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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

  • Arran said:
    I can see a big difference between religious beliefs from centuries ago (even if they are scientifically proven to be untrue) and innovations from more recent times that are outright lies.

    A nice succinct summary of that difference would be most welcome.

    For my argument, I present the following as an example of what I say:

    http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/we-question-therefore-we-live/201112/santa-claus-and-jesus-transitional-objects-0

    Santa Claus and Jesus as Transitional Objects

    Santa Claus and Jesus - Parallel transition figures?
    Published on December 24, 2011 by Gordon M. Burghardt, Ph.D. in We Question, Therefore We Live

    Tonight Santa Claus will be visiting many children and millions of people around the world will be attending churches commemorating the arrival of Baby Jesus, symbolically but with all the trapping of anticipating a real birth. I want to make the claim that Santa Claus and Jesus are actually involved in quite related rituals.

    First, let's look at the issue of historical accuracy. Most will not argue that the Santa Claus story, as told most famously in The Night Before Christmas, has any real historical truth behind it, though perhaps the person himself is founded on a historical personage, such as the St. Nicholas who lived in Turkey around 300 CE. What about Jesus's birth? Again, that Jesus of Nazareth existed is not questioned. But the Nativity story is another matter. If one looks at the four gospels in the New Testament, both the oldest, Mark, and most recent, John, do not contain any mention of the birth of Jesus at all. They both begin with the mission of John the Baptist. In Matthew and Luke, the Jesus birth issues are covered in the first two chapters and then they too, in their respective chapter 3's, move on to the story of John the Baptist. Furthermore, there are major inconsistencies between them. It seems reasonable to conclude that the first two chapters in Matthew and Luke were added to give their respective target audiences a more complete birth to death to resurrection narrative for Jesus. And, like the amazing duration of the Santa Claus legend, these were very effective moves indeed.

Reply

  • Arran said:
    I can see a big difference between religious beliefs from centuries ago (even if they are scientifically proven to be untrue) and innovations from more recent times that are outright lies.

    A nice succinct summary of that difference would be most welcome.

    For my argument, I present the following as an example of what I say:

    http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/we-question-therefore-we-live/201112/santa-claus-and-jesus-transitional-objects-0

    Santa Claus and Jesus as Transitional Objects

    Santa Claus and Jesus - Parallel transition figures?
    Published on December 24, 2011 by Gordon M. Burghardt, Ph.D. in We Question, Therefore We Live

    Tonight Santa Claus will be visiting many children and millions of people around the world will be attending churches commemorating the arrival of Baby Jesus, symbolically but with all the trapping of anticipating a real birth. I want to make the claim that Santa Claus and Jesus are actually involved in quite related rituals.

    First, let's look at the issue of historical accuracy. Most will not argue that the Santa Claus story, as told most famously in The Night Before Christmas, has any real historical truth behind it, though perhaps the person himself is founded on a historical personage, such as the St. Nicholas who lived in Turkey around 300 CE. What about Jesus's birth? Again, that Jesus of Nazareth existed is not questioned. But the Nativity story is another matter. If one looks at the four gospels in the New Testament, both the oldest, Mark, and most recent, John, do not contain any mention of the birth of Jesus at all. They both begin with the mission of John the Baptist. In Matthew and Luke, the Jesus birth issues are covered in the first two chapters and then they too, in their respective chapter 3's, move on to the story of John the Baptist. Furthermore, there are major inconsistencies between them. It seems reasonable to conclude that the first two chapters in Matthew and Luke were added to give their respective target audiences a more complete birth to death to resurrection narrative for Jesus. And, like the amazing duration of the Santa Claus legend, these were very effective moves indeed.

Children
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