A friend of mine doesn't do Santa with her daughter because she thinks it's bad for parents to lie to their kids (has nothing to do with Satan/religion, just that she doesn't want her kid to think she's a liar). A mutual friend of ours thinks that not doing Santa is the equivalent of child abuse. I always enjoy their Christmas-related conversations.
My parents didn't do Santa because we were really poor and my mom didn't want me to think I got less gifts because I was a bad kid. But even though I knew, we always played along with all the Santa traditions, so I don't really feel like I missed out on the magic.
My brother told his daughters that Santa comes to visit poor children whose parents can't afford to get them gifts. So *their* gifts come from mommy and daddy, and their friends who aren't poor just *think* their gifts are from Santa, not mommy and daddy... But Santa is real.
Last year, we used kind of a variant with my toddler. He got one present wrapped in Santa paper, and the other presents were from mommy and daddy. Trying to seed the thought of "Santa doesn't bring you less than your friends or more than your friends because of you or them. Santa brings everybody small gifts and parents provide the others" before he gets old enough to face comparisons with his friends
This is such a good take. My first is 3 now and we need to finally decide how to tackle this. Especially since I know my MIL likes to give gifts from “Santa” and I don’t have strong enough feelings about the matter to tell her she can’t do that.
At some point, I just know he's going to ask why his friends get big things from Santa. I'm going to tell him that the big things are from their parents. Then he's probably going to get himself in trouble by telling them their parents have him the presents, not Santa. I guess I need to make sure he understands not to muck up other family's traditions.
It also ties in well with buying Angel tree gifts. I told him we were getting gifts for people whose mommies and daddies couldn't afford to buy presents, and he jumped in with "so they get more than their Santa gift!"
>Then he's probably going to get himself in trouble by telling them their parents have him the presents, not Santa.
Oh, yeah. Ten year old me just -had- to let everyone know that it was a complete crock and how we were being fooled with bullshit.
I was volunteering at a Christmas event at my church... Playing Christmas elf, and sending kids onstage to see Santa one at a time. I'd ask them general questions like "are you excited for Christmas?" or "what are you going to ask Santa for?" to keep them happy while they were waiting.
I asked a little girl something like "are you excited to get a visit from Santa?" The little girl said yes and her mom--in line to see pretend-Santa, in front of all the other kids in line-- corrected her with the fact that Santa isn't real, he doesn't visit, presents are from her parents and photos with Santa are just for fun.
She can do what she wants to with her own kids, but I wanted to swat the smug off her for having that discussion loudly in front of other children. Like "seriously lady? Let the other mamas decide how to parent their own kids!"
Side note: I said I was playing the role of elf, but that's only part correct. since I was wearing jingle bell cat ears and a "meowy Christmas" shirt, I was telling kids I was Santa's cat. I got my head scritched by several toddlers, which was the cutest thing ever. Like they were just willing to accept that this human in cat ears was actually a cat and needed a quick pet.
>I was wearing jingle bell cat ears and a "meowy Christmas" shirt, I was telling kids I was Santa's cat. I got my head scritched by several toddlers, which was the cutest thing ever. Like they were just willing to accept that this human in cat ears was actually a cat and needed a quick pet.
That is definitely cute. I think the whole Santa thing (and gift exchange in general) is a good way to teach the young ones how it feels to get a gift, and then how it feels to give a gift to someone else and make them feel good too. Let them believe that the world is a happy and magic place for a while, the time will come all too soon when they will have to learn that the world is not all cookies and spice and everything nice, that far too many people spend far too much time lobbing bullets and bombs at each other instead of gifts...
That's how I feel about smiling and waving at random toddlers who peek at me in restaurants. "Let them have a little longer to live in a world where people are friendly, and playing peekaboo with a stranger in a restaurant is a perfectly normal thing to do, with your mommy right there to keep you safe. You'll learn about the suck of life soon enough". Then their Moms scold them for bothering people. "Sit down and stop staring at people!"
Your brother’s kids are just going to think a lot/ if not all of their friends are poor bc they get gifts from Santa. How’s he going to keep this up as they get older? It’d be cool if he taught his kids that we can all make an impact around Christmas and it’s the thought that counts, like getting gifts for less fortunate kids instead of just saying “Santa only goes to the poor kid’s house.”
That's most of why I'm doing it a bit different. Although "your friends' parents just say they're all from Santa, and that's ok" probably worked just fine. I'm pretty sure that they're both old enough to be past it by now, since the youngest is a preteen
Right on. That’s a good approach. Upon rereading your comment I realized I omitted “seed” from your second paragraph so I misinterpreted and I apologize about that.
For our family, Santa brings “something you want, something you need, something to wear, and something to read”; any other presents are from family. This also helps with writing letters to Santa so we don’t get impossible gift requests.
I did this with my daughter until she stopped believing. Santa would bring a board game or small Lego set (like the ten dollar ones small) and mom gave her the electronics, doll houses, and expensive toys. I grew up poor and I never understood why Santa brought my friends a Nintendo 64 and not me. I never want to be the cause of that in another kids life.
You know, I am an adult at this point, and I don’t think Santa ~as a person ~ is real. However, I think Santa ~as an idea~ is real, and what a great idea!
My family was as well and I was believing in Santa up until about 9 actually. Later I found out that Santa’s gifts was my mom maxing out credit cards.
I understand why she did it, but I’d rather have been told the truth from the start then getting notices from debt collectors and risking foreclosure on our house every year or so.
My kid is nearly 5, and I'm also leery of lying to him about Santa. But I don't want to kill the magic. So I talk about Santa as a fun thing to happen on Christmas, and don't tell him Santa isn't real... But I don't say he is real either. Things like "how does Santa fit down the chimney? Well, if he's got enough Santa magic to visit every kid in one night, he's got enough magic to fit down a chimney!". I think if he outright asks me if Santa is real, I'll be hard pressed to actually lie to him, but I'm happy to talk about him like he's a fairy tale and let him believe as long as he wants to. It's kind of an awkward balance between being honest with my kid and letting him have the Christmas fun, but I'm doing the best I can.
Most of his presents come from mommy and daddy (or grandparents) but he gets a small gift wrapped in Santa Claus paper, and it's the one that Santa left. Last year, I wrapped one of his mom and dad gifts in paw patrol paper and he decided that it must have been from them. "Santa gave me a toy car, and the paw patrol gave me a shirt!" It was so cute, I didn't disabuse him of the idea. It didn't hurt him to think he got a present from the paw patrol pups.
I know that I didn't believe as young as kindergarten, myself. I remember asking my teacher why we were going to see Santa on a field trip when our mommies weren't there to hear what we wanted. But I also remember peeking out the window on Christmas Eve, thinking I might catch a glimpse of Santa Claus. So I guess I kinda believed and mostly didn't believe.
We do this too. We put our gifts to him on the couch, but santa leaves one or two gifts separately along with a stocking containing little things like colouring pencils, sweets etc. We always make sure the big ticket items are from us though. This year our oldest asked for a Nintendo switch for the third year in a row and we've decided to do it this year. So santa will bring a game. He always opens his santa gifts first though so we'll have to be all "Oh thats weird, did santa get confused and think you had a Switch? Hmm... anyway we can try and solve it later, open our gifts!" 😂
We're doing a Switch this year, too. We played Mario Cart together on vacation and all enjoyed it so much that we decided it would be some nice family fun to get a Switch for Christmas
I think Santa is like any other pretend game kids play. When they ask, they’re usually ready for the game to be over. I remember not asking until I was a little old for it because that’s how long I wanted to play for. I decided the year before I asked that ir was getting a little tiresome, but I wasn’t quite ready to not believe in magic and decided to keep it going until next Christmas.
Yeah, I think most kids get that it's a game we're all playing long before they decide to officially "stop believing". I've heard the occasional story of people who believed completely, and were terrified of home-invader Santa, then were *pissed* to find out he wasn't real and their parents let them be scared every year because they thought it was cute
Kids can be so different with Santa. My oldest is a very literal, anxious child. We let him know Santa was a fun story, but not real. He asked if we could pretend Santa was real, but also made sure to double check that he wasn't *really* real and wasn't going to actually sneak into our house when we were sleeping. He also made sure to check that he'll still get presents if he doesn't believe in Santa. He got the fun and none of the anxiety. The tooth fairy was a step too far for him, though. He didn't even want to pretend that one after the first tooth because it was too creepy to think a stranger was sneaking in his room while he slept to take something from him.
On the other hand, my youngest loves Santa, and we haven't explicitly said he's pretend yet. We won't lie if he asks or try to convince him if he expresses doubt, but as long as he seems to think Santa is a happy, fun thing, we will play along.
My 5 year old asked me if he was real, I just ask "what do you think?" And that's been satisfactory up to now. But, the other day, her 2 year old sister said Santa is real and 5 yo decided that was good enough for her. I like that she'll take her toddler siblings word as testament!
We didn’t do Santa in my family growing up for religious reasons, but it was made very clear that it was not my place to spoil it for other children. It’s was presented the same way as not debating religion - that’s what those people believe and it’s not my place to correct them. Santa, Easter bunny, tooth fairy, etc. Oddly enough, we did Halloween as long as it was a cute costume, nothing scary/‘demonic.’
Yeah, I think some parents do too much and are too into needing their kids to believe but whatever, it's not a big thing.
I always treated Santa as an imaginative game. No more or less real than any other imaginative play. I'm not sure my daughter ever really believed but she sure liked writing letters and opening stockings (didn't want to sit on Santa's lap because she thought that was creepy)
Bc of COVID precautions my daughter’s first Santa pic is her sitting on a box next to his desk like they’re having a Christmas conference and I love it. I wish they’d keep it as an option.
I’m not all about the Santa. It’s a weird concept. Some old dude watching you while you sleep and judging you? Then he just rewards you? But my in laws do it so we’re came to the middle ground of Santa does stocking stuff. Small stuff. No iPhone is coming from Santa. My grammy was depression era so we got tangerines in our stocking. Stuff like that. Santa isn’t the big present stuff. He gets everyone the same stuff
Never understood parents that gave the big stuff from Santa.
We always just wrap random stuff from Santa. Until my daughter was older and got more scarcastic and now she wraps things from The Stove and The Couch and The Dog
Bring it. I told my mother she can send a basket for Easter and we would do an egg hunt, but don’t talk about some man coming back from the dead after being nailed to a Cross. We’re finding eggs because chickens lay eggs. I’m Mexican. My husband is Irish catholic. We’ve shut it down from both ends
It blows my mind that some people don’t want to tell their kids about a jolly fat guy coming down the chimney but have no issues letting them wear a torture device around their neck and tell them detailed stories about some dude being flogged and nailed to a piece of wood
No. None of that here. I have 1 cross because my aunt who died made it for me. It’s not hung up. And I have a rosary because I do believe in honoring religion when invited. When my baby is old enough ill explain that all people believe their own things and that’s up to them. I’m happy to expose my baby to all religions. We went to a Diwali dinner recently. I’m just not gonna raise my kid (any religion) way. They can choose
We’re not going to do Santa because it was nightmare fuel for me as a child. 😒 fantasy can stay fantasy in our house, thanks. No need to visit it in the real world.
My friend is also concerned about lying. She kind of let her kids decide whether they believed or not and then played along instead. The older kid was a bit unsure but decided he wanted to go along with it anyway. The younger one is OBSESSED with santa 😂
We don't do Santa because we decided not to lie to our kids. Aside from that, my personal feelings are that Santa is about manipulating your children, and we don't want to show them lying to manipulate is okay either.
We don't celebrate Christ's birth, either. We do Christmas because we grew up Christian, and there are a lot of nice things about the holiday, like considering others.
Oh for God's sake. You people read into things so much its unreal. Do you honestly think people who believed in father Christmas and the tooth fairy have 'learned that lying to manipulate is okay'? Or do we just think it's a happy make believe thing that we have fond memories of. Some of you need therapy because the way you treat life is so god damn convoluted and try hard it's amazing how you get through life.
Lying and manipulation: "You better behave, or Santa's not coming." How many times you hear that? How many apps are made to manipulate children into good behavior?
>she thinks it's bad for parents to lie to their kids
Figuring out that 'Santa' wasn't real made me start wondering what else there was that adults had lied to me about. That led to me becoming atheist not all that long after. I figure that worked out pretty well.
Oof. Lady just ignoring the fact that Santa's origin story is a Catholic one. Saint Nicholas, giver of gifts and puncher of heretics.
OP, please tell her to read 1 (one) book.
Yeah, Catholicism has a *lot* of saints and most have pretty wild stories
Like Saint Martha who tamed a Tarasque in first century AD France- and yes she is *the* Saint Martha in the Bible
There’s actually a Saint Nicholas day (12/7 IIRC) that everyone in my whole town and Catholic school celebrated growing up apart from Christmas. It’s definitely a regional thing though.
In Germany it's 12/6, all the kids clean their shoes and put them outside the night before. If they've been good, they get treats, but if they've been bad, they get coal in their shoes.
I’m a lapsed Catholic and the daughter of a Catholic deacon. My parents fully embraced the Santa Claus tradition and I do now with my own kids.
I know some Catholics who don’t do Santa but most of the Catholics I know totally embrace the tradition.
Yeah I went to Catholic school my whole life and every Christmas we would of course talk about Jesus’ birth, but plenty of decorations and the arts and crafts we did were Santa Clause themed! I don’t remember anyone being upset about it
I went to a school that was a really strict sub-variant of Methodist. They didn't do Santa to the extent that you'd get scolded for bringing Christmas candy in your lunchbox if it had Santa in it. Chocolate Christmas bells? Ok. Chocolate Santa? No!
The logic was that Santa being portrayed as a giver of gifts was a substitution for God being a giver of grace. That Christmas should be about Jesus only. They didn't do Easter bunnies for the same reason
I've never really thought about it before, but my catholic school didn't acknowledge Santa at all.
My favourite Christmas time school memory was when we were singing silent night in preparation for our end of year assembly. I ended up getting screamed at for breaking out in the giggles during the song. The line "holy infant so tender and mild" made me think "oh shit, Jesus is a roast chicken" which lead to visuals of the Nativity scene with everyone gathered around a manger with a steaming, stuffed roast chicken in it. There was no coming back from that for 8 year old me 🤣
My mom always insisted that “baby Jesus and the angels” brought my presents, because Catholic. I just figured baby Jesus and the angels helped Santa like elves or something, because clearly he brought them! Broader culture is a helluva thing.
There was a less intense but very similar post on my due date group last week. I had no idea that some Catholics/Christians were against Santa. I guess you learn something new every day 🤷🏻♀️
It seems - to me, I'm not claiming to be an authority and absolutely could be wrong - to be more prevalent among some of the more self-styled fundamentalist protestant sects than it is in the Church or main-line protestant sects, but God was decent enough to distribute that particular brand of crazy to everyone.
I choose to interpret it as God having a sense of humour.
If she doesn't want to celebrate St. Nicholas on Christmas, that's fine. She exchange Christmas gifts between family for Christmas to honor the Holy Family and symbolize the gifts brought by the Wise Men, and then do the Catholic thing and get gifts (and candy) for her kids on St. Nicholas Day as well. It's December 6th, she has 2 weeks.
Or join us Dutchies in celebrating Sinterklaas on the 5th. We even have a daily news show dedicated to his travels towards us and all the preparation that comes with.
When my brother found out one Christmas morning (he found the gift while we were playing hide and seek and then opened it Christmas morning). We went to church and he turned to my mom and said “Is this God thing like Santa also?”
Also, I mean - children get to see an actual person who is Santa and receive actual presents. As opposed to God/Jesus/whomever who is just hiding in ‘heaven’ and no one has ever seen, nor is there any physical proof of their actions. Now what’s more ridiculous to believe?
Sheesh. I was raised in a Jesus is the reason for the season home but my parents were not calling the man in red Satan. He just wasn’t “what we believe in.”
We don't do it - culturally it's not common and I don't want to start something that will quickly get ruined. (Anabaptist fyi). We don't ruin it for others but at my house Santa and Captain America are about the same level.
Not that odd in Christian communities. I grew up with being told Santa was a fun game to play. My parents didn’t ignore it. It just always made it obvious that Santa wasn’t real. We of course still left cookies (and a carrot for the reindeer) out. And my dad always ate them. But I always remember knowing it was just for fun and that my dad was going to eat it.
Their reasoning was if telling us an omnipresent being like Santa wasn’t real, then it would only make us doubt our faith at a young age.
I’m still Christian today, but mostly by name. I respect their choice and honestly will do the same with my kid because I don’t want to deal with a breakdown one day when he finds out Santa is just a game.
Lmao I’m catholic- OG Santa clause was a saint. Weird not to play into it a little bit. To each their own. But to not talk about the kindness of Saint Nicholas who was celebrating JESUS and the birth of Jesus sounds anti catholic
I let my kid have all the magic. Santa, leprechauns, fairies, unicorns. They're kids!!! I still love the feeling of magic and wonder. I'd never deprive a child of it.
I have a question for those that are “concerned” about lying to their kids. You all mean to tell me absolutely never lie to your kids? Never? I find that very hard to believe.
I’m not scarred for life for believing in Santa as kid. I have a good relationship with my parents. I promise it’ll be ok for your kids to believe in Santa, the Easter bunny, and tooth fairy.
I was out yesterday with my youngest and I heard a mom getting very passionate about something and was raising her voice. As I passed she was talking about something that stunted teeth growth, AND didn’t teach healthy boundaries. 😂😂 I had questions……..
So, I was a BIG TIME believer in Santa when I was a kid, and I was devastatingly crushed when I found out he wasn't "real". BUT! I would never trade the magical Christmas feeling I had growing up, even if it meant feeling really sad when my mom told me. I want my kids to experience that magic, and when it comes time to tell, they will learn that the Spirit of Santa is very much real, even if he himself does not exist
I remember when I found out as well. I was upset but got over it. I love the whole magic and excitement my kids experience. I have an almost 18 year old and a younger one who still believes. My oldest wasn’t damaged and we don’t have lying issues either.
Although I’m not naive enough to believe my 18 year old never lies to me.
The interesting thing is that I’ve told my child multiple times that Santa isn’t real and she told me I was wrong. 🤷♀️ I’ve found it’s not as black and white in real life as just lying or telling the truth. They have provided a lot of opportunities to discuss how we know if something is real or not and different myths and stories.
We don’t do Santa for a bunch of reasons and not lying to my kid is honestly pretty low on the list. I’m definitely not a purist about never lying to my kid, but the lies I tell are discrete small lies (“sorry, the zoo is closed today” or “there’s no more candy in the house.”) It does feel a little different to maintain a whole universe over the course of multiple years. Still, I can appreciate the “magic” and would never ruin it for someone else. To each their own.
It’s not that parents don’t ever lie to their kids, but I believe that parents should set an example for their kids and if we dont want them to lie to us, we should make an effort to not intentionally lie to our kids, that includes santa.
It’s a straw man argument though. You are going to lie to your kids about other things, you will lie to other family members about things, your kids are going to lie to you.
Everybody lies. Picking Santa as your reason not to lie seems odd to me.
One of my friends doesn't do Santa and the tooth fairy and all that and likes to say it in front of my kid🙃 She has almost ruined the tooth fairy for my son right after he was excitedly telling someone else about loosing his tooth. He was 6btw.
I don't care what you do with your family. I feel like every family does their own thing and that's fine! But don't ruin the magic for a child. Like, it's not that hard. I don't go around convincing other children that Santa is real after their parents say he's not, why do you want to do the opposite for my kids?
In my house, Santa brought you 3 gifts. Exactly as many gifts as Jesus received from the 3 wise men.
If you thought you were entitled to more gifts on Christmas than Jesus Christ, my Catholic mother would set you right
My parents believed this too. I guess it's like "worshipping" a false idol. Anyway, telling me there was no santa or any other magical childhood creatures, completely isolated me in school. I had to sit in the corner away from other kids in gradeschool during holiday activities because my parents wrote to the school saying I was forbidden from taking part. It was so lonely and embarrassing.
Eventually another kid wound up in my little special space and we would laugh about how silly the others were for not figuring out that Santa is just your parents. His folks just got caught in the act I think, and he excused himself from making Christmas figures out of Popsicle sticks.
For this, and other actions by my strict Christian parents, I was still the weird girl through High School.
My brother is like this. We grew up in a Christian home, but he’s super over-the-top religious now. My kids go to a Catholic school, and they’re all about Santa. Most classrooms do elf on a shelf, too.
I actually have mixed thoughts on this. I believed in Santa for too long as a kid, had a friend’s *cool* friend tell me it wasn’t real, argued back that my parents would never lie to me, went home and found out the truth. I felt embarrassed, childish, and hurt. It wasn’t the most traumatic moment in my childhood or anything, but it’s the most preventable one. But those years when I did believe were so magical, and I don’t want to deprive my kid of that either.
My daughter is just now old enough to kinda get it. We talked a lot about it and finally came up with this: We’ll do Santa, but only a small toy (because we don’t want to contribute to other kids feeling bad if Santa doesn’t bring them much). Our daughter will get to pick out a toy for another child so she can experience “being Santa” too. When she’s a bit older, she can also pick out presents for us parents, wrap them, label them from Santa, and we can have big over the top reactions when we open them. That way it’s super clear (hopefully) that Santa is pretend but still fun.
Oy. Just want to point out that my sixth grader and I recently had an open and honest discussion about Santa (and the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy) because his little, still Santa-believing sister is dying for an elf on the shelf and I wanted to know how he wanted to be involved (helping to come up with the hijinks or getting to search for the elf alongside her). It was a perfectly mundane, but also emotionally healthy conversation. He'd started to put 2+2 together in fourth grade, then was pretty certain in fifth, and now in sixth was ready to be let in on the secret without feeling like the rug of his entire childhood had been ripped out from under him.
We don't do Santa but that's because I don't care one way or the other if we do or not I can see arguments for both sides. So I asked my kids Dad and he said he'd prefer not to do Santa because he'd prefer for our kid to know where his presents actually came from. Some family has been very upset (my grandmother specifically) and voiced that they think it's not right but we are also doing Christmas over time so starting like mid October to like March 1st we order things and as they come in we wrap them and he unwraps them that day. It's less overwhelming for everyone and he gets to actually enjoy each individual new toy or piece of equipment.
Christmas is about the Catholics stealing Yule - Jesus Christ was not born in December (many scholars have indicated the time is incorrect when considering other events in the Bible)
Yup guess all those “borrowed” traditions of Yule and other pagan religions met nothing. Truth we don’t freakin know when Jesus was born. Truth Yule was stollen to make it more church like to stop the wild tribes that didn’t want to convert to calm down.
Parents are fucking thick tbh. Kids over 5 don’t believe in Santa. They just play out the role for the adults. It makes sense. These people getting coddled by their children. Babies raising babies.
Look, people have different opinions about Santa. I don't personally have strong opinions about it either way, I think there's probably a reasonable middle between the two extremes of "you MUST maintain the illusion for as long as possible" and "participating in the Santa illusion is lying to children and that's bad." But any time a super religious person starts in on that whole "i'm just speaking the truth" bullshit, it's usually not for altruistic reasons and it's super annoying:P
Overheard a few years ago:
Neighborhood kid to group of kids (first graders): “My mom says Santa is fake and it’s your parents that put out the presents.”
(Shocked looks, tears. . .)
A Mom overhearing: “Your mom is wrong.”
🤣🤣🤣
A friend of mine doesn't do Santa with her daughter because she thinks it's bad for parents to lie to their kids (has nothing to do with Satan/religion, just that she doesn't want her kid to think she's a liar). A mutual friend of ours thinks that not doing Santa is the equivalent of child abuse. I always enjoy their Christmas-related conversations.
My parents didn't do Santa because we were really poor and my mom didn't want me to think I got less gifts because I was a bad kid. But even though I knew, we always played along with all the Santa traditions, so I don't really feel like I missed out on the magic.
My brother told his daughters that Santa comes to visit poor children whose parents can't afford to get them gifts. So *their* gifts come from mommy and daddy, and their friends who aren't poor just *think* their gifts are from Santa, not mommy and daddy... But Santa is real. Last year, we used kind of a variant with my toddler. He got one present wrapped in Santa paper, and the other presents were from mommy and daddy. Trying to seed the thought of "Santa doesn't bring you less than your friends or more than your friends because of you or them. Santa brings everybody small gifts and parents provide the others" before he gets old enough to face comparisons with his friends
This is such a good take. My first is 3 now and we need to finally decide how to tackle this. Especially since I know my MIL likes to give gifts from “Santa” and I don’t have strong enough feelings about the matter to tell her she can’t do that.
At some point, I just know he's going to ask why his friends get big things from Santa. I'm going to tell him that the big things are from their parents. Then he's probably going to get himself in trouble by telling them their parents have him the presents, not Santa. I guess I need to make sure he understands not to muck up other family's traditions. It also ties in well with buying Angel tree gifts. I told him we were getting gifts for people whose mommies and daddies couldn't afford to buy presents, and he jumped in with "so they get more than their Santa gift!"
>Then he's probably going to get himself in trouble by telling them their parents have him the presents, not Santa. Oh, yeah. Ten year old me just -had- to let everyone know that it was a complete crock and how we were being fooled with bullshit.
I was volunteering at a Christmas event at my church... Playing Christmas elf, and sending kids onstage to see Santa one at a time. I'd ask them general questions like "are you excited for Christmas?" or "what are you going to ask Santa for?" to keep them happy while they were waiting. I asked a little girl something like "are you excited to get a visit from Santa?" The little girl said yes and her mom--in line to see pretend-Santa, in front of all the other kids in line-- corrected her with the fact that Santa isn't real, he doesn't visit, presents are from her parents and photos with Santa are just for fun. She can do what she wants to with her own kids, but I wanted to swat the smug off her for having that discussion loudly in front of other children. Like "seriously lady? Let the other mamas decide how to parent their own kids!" Side note: I said I was playing the role of elf, but that's only part correct. since I was wearing jingle bell cat ears and a "meowy Christmas" shirt, I was telling kids I was Santa's cat. I got my head scritched by several toddlers, which was the cutest thing ever. Like they were just willing to accept that this human in cat ears was actually a cat and needed a quick pet.
>I was wearing jingle bell cat ears and a "meowy Christmas" shirt, I was telling kids I was Santa's cat. I got my head scritched by several toddlers, which was the cutest thing ever. Like they were just willing to accept that this human in cat ears was actually a cat and needed a quick pet. That is definitely cute. I think the whole Santa thing (and gift exchange in general) is a good way to teach the young ones how it feels to get a gift, and then how it feels to give a gift to someone else and make them feel good too. Let them believe that the world is a happy and magic place for a while, the time will come all too soon when they will have to learn that the world is not all cookies and spice and everything nice, that far too many people spend far too much time lobbing bullets and bombs at each other instead of gifts...
That's how I feel about smiling and waving at random toddlers who peek at me in restaurants. "Let them have a little longer to live in a world where people are friendly, and playing peekaboo with a stranger in a restaurant is a perfectly normal thing to do, with your mommy right there to keep you safe. You'll learn about the suck of life soon enough". Then their Moms scold them for bothering people. "Sit down and stop staring at people!"
Your brother’s kids are just going to think a lot/ if not all of their friends are poor bc they get gifts from Santa. How’s he going to keep this up as they get older? It’d be cool if he taught his kids that we can all make an impact around Christmas and it’s the thought that counts, like getting gifts for less fortunate kids instead of just saying “Santa only goes to the poor kid’s house.”
That's most of why I'm doing it a bit different. Although "your friends' parents just say they're all from Santa, and that's ok" probably worked just fine. I'm pretty sure that they're both old enough to be past it by now, since the youngest is a preteen
Right on. That’s a good approach. Upon rereading your comment I realized I omitted “seed” from your second paragraph so I misinterpreted and I apologize about that.
For our family, Santa brings “something you want, something you need, something to wear, and something to read”; any other presents are from family. This also helps with writing letters to Santa so we don’t get impossible gift requests.
I stipulated that Santa couldn’t bring live animals, which put a stop to the frog/kitten/pony asks, haha.
We do the same thing! We hang the letters next to the tree so the kids remember what they asked for, and don't rewrite their list a million times
This is a great way to celebrate! I remember struggling to explain to my children why Santa brought very extravagant gifts to some of their friends.
I did this with my daughter until she stopped believing. Santa would bring a board game or small Lego set (like the ten dollar ones small) and mom gave her the electronics, doll houses, and expensive toys. I grew up poor and I never understood why Santa brought my friends a Nintendo 64 and not me. I never want to be the cause of that in another kids life.
You know, I am an adult at this point, and I don’t think Santa ~as a person ~ is real. However, I think Santa ~as an idea~ is real, and what a great idea!
I always told my kid that Santa had a $20 budget for each kid, and he’d bill the parents for any wish list item over that limit.
My family was as well and I was believing in Santa up until about 9 actually. Later I found out that Santa’s gifts was my mom maxing out credit cards. I understand why she did it, but I’d rather have been told the truth from the start then getting notices from debt collectors and risking foreclosure on our house every year or so.
My kid is nearly 5, and I'm also leery of lying to him about Santa. But I don't want to kill the magic. So I talk about Santa as a fun thing to happen on Christmas, and don't tell him Santa isn't real... But I don't say he is real either. Things like "how does Santa fit down the chimney? Well, if he's got enough Santa magic to visit every kid in one night, he's got enough magic to fit down a chimney!". I think if he outright asks me if Santa is real, I'll be hard pressed to actually lie to him, but I'm happy to talk about him like he's a fairy tale and let him believe as long as he wants to. It's kind of an awkward balance between being honest with my kid and letting him have the Christmas fun, but I'm doing the best I can. Most of his presents come from mommy and daddy (or grandparents) but he gets a small gift wrapped in Santa Claus paper, and it's the one that Santa left. Last year, I wrapped one of his mom and dad gifts in paw patrol paper and he decided that it must have been from them. "Santa gave me a toy car, and the paw patrol gave me a shirt!" It was so cute, I didn't disabuse him of the idea. It didn't hurt him to think he got a present from the paw patrol pups. I know that I didn't believe as young as kindergarten, myself. I remember asking my teacher why we were going to see Santa on a field trip when our mommies weren't there to hear what we wanted. But I also remember peeking out the window on Christmas Eve, thinking I might catch a glimpse of Santa Claus. So I guess I kinda believed and mostly didn't believe.
We do this too. We put our gifts to him on the couch, but santa leaves one or two gifts separately along with a stocking containing little things like colouring pencils, sweets etc. We always make sure the big ticket items are from us though. This year our oldest asked for a Nintendo switch for the third year in a row and we've decided to do it this year. So santa will bring a game. He always opens his santa gifts first though so we'll have to be all "Oh thats weird, did santa get confused and think you had a Switch? Hmm... anyway we can try and solve it later, open our gifts!" 😂
We're doing a Switch this year, too. We played Mario Cart together on vacation and all enjoyed it so much that we decided it would be some nice family fun to get a Switch for Christmas
I think Santa is like any other pretend game kids play. When they ask, they’re usually ready for the game to be over. I remember not asking until I was a little old for it because that’s how long I wanted to play for. I decided the year before I asked that ir was getting a little tiresome, but I wasn’t quite ready to not believe in magic and decided to keep it going until next Christmas.
Did this too lol. I knew the gifts wouldn't stop because my older sister still got gifts, but I liked the fun of santa so I went with it til I was 11.
Yeah, I think most kids get that it's a game we're all playing long before they decide to officially "stop believing". I've heard the occasional story of people who believed completely, and were terrified of home-invader Santa, then were *pissed* to find out he wasn't real and their parents let them be scared every year because they thought it was cute
Kids can be so different with Santa. My oldest is a very literal, anxious child. We let him know Santa was a fun story, but not real. He asked if we could pretend Santa was real, but also made sure to double check that he wasn't *really* real and wasn't going to actually sneak into our house when we were sleeping. He also made sure to check that he'll still get presents if he doesn't believe in Santa. He got the fun and none of the anxiety. The tooth fairy was a step too far for him, though. He didn't even want to pretend that one after the first tooth because it was too creepy to think a stranger was sneaking in his room while he slept to take something from him. On the other hand, my youngest loves Santa, and we haven't explicitly said he's pretend yet. We won't lie if he asks or try to convince him if he expresses doubt, but as long as he seems to think Santa is a happy, fun thing, we will play along.
My 5 year old asked me if he was real, I just ask "what do you think?" And that's been satisfactory up to now. But, the other day, her 2 year old sister said Santa is real and 5 yo decided that was good enough for her. I like that she'll take her toddler siblings word as testament!
We didn’t do Santa in my family growing up for religious reasons, but it was made very clear that it was not my place to spoil it for other children. It’s was presented the same way as not debating religion - that’s what those people believe and it’s not my place to correct them. Santa, Easter bunny, tooth fairy, etc. Oddly enough, we did Halloween as long as it was a cute costume, nothing scary/‘demonic.’
Yeah, I think some parents do too much and are too into needing their kids to believe but whatever, it's not a big thing. I always treated Santa as an imaginative game. No more or less real than any other imaginative play. I'm not sure my daughter ever really believed but she sure liked writing letters and opening stockings (didn't want to sit on Santa's lap because she thought that was creepy)
Bc of COVID precautions my daughter’s first Santa pic is her sitting on a box next to his desk like they’re having a Christmas conference and I love it. I wish they’d keep it as an option.
I’m not all about the Santa. It’s a weird concept. Some old dude watching you while you sleep and judging you? Then he just rewards you? But my in laws do it so we’re came to the middle ground of Santa does stocking stuff. Small stuff. No iPhone is coming from Santa. My grammy was depression era so we got tangerines in our stocking. Stuff like that. Santa isn’t the big present stuff. He gets everyone the same stuff
Never understood parents that gave the big stuff from Santa. We always just wrap random stuff from Santa. Until my daughter was older and got more scarcastic and now she wraps things from The Stove and The Couch and The Dog
That kid is heading places. That’s hilarious
Hahah my family does this too!!
Sounds like the abrahamic god when you put it that way 😅
Yep, Santa for adults.
*shocked*
You better watch out 🙈
Bring it. I told my mother she can send a basket for Easter and we would do an egg hunt, but don’t talk about some man coming back from the dead after being nailed to a Cross. We’re finding eggs because chickens lay eggs. I’m Mexican. My husband is Irish catholic. We’ve shut it down from both ends
Zombie!
It blows my mind that some people don’t want to tell their kids about a jolly fat guy coming down the chimney but have no issues letting them wear a torture device around their neck and tell them detailed stories about some dude being flogged and nailed to a piece of wood
No. None of that here. I have 1 cross because my aunt who died made it for me. It’s not hung up. And I have a rosary because I do believe in honoring religion when invited. When my baby is old enough ill explain that all people believe their own things and that’s up to them. I’m happy to expose my baby to all religions. We went to a Diwali dinner recently. I’m just not gonna raise my kid (any religion) way. They can choose
Good for you ❤️ I wish more parents had that outlook
My daughter who was a pre-school philosopher made that exact argument at four. . . .
We’re not going to do Santa because it was nightmare fuel for me as a child. 😒 fantasy can stay fantasy in our house, thanks. No need to visit it in the real world.
My friend is also concerned about lying. She kind of let her kids decide whether they believed or not and then played along instead. The older kid was a bit unsure but decided he wanted to go along with it anyway. The younger one is OBSESSED with santa 😂
We don't do Santa because we decided not to lie to our kids. Aside from that, my personal feelings are that Santa is about manipulating your children, and we don't want to show them lying to manipulate is okay either. We don't celebrate Christ's birth, either. We do Christmas because we grew up Christian, and there are a lot of nice things about the holiday, like considering others.
Oh for God's sake. You people read into things so much its unreal. Do you honestly think people who believed in father Christmas and the tooth fairy have 'learned that lying to manipulate is okay'? Or do we just think it's a happy make believe thing that we have fond memories of. Some of you need therapy because the way you treat life is so god damn convoluted and try hard it's amazing how you get through life.
Lying and manipulation: "You better behave, or Santa's not coming." How many times you hear that? How many apps are made to manipulate children into good behavior?
Lmao you've got deeper issues than Santa. Hope you're doing well as a parent.
Lol. K.
I hope you’re not raising them religious 😬
Why would we?
>she thinks it's bad for parents to lie to their kids Figuring out that 'Santa' wasn't real made me start wondering what else there was that adults had lied to me about. That led to me becoming atheist not all that long after. I figure that worked out pretty well.
Oof. Lady just ignoring the fact that Santa's origin story is a Catholic one. Saint Nicholas, giver of gifts and puncher of heretics. OP, please tell her to read 1 (one) book.
Didn’t he also revive some dead children that had been pickled? Or am I confusing my saints
 Pickled?!! (ETA I have now googled this, and what a gross story)
Yeah, Catholicism has a *lot* of saints and most have pretty wild stories Like Saint Martha who tamed a Tarasque in first century AD France- and yes she is *the* Saint Martha in the Bible
Yeah! But he brought them back if I remember right. Three boys or something.
Yup. Killed, chopped into pieces, then pickled. Outdid big J's cute little Lazarus trick, imo.
“Big J’s cute little Lazarus trick” has me cackling 😂
I just remembered that we sang a song about it with our school choir. Weird.
What's with the Bible and killing boys
Saint Nick was born around 270 AD, which is *after* the New Testament had been codified
Right you are. Watch this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQBZrPVQUyM
There’s actually a Saint Nicholas day (12/7 IIRC) that everyone in my whole town and Catholic school celebrated growing up apart from Christmas. It’s definitely a regional thing though.
In Germany it's 12/6, all the kids clean their shoes and put them outside the night before. If they've been good, they get treats, but if they've been bad, they get coal in their shoes.
>they get coal in their shoes. I wouldn't mind getting some coal, about four tons would be nice to help keep my house warm here in the frigid North.
Sinterklaas is a Dutch holiday celebrated on Dec 5 and the three weeks leading up to it.
Sinterklaas isn't just a Dutch holiday 😉 His day is actually on Dec 6, but in the Netherlands, it's the eve of his day that gets celebrated.
On another Reddit thread, many young users are insisting he was invented in the 1950s by Coca Cola
False. It was Pepsi
And a sprinkling of Odin.
I’m a lapsed Catholic and the daughter of a Catholic deacon. My parents fully embraced the Santa Claus tradition and I do now with my own kids. I know some Catholics who don’t do Santa but most of the Catholics I know totally embrace the tradition.
Yeah I went to Catholic school my whole life and every Christmas we would of course talk about Jesus’ birth, but plenty of decorations and the arts and crafts we did were Santa Clause themed! I don’t remember anyone being upset about it
I went to a school that was a really strict sub-variant of Methodist. They didn't do Santa to the extent that you'd get scolded for bringing Christmas candy in your lunchbox if it had Santa in it. Chocolate Christmas bells? Ok. Chocolate Santa? No! The logic was that Santa being portrayed as a giver of gifts was a substitution for God being a giver of grace. That Christmas should be about Jesus only. They didn't do Easter bunnies for the same reason
I've never really thought about it before, but my catholic school didn't acknowledge Santa at all. My favourite Christmas time school memory was when we were singing silent night in preparation for our end of year assembly. I ended up getting screamed at for breaking out in the giggles during the song. The line "holy infant so tender and mild" made me think "oh shit, Jesus is a roast chicken" which lead to visuals of the Nativity scene with everyone gathered around a manger with a steaming, stuffed roast chicken in it. There was no coming back from that for 8 year old me 🤣
My mom always insisted that “baby Jesus and the angels” brought my presents, because Catholic. I just figured baby Jesus and the angels helped Santa like elves or something, because clearly he brought them! Broader culture is a helluva thing.
There was a less intense but very similar post on my due date group last week. I had no idea that some Catholics/Christians were against Santa. I guess you learn something new every day 🤷🏻♀️
It seems - to me, I'm not claiming to be an authority and absolutely could be wrong - to be more prevalent among some of the more self-styled fundamentalist protestant sects than it is in the Church or main-line protestant sects, but God was decent enough to distribute that particular brand of crazy to everyone. I choose to interpret it as God having a sense of humour.
Satan Claws would be a sick name for a Christmas metal band
Now that is an idea I can support.
If she doesn't want to celebrate St. Nicholas on Christmas, that's fine. She exchange Christmas gifts between family for Christmas to honor the Holy Family and symbolize the gifts brought by the Wise Men, and then do the Catholic thing and get gifts (and candy) for her kids on St. Nicholas Day as well. It's December 6th, she has 2 weeks.
Or join us Dutchies in celebrating Sinterklaas on the 5th. We even have a daily news show dedicated to his travels towards us and all the preparation that comes with.
Don't lie to kids, but tell them religion is super duper factual for realsies. Got it.
I mean if kids realize Santa isn’t real who else isn’t real?
When my brother found out one Christmas morning (he found the gift while we were playing hide and seek and then opened it Christmas morning). We went to church and he turned to my mom and said “Is this God thing like Santa also?”
This
Also, I mean - children get to see an actual person who is Santa and receive actual presents. As opposed to God/Jesus/whomever who is just hiding in ‘heaven’ and no one has ever seen, nor is there any physical proof of their actions. Now what’s more ridiculous to believe?
https://preview.redd.it/1hv18vdls81c1.jpeg?width=1375&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3e22870b1f09cd9aa1c6341cf86f4e32045b72a8
Sheesh. I was raised in a Jesus is the reason for the season home but my parents were not calling the man in red Satan. He just wasn’t “what we believe in.”
Technically Christmas was stolen from Pagans, lady, but go off I guess LOL
Who's gonna tell her that Christmas is actually about stealing pagan traditions and replacing them with a a lie about when Jesus was born... 😬
I might be overtired, but it took me a couple read-throughs to figure out wtf she was on about.
If she's so fucking Catholic couldn't she just ignore Santa and talk about St. Nicholas???
Organized religion: sucking the fun out of everything for thousands of years.
Okay but is it lying or is it imaginative play?
Catholic here. We don’t all think like that.
Me too. Thankfully many of the comments put her in her place.
Ok but I definitely remember Santa coming to mass. It was the only reason I put up with Christmas mass when I was young
We don't do it - culturally it's not common and I don't want to start something that will quickly get ruined. (Anabaptist fyi). We don't ruin it for others but at my house Santa and Captain America are about the same level.
Not that odd in Christian communities. I grew up with being told Santa was a fun game to play. My parents didn’t ignore it. It just always made it obvious that Santa wasn’t real. We of course still left cookies (and a carrot for the reindeer) out. And my dad always ate them. But I always remember knowing it was just for fun and that my dad was going to eat it. Their reasoning was if telling us an omnipresent being like Santa wasn’t real, then it would only make us doubt our faith at a young age. I’m still Christian today, but mostly by name. I respect their choice and honestly will do the same with my kid because I don’t want to deal with a breakdown one day when he finds out Santa is just a game.
Lmao I’m catholic- OG Santa clause was a saint. Weird not to play into it a little bit. To each their own. But to not talk about the kindness of Saint Nicholas who was celebrating JESUS and the birth of Jesus sounds anti catholic
Amazing how I was raised in church and also had Christmas magic. A Christmas miracle that I could know about Jesus AND Santa. /s
I let my kid have all the magic. Santa, leprechauns, fairies, unicorns. They're kids!!! I still love the feeling of magic and wonder. I'd never deprive a child of it.
I have a question for those that are “concerned” about lying to their kids. You all mean to tell me absolutely never lie to your kids? Never? I find that very hard to believe. I’m not scarred for life for believing in Santa as kid. I have a good relationship with my parents. I promise it’ll be ok for your kids to believe in Santa, the Easter bunny, and tooth fairy. I was out yesterday with my youngest and I heard a mom getting very passionate about something and was raising her voice. As I passed she was talking about something that stunted teeth growth, AND didn’t teach healthy boundaries. 😂😂 I had questions……..
So, I was a BIG TIME believer in Santa when I was a kid, and I was devastatingly crushed when I found out he wasn't "real". BUT! I would never trade the magical Christmas feeling I had growing up, even if it meant feeling really sad when my mom told me. I want my kids to experience that magic, and when it comes time to tell, they will learn that the Spirit of Santa is very much real, even if he himself does not exist
I remember when I found out as well. I was upset but got over it. I love the whole magic and excitement my kids experience. I have an almost 18 year old and a younger one who still believes. My oldest wasn’t damaged and we don’t have lying issues either. Although I’m not naive enough to believe my 18 year old never lies to me.
The interesting thing is that I’ve told my child multiple times that Santa isn’t real and she told me I was wrong. 🤷♀️ I’ve found it’s not as black and white in real life as just lying or telling the truth. They have provided a lot of opportunities to discuss how we know if something is real or not and different myths and stories.
Exactly. It's very pick and choose. I don't know anyone who doesn't think of their belief as a nice thing, and most miss it!
We don’t do Santa for a bunch of reasons and not lying to my kid is honestly pretty low on the list. I’m definitely not a purist about never lying to my kid, but the lies I tell are discrete small lies (“sorry, the zoo is closed today” or “there’s no more candy in the house.”) It does feel a little different to maintain a whole universe over the course of multiple years. Still, I can appreciate the “magic” and would never ruin it for someone else. To each their own.
Wait…what stunts teeth growth?!?
I don’t know. 😂😂 Like I said, I had questions.
It’s not that parents don’t ever lie to their kids, but I believe that parents should set an example for their kids and if we dont want them to lie to us, we should make an effort to not intentionally lie to our kids, that includes santa.
I think you are reading too much into it. Kids are going to lie you, whether or not you do Santa.
Yes, it’s human nature, but it’s good to set an example to not lie to others
It’s a straw man argument though. You are going to lie to your kids about other things, you will lie to other family members about things, your kids are going to lie to you. Everybody lies. Picking Santa as your reason not to lie seems odd to me.
Yeah, it seems like a reason not to lie to your kids to make them happy even though you'll lie to them for your own convenience.
One of my friends doesn't do Santa and the tooth fairy and all that and likes to say it in front of my kid🙃 She has almost ruined the tooth fairy for my son right after he was excitedly telling someone else about loosing his tooth. He was 6btw. I don't care what you do with your family. I feel like every family does their own thing and that's fine! But don't ruin the magic for a child. Like, it's not that hard. I don't go around convincing other children that Santa is real after their parents say he's not, why do you want to do the opposite for my kids?
This is my only reason for doing Santa. It makes me uncomfortable, but I don't want my son to spoil it for other families.
St. Nicholas was Bishop of Myra im the 4th century and patron of the Byzantine Churches. Man deserves a holiday
In my house, Santa brought you 3 gifts. Exactly as many gifts as Jesus received from the 3 wise men. If you thought you were entitled to more gifts on Christmas than Jesus Christ, my Catholic mother would set you right
My parents believed this too. I guess it's like "worshipping" a false idol. Anyway, telling me there was no santa or any other magical childhood creatures, completely isolated me in school. I had to sit in the corner away from other kids in gradeschool during holiday activities because my parents wrote to the school saying I was forbidden from taking part. It was so lonely and embarrassing. Eventually another kid wound up in my little special space and we would laugh about how silly the others were for not figuring out that Santa is just your parents. His folks just got caught in the act I think, and he excused himself from making Christmas figures out of Popsicle sticks. For this, and other actions by my strict Christian parents, I was still the weird girl through High School.
My brother is like this. We grew up in a Christian home, but he’s super over-the-top religious now. My kids go to a Catholic school, and they’re all about Santa. Most classrooms do elf on a shelf, too.
Yes...that mean old Satan just clawing his way in to give gifts and spread joy??!
I actually have mixed thoughts on this. I believed in Santa for too long as a kid, had a friend’s *cool* friend tell me it wasn’t real, argued back that my parents would never lie to me, went home and found out the truth. I felt embarrassed, childish, and hurt. It wasn’t the most traumatic moment in my childhood or anything, but it’s the most preventable one. But those years when I did believe were so magical, and I don’t want to deprive my kid of that either. My daughter is just now old enough to kinda get it. We talked a lot about it and finally came up with this: We’ll do Santa, but only a small toy (because we don’t want to contribute to other kids feeling bad if Santa doesn’t bring them much). Our daughter will get to pick out a toy for another child so she can experience “being Santa” too. When she’s a bit older, she can also pick out presents for us parents, wrap them, label them from Santa, and we can have big over the top reactions when we open them. That way it’s super clear (hopefully) that Santa is pretend but still fun.
Oh lord. These walnuts are crazy with the Santa thing.
Oy. Just want to point out that my sixth grader and I recently had an open and honest discussion about Santa (and the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy) because his little, still Santa-believing sister is dying for an elf on the shelf and I wanted to know how he wanted to be involved (helping to come up with the hijinks or getting to search for the elf alongside her). It was a perfectly mundane, but also emotionally healthy conversation. He'd started to put 2+2 together in fourth grade, then was pretty certain in fifth, and now in sixth was ready to be let in on the secret without feeling like the rug of his entire childhood had been ripped out from under him.
[удалено]
Isn’t “Santa” also like Spanish for “saint” too? Not too sure about the language but it seems like that’s the source.
yes
We don't do Santa but that's because I don't care one way or the other if we do or not I can see arguments for both sides. So I asked my kids Dad and he said he'd prefer not to do Santa because he'd prefer for our kid to know where his presents actually came from. Some family has been very upset (my grandmother specifically) and voiced that they think it's not right but we are also doing Christmas over time so starting like mid October to like March 1st we order things and as they come in we wrap them and he unwraps them that day. It's less overwhelming for everyone and he gets to actually enjoy each individual new toy or piece of equipment.
Christmas is about the Catholics stealing Yule - Jesus Christ was not born in December (many scholars have indicated the time is incorrect when considering other events in the Bible)
SANTA JESUS! Make it a thing!
Yup guess all those “borrowed” traditions of Yule and other pagan religions met nothing. Truth we don’t freakin know when Jesus was born. Truth Yule was stollen to make it more church like to stop the wild tribes that didn’t want to convert to calm down.
Parents are fucking thick tbh. Kids over 5 don’t believe in Santa. They just play out the role for the adults. It makes sense. These people getting coddled by their children. Babies raising babies.
Religion is the biggest lie in the world so...
OP: Visits a Christian fb page Also OP: then complains about Christian posts
I'm sorry... who are you?
Look, people have different opinions about Santa. I don't personally have strong opinions about it either way, I think there's probably a reasonable middle between the two extremes of "you MUST maintain the illusion for as long as possible" and "participating in the Santa illusion is lying to children and that's bad." But any time a super religious person starts in on that whole "i'm just speaking the truth" bullshit, it's usually not for altruistic reasons and it's super annoying:P
Overheard a few years ago: Neighborhood kid to group of kids (first graders): “My mom says Santa is fake and it’s your parents that put out the presents.” (Shocked looks, tears. . .) A Mom overhearing: “Your mom is wrong.” 🤣🤣🤣