• Replies 182 replies
  • Subscribers 28 subscribers
  • Views 29157 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

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

  • NAS11521 said:
    Arran, what a joyless couple you and Paull are.

    I disagree. There are plenty of other joys for children to experience. Has it crossed your mind that there are millions of children in both Britain and the rest of the world who do not celebrate Christmas and neither are they told the Santa lie from people around them? Do you have any evidence that they are less happy than children who have been indoctrinated with the Santa lie? Are their lives joyless?  

    I am not talking about a fictional story where children know it is make believe, I am talking about children being led to believe that something that cannot physically happen is fact...and as I have pointed out it leads to a whole series of lies... this is nothing about being joyless or being some kind of stick in the mud depriving children of fantasy....I am not saying children should not read stories or watch movies, there is a distinct difference between telling something as a fact and telling something as a fantasy and telling something as a fact that is not true - especially to the growing and vulnerable mind of a child can interfere with a childs rational thinking.

    I was donated a large stack of video tapes of cartoons by a family who were moving house when I was only about 6 or 7 years old, that provided me with many hours of joy and entertainment. I did not believe that everything in them was representative of reality or factually true.

Reply

  • NAS11521 said:
    Arran, what a joyless couple you and Paull are.

    I disagree. There are plenty of other joys for children to experience. Has it crossed your mind that there are millions of children in both Britain and the rest of the world who do not celebrate Christmas and neither are they told the Santa lie from people around them? Do you have any evidence that they are less happy than children who have been indoctrinated with the Santa lie? Are their lives joyless?  

    I am not talking about a fictional story where children know it is make believe, I am talking about children being led to believe that something that cannot physically happen is fact...and as I have pointed out it leads to a whole series of lies... this is nothing about being joyless or being some kind of stick in the mud depriving children of fantasy....I am not saying children should not read stories or watch movies, there is a distinct difference between telling something as a fact and telling something as a fantasy and telling something as a fact that is not true - especially to the growing and vulnerable mind of a child can interfere with a childs rational thinking.

    I was donated a large stack of video tapes of cartoons by a family who were moving house when I was only about 6 or 7 years old, that provided me with many hours of joy and entertainment. I did not believe that everything in them was representative of reality or factually true.

Children
No Data