Is It Wrong To Encourage Our Kids To Believe In Santa?
As I child I never believed in Santa. My parents, who are staunch Christians, didn’t think we should be encouraged to believe in this mystical, magical, fairytale-like figure who lives in the North Pole. We were told about the real meaning of Christmas and that we celebrate the birth of Jesus.
Here’s a little story….Christmas Eve we use to spend with my grandparents eating a wonderful meal and socializing with family members. When it came time to open gifts….like clockwork we’d hear bells jingling outside. My cousins eyes would ligt up and their mouths would drop open. Could it be? Sure enough we’d hear “ho-ho-ho” on the deck. Then, he’d appear! Santa would walk in through the sliding glass door. My cousins would scream in delight…”Santa! Santa! Santa!” They’d run to give him a hug! My brothers and I would smile, but knew he wasn’t real. Didn’t they get it? Every year, right after dinner, my Uncle Deano would disappear. Also, didn’t they notice that Santa’s beard was cut out from white felt? Or, how about his belly? Obviously pillows stuffed in his pants! We didn’t spoil it for them. We knew they’d eventually figure it out.
Looking back, were we ripped off? I never got a gift from Santa. I never left cookies out for Santa. I remember writing a letter to Santa once, but that was an assignment we did in school. Hmmmm.
I know my parents didn’t mean any harm by telling us, “There’s no Santa. Santa isn’t real.” I guess they saved us from the let down other kids get when someone tells them it’s all been a lie. Many kids get their hearts broken.
Now that I have children of my own what do I do? Well, we don’t talk much about it. We’re somewhere in the middle. We let them have fun with it, but no gifts from Santa. Sure, they’ll sit on Santa’s lap and they’ll leave cookies and milk out for Santa on Christmas Eve, but we don’t make a HUGE deal of it. The main thing is they understand the true meaning of Christmas.
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I suspected he wasn’t real one year, so I slept on the floor in front of my parent’s bedroom. I was convinced I wouldn’t get any presents from “Santa” because there is no way they would be able to open the door and walk out to the living room without waking me up. Well, I must have slept like a rock that night because the next morning I woke up and my stocking was full. That majorly reaffirmed my belief in Santa. Then the next year I was snooping through my mom’s sock drawer and found all the little ornaments/trinkets I had left for Santa over the years and a container w/ my teeth! That’s when I found out she was really santa and the tooth fairy! I don’t remember being too upset though.
[...] you believe in Santa when you were a kid? One of my co-workers blogged today about how HER PARENTS NEVER LET HER BELIEVE IN SANTA. Of course, I had to tell her the story about how I found out there was no such thing as Santa. You [...]
I have 4 children and the oldest, the 10 year old has always been a junior detective. She looked high and low for her gifts when she was around six years old and was able to find our hiding place. She quickly told her brothers and sister that there is no Santa and why. This was the year the legend died in my home. As a parent it’s easier to deal with giving your children gifts when they know you have to buy them. The whole “wish” thing makes for some mighty disappointing christmas days, but when you can tell your child weeks in advance NO, your not getting a PS3 it cuts down on the christmas morning heart break.
Stephen, good point. You wrote, “The whole ‘wish’ thing makes for some mighty disappointing Christmas days.” Well, the way I look at it, there are a lot of other things our kids could believe in that could be harmful to them. So, believing in Santa is harmless and just a childhood tradition.
My oldest daughter has always been a skeptic about Santa, and just like your 10 year old she would look high and low for her gifts. Kids are funny.
I was raised not believing in Santa. My parents beleif was why give a fictional character all the credit, when they have worked so hard to provide their kids with what they wanted. This is what Im teaching my daughter now. Im letting her know that the real reason for xmas is the celebration of the birth of our savior. It’s not for the gifts.
My parents used to buy one big gift for me, my sister and my brother to share from Santa and then we would get one small individual gift each from Santa. I always thought, there has to be a Santa cause my parents don’t have the money to buy what Santa brings us. And like Ginny, one day I found the letters we wrote to Santa and the little gifts we would leave him in my mom’s dresser. But to this day, I’m 24, my mom still fills up our Christmas stockings and says it from Santa.
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Sincerely, Timur Alhimenkov.
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My parents let us believe in Santa. The way it worked in my house is we left cookies and milk out for him. On Christmas morning, I could always count on a nibble to be missing from each of the cookies and for the milk to be half gone. Then our stockings were filled with candy and small presents, all of which were from Santa. We didn’t get any wrapped gifts from him. I think I’ll do something similar for my kids some day.