enough to understand why their parents said such a thing? Maybe if this was not so then there would be trust issues between parent and child, but I doubt Santa is even remotely related to the trust issues that do exist in some families.

    Exactly.  I was never scarred by finding out Santa was a myth.  A myth, not a lie.

    Perhaps those who feel that way have overriding problems in their family dynamics and it's not about Santa being a "lie" at all, but those family dynamics.

    People on the spectrum do not lack imagination, it frequently gets confused by others with social imagination, which is impaired.  I think there is a delight in those myths that children can enjoy while they are children.  Anyone who believes otherwise is a killjoy of huge proportions.

Children
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