To everybody with no children:

regardless of what you say now, you WILL lie to your children about Santa, because it's FUN, and having fun with your children gives you the best feeling you could possibly imagine.

Now give me my dad-of-the-year award please!

I agree that we are headed towards just such events.

Pat yourself on the back...haha.
It's always intriguing to me how most people, through their ego, think that their, in fact, very typical behavior, is so very individual and unique.

I certainly would never make a point of lecturing my children that Santa isn't real, but if they ask me if Santa is real or not then I would tell them as much of the truth as they wanted to know.

I'll be letting them know The Garden Of Eden was an ancient Hebrew creation myth that became an annual dramatic play and then became the first book of the Old Testament, Genesis.

However, I will also let them know that myths have value as well.

How very charming,David.

What a bizarre post.

Physician, heal thyself.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to swa(y) again.

Clipping out your personal fight with someone else, you've pretty much summed up my thoughts as well.

I don't think participating in a myth is exactly "lying" either. I want my kids to learn about Santa and Jesus too for that matter. Obviously when they're 2-4 they aren't going to be able to exactly grasp the pagan root of the myths, but at some point they will be more curious about those things. I'll try to explain that every legend begins with a real person or event that did something worth retelling and remembering, and that over time society uses those stories to fill needs it has. I'll try to have fun with them first though, and keep it fun as mysteries unfold along the way.

What I want to avoid, that I went through, is them feeling like they have to pretend to believe in something just to keep me happy and believing they're innocent. All that's kind of a tall order, but it can't hurt to shoot for.

well i've never believed in santa, just because he's not as frequent here.. we have sinterklaas, the original santa, and i did believe in him (i'm going to tell my kids that lie anyway, because i remember how much fun it was). we always knew our parents bought the christmas presents, they thought the whole american santa thing was nonsense.

It's nice to know some people are willing (you know, through that thing called the WILL) to go that extra mile for the sake of their children and not just follow the BLEAT BLEAT BLEAT of the sheep. The sheep? Yeah, that's right...the sheep, i.e., the overwhelming majority that pollute the world with their mental garbage due to their own fear, apathy and ignorance.

And the beat goes on...

& on...

no

teach them economics from the cradle

shit doesnt materialize out of thin air, boy

Quote:

Originally Posted by me I certainly would never make a point of lecturing my children that Santa isn't real, but if they ask me if Santa is real or not then I would tell them as much of the truth as they wanted to know.

...

I've decided to teach them about how Santa fought off the Martians. That will be my family's tradition. We'll watch Santa vs the Martians every Christmas.

Isn't it Santa Conquers the Martians? I bought that out of $1 bin at target for someone's birthday.

Will I lie to kids about Santa? Yeah. Believing in Santa was awesome. I figured it out at an early age that he wasn't real, but it was good while it lasted. I certainly wasn't sad, or angry. I got presents just the same. And then my little sister came along, and now my parents keep up the charade, and I still get "Santa" presents. Sweet.

i have a 10 year old. he found out about santa not being real last year. he was pissed, but got over it in 10 minutes. when he was younger, we discussed what we (as a family) celebrate. also in this conversation, we discussed other winter holidays/festivals in various religions. what we celebrate in our family is the "magic of christmas". we don't celebrate the birth of christ (but he needs to understand that's what others are celebrating 'round here). we celebrate family and love and winter and even santa.

so yeah. it works for us.

hahaha

me having kids is the biggest issue in this hypothetical situation, we'll focus on lying to them after we deal with that one.

I agree, Swa.

It's all for the kids enjoyment. It's fantasy. And people should be able to live in a fantasy aslong as they can, especially in this day and age.

Yeah, dude.
My parents never really said he was fake. It was just like, "Yeah you understand."
And they still put Santa on like, one present a year (maybe not this year, I don't know...) as a joke.