Santa, nice isn't he? Or is he?
Is it Ho Ho, or Oh God no!
or
Any one find anything worse?
The very worst Santa.
Quote: sootyj @ December 8 2008, 12:11 PM GMT
Do you know how many people a year die from electrocution trying to water their Christmas trees??
Quote: Lee Henman @ December 8 2008, 1:02 PM GMT
You'll put your eye out, kid!!!!
Seriously though...I personally wish I didn't have to lie to my 6 year old about Santa. We constantly tell our kids that it's wrong to tell lies so what message are they getting when they finally find out their own parents have been telling the biggest whopper of all?
I've raised this point before with friends before and as parents they're just not ready to face the argument, and usually become defensive and angry that I'm bringing it up. I put this down to a sense of guilt. They're all "Oh shut up, let the kids believe in magic for a while" but that's not the real reason they're getting irate. They're getting irate because every parent at some point is dreading the day they have to 'fess up to their teary-eyed kids and tell them that Santa's all a big fat lie.
What're your views? Does it annoy you that we have to go through this charade? After all it's not like we can send our kids off to school at an early age, armed with the truth. We know what would happen - kids would get into arguments over Santa, parents of other kids would get angry with you for "spoiling" their kids Christmas by letting the the cat out of the bag.
I don't know - I've just never felt comfortable about bullshitting kids about the existence of a magical being, knowing only too well how much it's going to hurt when we have to tell them the truth.
Quote: Lee Henman @ December 8 2008, 3:47 PM GMTSeriously though...I personally wish I didn't have to lie to my 6 year old about Santa. We constantly tell our kids that it's wrong to tell lies so what message are they getting when they finally find out their own parents have been telling the biggest whopper of all?
I've raised this point before with friends before and as parents they're just not ready to face the argument, and usually become defensive and angry that I'm bringing it up. I put this down to a sense of guilt. They're all "Oh shut up, let the kids believe in magic for a while" but that's not the real reason they're getting irate. They're getting irate because every parent at some point is dreading the day they have to 'fess up to their teary-eyed kids and tell them that Santa's all a big fat lie.
What're your views? Does it annoy you that we have to go through this charade? After all it's not like we can send our kids off to school at an early age, armed with the truth. We know what would happen - kids would get into arguments over Santa, parents of other kids would get angry with you for "spoiling" their kids Christmas by letting the the cat out of the bag.
I don't know - I've just never felt comfortable about bullshitting kids about the existence of a magical being, knowing only too well how much it's going to hurt when we have to tell them the truth.
I agree with you. Why do people do such a thing. It makes no sense to lie to kids.
I'm one of those saps that believes the magic of Christmas is more important than anything else.
And to be honest, if your kid has any brains they'll slowly figure out the Father Christmas thing for themselves.
I'm sure there are very few instances where it's a sudden discovery type thing, or an 'ohmygod everyone's been lying to me' situation.
In general (but not always!), I find that most people who stubbornly insist they can't possibly lie to their kids about Santa Claus are quite selfish, and it's more about how it makes them look to other people, than caring about whether their kids enjoy Christmas as much as possible while they still can.
Do these people also insist their kids aren't allowed to read story books? It's just a fun story for goodness sake. 
Quote: Lee Henman @ December 8 2008, 1:02 PM GMT
So that's what Sean Connery is up to these days.
Quote: zooo @ December 8 2008, 3:52 PM GMTI'm one of those saps that believes the magic of Christmas is more important than anything else.
And to be honest, if your kid has any brains they'll slowly figure out the Father Christmas thing for themselves.
I'm sure there are very few instances where it's a sudden discovery type thing, or an 'ohmygod everyone's been lying to me' situation.
In general (but not always!), I find that most people that stubbornly insist they can't possibly lie to their kids about Santa Claus are quite selfish, and it's more about how it makes them look to other people than caring about whether thir kids enjoy Christmas as much as possible.
Do these people also insist their kids aren't allowed to read story books? It's just a fun story for goodness sake.
I don't agree Zooo. When kids read a story book they haven't got their parents telling them that what they're reading is real.
I clearly remember the day I found out about Santa Claus. A kid at my school called Karl Purvis told me he was made up. I was about 7 I think. I went home and told my Mum, who said he was being silly. Then later on at bedtime Dad came into my room and said Karl was right, there is no Father Christmas. I was like "But you've always said there is!", and my Dad got angry and told me to go to sleep and forget about it. And then I cried myself to sleep. Partly because there was no Santa, but mostly because Mum and Dad had been lying to me for ever. So Zooo, that really wasn't a very magical Christmas that year.
As for selfishness - my kids have everything they want at Christmas and I always try to make this time of year a joy for them. I am a total Christmas spaz. I just wish I didn't have to lie to them that's all. You'll know what I mean when you have kids of your own.
I didn't mean YOU were selfish. I even went back and did a brackety bit.
But pleeease don't do the old patronising, 'you can't possibly know until you've got kids of your own' thing.
You obviously had a bad time of it, so tell your kids what you want, but I managed to figure it out slowly, and it was fine. I still partly like to believe in Father Christmas even now, so it's all part of the fun to me.
In my own case, if I were to have kids, I would tell them something like some people believe in Santa and some don't, nobody really knows... leave a bit of excitement and mystery.
I don't think it's particularly nice to slam it to 'em straight, 'there's no such thing', at least give them a choice.
