Should children be allowed to believe in Santa Claus?

[Nici la Fey]

Okay, so everyone has the should a kid belive in Santa or not?

UPDATED:
Personally, I don't think so because you're tricking your kid, or sibling, cousin, or whoever's younger than you are. Why try to teach kids to be honest if you're going to let them believe in a fictional character for 7 or 8 years or for however long. Besides, you don't need him to learn the spirit of Christmas. The true spirit can be taught by parents, Santa just helped.


Besides, sometime in the future, I wouldn't like my children to think it's ok to believe in fiction to get a true meaning of a value or moral.

#1 Rule: NO BASHING!!!!! Everyone is entiteld to their own opinion, so let's keep this mature.

Thank you! xd  

[Trish the Stalker]

I don't think it's fair to give children a bunch of magic that eventually goes away when you learn the truth. Ripping it away as they grow older is kinda twisted.

At the same time it gives you some pretty good memories too.

I think I might do it for my children just because I got to believe too. I just won't uphold the facade as long as my mom did/does (waaay longer than we believed in santa)  

[pickle relish]

Heh. My parents still give me presents from "Santa." xD
I think its quite fine to believe in Santa. As my mom told me when I asked her about Santa, he's really more of a feeling, not a person. A feeling of love, and wanting to give to others.
And it doesn't hurt to have it taken away. It didn't bother me that Santa wasn't real. I figured out on my own that he wasn't real. Same with the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy.
I mean, do you ever hear of anybody going off and being a serial killer because they found out that Santa wasn't real?
And Santa isn't the only thing parents lie about.  

[wakusei]

You mean...there's no Santa?!?!?!! gonk




But yeah...I agree with pickle.

I mean, yeah, saying parents shouldn't lie to their kids is one thing, but I don't know...on the other hand it's like you're wanting to deprive kids of playing make-believe and actually using their imaginations and getting to believe in the impossible before reality has to kick the s**t out of them.... (Wow, that was quite the run-on...)

Pretty much, I say Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus. And a bah humbug to the rest of ya's.

 

[Sanzoskitsune]

I don't think there's anything wrong with kids believing there's a Santa, I think its part of childhood. It's that time when you believe in magic and fairies and unicorns and all that stuff. Telling kids the truth I think would be more cruel because you're basically saying "nope you can't be imaginative you can't believe in silly things you have to believe in only cold hard facts" Reality is going to hit them sooner or later they should at least get to enjoy this when they're younger.

By the way, this may have nothing to do with the way this topic is going but, what were your resources that told you that Santa was a Coca Cola profiting scheme? What research did you do exactly? Because I've heard from plenty of other places that it was just an urban legend but of course those places aren't 100% reliable so I just want to know where YOU got your info. Not trying to be bitchy but I find that to be hard to believe.  

[Large Inmate]

Santa Claus is based off of St Nicholas that gave presents to sick children in hospitals [think it was sick kids in hospitals...] or something along those lines. Or so I was told from my years in Sunday school...  

[Sanzoskitsune]

That's basically what I heard too Inmate, I don't remember if it was sick kids at hospitals exactly but I did hear the whole St Nicholas giving away toy things which is why I'm thinking the OP may have some facts mixed up here...

EDIT: not only that but it really doesn't follow considering other countries have different views of Santa than we do, ones that don't follow the Coke Santa we see  

[Large Inmate]

Yeah. St Nick is Christian.
So others would definatly have another belief of Santa.  

[Sanzoskitsune]

I just did a quick google search on Santa origins and well... there are so many references to Santa before the Coca Cola company even existed... so sorry to burst the OP's bubble but Santa is NOT a creation of the Coca Cola company, the red coat can't even be blamed on Coke, that was the idea of someone completely different.  

[aretoo]

'Twas the night before Christmas, and Snopes knows the truth...  

[Kalstolyn]

I was poor kids, wasn't it? Too lazy to clicky aretoo's link on my brother's craptastical computer. Father Christmas in his many forms has been around for centuries longer than Coke. The coca-cola corporation needed a popular figure from world folklore to latch onto for their ads. If they had simply invented him out of thin air, it wouldn't have been nearly so successful.

After my younger brother turned 12 or 13, my family started being santa to each other. We all buy one small $5-ish gift for each other family member, wrap it, and put it in their stocking. Katie (my oldest niece) was old enough to know about "santa man, ho-ho-ho!" last Christmas (she was a couple of weeks shy of her second birthday) and this year we expect her to get very excited. She and her little sister, the only children in the family, won't know that Santa is actually ALL the parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents until they get big enough to figure it out. We also wrap larger gifts to give each other and put them under the tree. Santa just fills the stockings. He (well, I actually) did leave a wooden block train under the tree for Katie's first Christmas though.

Sometimes Santa and/or the Easter Bunny has "talked to" mom or dad in regards to certain gifts or whatever. I always figured they had an agreement, and therefore it wasn't "sneaking into" our house since they were expected. If Santa showed up on random nights when everyone was sleeping then it would be a problem!

I don't think of things like santa/the easter bunny/the tooth fairy as lying to kids. My parents never sat me down and told me they weren't real, I just eventually figured it out for myself. I had about a year where I kinda wanted to believe all that stuff was real, but resigned myself by the time the next Christmas came around. There was never the sense that my parents were lying to me, no moment of horrific betrayal or shattering of childhood illusions.  

[K0m0d0]

It's sort of become a cute social tradition. I don't really see anything morally wrong with it.

And Santa Claus has been around long before Coca Cola, if I'm not mistaken. Wasn't he sort of taken from the pagan Holly King? And various saints from around the world?

'Seems like I'm just saying what everybody else is, so I'll leave it at that.  

[God-Raped-Me]

One, you're thinking about the fat Santa who dresses in white and red. Yes Coca cola came up with that idea and it was adapted because children connected better to a fat white man with a beard than a skinny black man who wore green and black robes, if I'm not mistaken. The colours of the robes could be different. St. Nicolas, the man that Santa is baised off of existed as was said. Granted he stole the gifts he gave, but he still gave gifts to the young. Why NOT believe in him?

As for the parents lieing to their children. Parents lie about a s**t load of things. This was something to make the kids excited, and gave them something to look forward to. Or if they were really bad kids it was another way to punish them. I think it dosen't matter what the parents tell the kids. I know GTR and I want to tell Lydia and Guinevere about the real Santa and we're going to explain how kids today still believe he's alive. If from there she wants to believe she can, if not, she knows the history.  

[umi505]

I don't think there's anything wrong with believing in Santa Clause. Even if it is "lying to your children" 15 years from then more than likely they’re not going to remember or care about the "tragic event of finding out that Santa isn't real"
And I'm pretty sure kids don't think that just because "Santa" can enter the house in the middle of the night other strange men can to. Or at lest, I haven't meet anyone like that.

I see the "Santa causes lying and such" like I see the "Video games causes violence" remark.
I think it's bullshit.

Anyway, I think Santa is just a fun thing for kids and a lot of people overreact about it.  

[Elcia]

I understand and see the validity in both sides of the issue.

But I teach little kids and I was talking to one little girl after class as she waited for her mom. She was complaining about a loose tooth taking too long to come out. When I asked her it the Tooth Fairy would come to visit she said there was no such thing. And I felt decidedly depressed that there was no magic and mystery in this kid's life or the wonder that comes with it. And she is a smart girl, she could figure out the truth easy.

So I am a firm believer in not smashing little kids wildest fantasies with a sledgehammer of cold facts. And that can be done without lying to them. You just have to explain what is make-believe and why we still practice old traditions.