Believe in Santa

You can't control what you family decide what to do. Get over it.

Santa Claus is not really a myth, just a story that was enlarged upon. St Nicholas was an European medieval bishop who provided food and treats for the poor children in his area at mid-Winter to celebrate the birth of Christ. It was then mixed with other stories about such giving.

The Easter story, I always thought was a bit gory for small children. Never did the bunny, but eggs were a symbol of new life - not sure how that fits with rabbits, we did chicks.

One Christmas Eve, our minister’s sermon was about how we ‘. teach ‘ children to believe in Santa Claus, but not Jesus. He highlighted the ‘ nonsense ‘ of elves helping Santa at the North Pole to produce thousands of gifts, then fly across the sky with sleigh and reindeer, then visit homes all over the world - all in one night. His point, of course, was that the life and deeds of Jesus was a much more credible scenario, the teaching of which he felt was much neglected. He made it amusing, but I’m sure many of the congregation went away thinking about the point he was making.

In Germany, he is an Easter hare and I assume he crossed the Atlantic with Germans who emigrated to the U.S from 1848 onwards. There he tranmogrified into an Easter bunny,

He was totally unknown in my childhood both in Scotland and in Denmark, the two countries where I grew up.

As far as I know, this tendency not to let children believe in Santa Claus is part of the "never lie to children" idea.

Certainly, children learn by example, so not telling them lies is fine, but , but ...
...if Santa Claus is a no go, what happens to the first great love of my life? I was two when I fell hopelessly in love with Puss in Boots.
If Santa is a lie, then surely both Puss in Boots, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and hordes of other beloved "inhabitants"of our childhood have to go too?

you're right Allira, Santa Claus is just another name for St Nicholas..

we didn't do Easter Bunny either, but Christmas was great when our children were young, and then the GC..hubby and I still look forward to Christmas, I was a wee bit disapointed when GS was told by his dad when he was only 5 that there was no Santa

Ktsmum

My Dd is 22 now but I will never ever forget taking her to Lapland to meet 'the real Santa' , the look on her face when Santa and the elves welcomed her in and called her by name was absolutely magic. To each their own but there's no harm in a white lie to make a lovely memory

My son and his (then) girlfriend went to see Santa at Lapland when they were in their twenties.

GoodAfternoonTea

My dad used to love Santa, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter bunny more than I did. He even built me a fairy ring in the garden. Those were the most magical days of my life and, even to this day, I still keep the magic going wherever I can. It is sad that children are robbed of make believe when they are small. It fires their imaginations, gives them insight into other worlds. And yet they get taught all sorts of ghastly things when they are still very small and do not have the capacity to understand the narrative adults are feeding them to suit their own ends.

I agree.

Arto1s

I’m not sure what the Easter Bunny and “Santa” have to do with Christianity?
Absolutely nothing. They are fun traditions; that is all.

Well, St Nicholas was a Christian saint.
Does that not count?

Santa Claus, Sinterklaas, is an abbreviation of St Nicholas.

I’m not sure what the Easter Bunny and “Santa” have to do with Christianity?
Absolutely nothing. They are fun traditions; that is all.

We always put presents under the tree as we were given them for the children, they knew not to touch from babyhood. On Christmas morning Father Christmas had filled their stockings and left them a special present from their Christmas list under the tree. One Christmas I over heard my daughters friend tell her there wasn't a Father Christmas, my daughter asked her if she got a special present the friend said no so my daughter said that's because you don't believe.

My D did the same with her children. But my GD asked if I could keep a secret and told me Father Christmas was real but not to tell her mum as she didn’t believe in him. We often laugh about this now GD is 21

I never allowed my girls to believe in fake fantasy figures - it always seemed absurd to me.

How sad not to allow the magic, especially in these days of children growing up so quickly.
I can’t think of any of my friends, cousins, children or grandchildren being traumatised when they discovered the truth about Father Christmas. It just happened slowly.
As for the Vicar who was worried that his children wouldn’t believe in God either if they found out. Well , no doubt they will eventually make their own minds up about that too. I can’t see how he could prove that either way.

My dad used to love Santa, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter bunny more than I did. He even built me a fairy ring in the garden. Those were the most magical days of my life and, even to this day, I still keep the magic going wherever I can. It is sad that children are robbed of make believe when they are small. It fires their imaginations, gives them insight into other worlds. And yet they get taught all sorts of ghastly things when they are still very small and do not have the capacity to understand the narrative adults are feeding them to suit their own ends.

As has already been pointed out, Santa (why not Santo?) Claus is St Nicholas, whose day is 6th December. It is very much part of the run-up to Christmas in Germany, when children receive traditional sweets and little presents.

my daughter and son in law are not religious but let the kids still believe in the magic of Santa and Easter Bunny, I think let the kids enjoy the magic while they can, irrespective of religion

I'm 68 years old and I still believe in Father Christmas. When the eldest of our 3 sons was about 14 and we were doing the usual Christmas Eve hanging up of stockings, putting out a mince pie and drink for Father Christmas, along with a cartoon for the reindeer; my husband whispered to him," you know she'll have you doing this when you are thirty, don't you!" His reply, "I know, great isn't it!" Job done! As an adult he has never been able to get to sleep on Christmas Eve, even after a night at the pub with his mates. He is now a parent and he is the one eagerly waiting for his kids to wake up and ends up going into bedrooms saying, "he's been!"

My grandchildren are all teenagers or adults now, but we still open all our gifts together on Christmas morning. No Father Christmas, but there is still some magic and excitement in the house, and we love to decorate inside and out.

We carried Father Christmas through with our kids until they all twigged one by one. Same with the Grandchildren. However I used to work with someone whose religion did not celebrate Christmas, and the mother told me that her little girl had been into Nursery (so age 3/4?) and told all the other children that there was no such thing as FC, it's your mum and dad. Apparently there were lots of tears. I must have looked shocked as she added - well at least she was telling the truth and not peddling lies. I did think it was a shame though, to have the illusion spoiled unexpectedly so young.

Be glad you were not brought up as a Presbyterian in Scotland and told as a child about the devil. Also hell fire.

Hi. I guess you are American? I never heard of the Easter Bunny when I was a child. But I did believe in Santa Claus until I was 8 years old.

I always did the whole Father Christmas thing with my daughter as a child and no doubt she’ll do it with her toddler.
But now, I think to myself we tell children to be wary of strangers and here we are encouraging them to sit on the lap of a fat man in a red suit while he gives them a gift. 🤔
Same goes for allowing same man to creep into their house when everyone’s sleeping and leave a stocking at the end of their bed.
All sounds highly dodgy!

I can’t remember a time when Father Christmas officially ceased to be for my children - he just faded gently away with no trauma involved. He magically appeared again which the arrival of the grandchildren, then eventually slowly drifted into the stratosphere again. He had to go home.

I don’t really know anything about the Easter Bunny story, we missed out on that one.

My FIL is a vicar and he and MIL were concerned that if they told their sons that Father Christmas was real, when they found out it was a myth they might also stop believing in God so they told them it wasn’t true right from the start. That didn’t quite work as they’d hoped - my husband is an atheist and feels very angry that he missed out on the magic as a child! When we told them that we were doing the ‘Santa’ thing with our son my MIL said ‘So you’re fine with telling your child lies?!’ which I thought was rather harsh!