The Santa Tradition: Yes or No?

originally posted by: nonspecific
Do we not constantly lie to our children about the world we live in?

i know i dont.
i dont like to lie at all. i am honest to a fault.
still, some things are age dependent.

my toddler does not need to know the truth about all things.
life sucks. i say let the kids have some fun for christ sake

a reply to: kosmicjack

I recently made a thread that exposed Santa for who he truly is:

Santa is a corporate shill

IMO Santa is just a marketing tool-like a heart shaped box on valentines day or a green beer on St. Patricks day. Nobody needs to know why we celebrate these holidays, all we need to know is how to celebrate them and those celebrations always comes with a price tag.

a reply to: kosmicjack

it's a tradition.

some traditions are awesome..... some not so much.

I'm passing it along to my kids. they love it.

a reply to: kosmicjack

I personally would like to do away with the whole Santa deception on the kids, but my wife, being a lot younger than me, will not go along. I raised kids 30 years ago and went through all this before, and I have young ones again. They're almost 5 and 10 months. My wife is really big on all the Santa stuff and overruled me in the matter. I just hate to lie to them.

originally posted by: wtbengineer
a reply to: kosmicjack

I personally would like to do away with the whole Santa deception on the kids, but my wife, being a lot younger than me, will not go along. I raised kids 30 years ago and went through all this before, and I have young ones again. They're almost 5 and 10 months. My wife is really big on all the Santa stuff and overruled me in the matter. I just hate to lie to them.

Have you asked the older kids weather they would have preffered to not have santa when they were little so you can make the right decision for the new ones?

I don't have kids, but if I did, I definitely would NOT tell them that Santa is real. I would probably include Santa in the mix, but it would be clear that he's like a cartoon, not a real person.

I still remember when I found out that my parents, sisters, brothers and everyone else had been lying to me. I simply didn't trust them after that.

When i was little, i used to get whipped with a riding crop/buggy whip for lying. Then i find out that my hypocrite parents were lying to me about Santa Clause.

I was pissed!! Betrayed!! That whole 'do as i say, not as i do' mantra they preached......I never trusted them since. All year long they would tell me not to take anything from strangers also, just to dress me up in some silly costume once a year and have me beg from door to door for candies, keeping the delicacies for themselves,leaving me with crap like sugar daddies and jawbreakers.

i got so fed up with the double standards that i ended up leaving home at 15. I'm 45 now, and have probably have been to visit my Dad 6 times since i was 15. We both have regrets about our behavior but it is what it is.

I guess my point is, is that if you TRULY love your kids...

DON"T LIE TO THEM!!! THEY WILL NOT FORGET.

Just my humble opinion.

I think there is a big difference between lying and taking sweets from strangers and santa clause and trick or treating.

I was lied to about santa clause, the tooth fairy and that if I studied hard and respected authority then I would be a happy person later in life.

I only have an issue with one of the above fairy tales, the other two I would not swap for anything.


a reply to: occrest

a reply to: nonspecific
I understand your viewpoint, and you are welcome to it.

My issue was being beaten black and blue with a buggy whip/riding crop for lying, and then being lied to by the same person that beat me. My lying to my parents got me beat. Their double standards cost them a son.

originally posted by: occrest
, keeping the delicacies for themselves,leaving me with crap like sugar daddies and jawbreakers.

bwuahahahahaah

got owned by the parental units.
nice

a reply to: nonspecific

It's funny, I think my older kids are perpetuating the myth even though they were pissed that they were lied to. I'm pretty sure at least one of my kids has led his kids to believe that Santa brings them toys at Christmas and spies on them all year. Maybe they can't help but continue it because it was such an integral part of their childhoods. I don't know.

Anyway, it doesn't matter what I think, the wife won't have it any other way. She did give in on one thing this year, I'm making a guitar for my 5 yo this Christmas and she is okay telling him it's from us and that I made it. I didn't want Santa getting credit for that!

a reply to: wtbengineer

what kind of guitar?
specs please?

i request all the details?
are you carving it by hand or using a mill?

im going to make a guitar for my daughter and wife next year...
going to cut it on a mill though

All my service users at work are so exited but the only thing I hate is the Santa name.
When I was a kid it was Father Christmas not santa.
Feels american does the name Santa and I correct everyone saying "It's Father Christmas in this country!!!".

Made a rant about it

His name is actually Sanata, but they needed to put him in a witness protection program centuries ago so renamed him Santa

i say go against the grain and teach your kids about krampus

best santa story ever

a reply to: nonspecific

This is simply a matter of opinion; in the 1800's children were forced to be more mature about things than children of current times are. That being said, we tend to want to provide better lives for our children than we had and thus spoil them. This is the current situation. We have an immature child base that believe in fantasy situations that we raise and expect that they will be prepared for the hard truths of reality.

I will choose truth and honesty every time. I am not distorting the truth to my children as I do not want to foster that in them when they communicate with me or others.

…Am I correct? I do not know however it feels right to me.

a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

I agree with you completely, it's an issue of trust. Especially when we let them believe it for so long and it becomes so important to them and they are so invested in the myth. I think I'm going to have to have another conversation with my wife about this. I think it would be less damaging to tell my 5 yo the truth now.

a reply to: Grovit

It's going to be a half sized electric with a string length of 20.5". Dual humbucking pickups, tunomatic bridge, etc. I had some body and neck blanks laying around and was able to find one of each that I was able to mill down to proper size for this little guitar. It's going to have a curly maple neck, ebony FB and headstock veneer, a figured walnut body and a pearl agnus dei that I use on most of mine. Or used to, I once tried to go into business as a luthier, but wasn't a very good businessman. I sold a few guitars for some good $$$ but didn't know how to stay on top of the marketing and production ends of it simultaneously being the only one involved. My wife had no interest in trying to take on the marketing.

I have a wood shop out in my garage, but most of my equipment is pushed together to make room for my brewery equipment that, unfortunately, I am not spending enough time using since I'm so busy with so much other stuff right now. I only really have used the table saw, band saw and a thickness sanding machine for this project. Oh, and a big veneer band saw. Mostly it's hand work.

originally posted by: boymonkey74
All my service users at work are so exited but the only thing I hate is the Santa name.
When I was a kid it was Father Christmas not santa.
Feels american does the name Santa and I correct everyone saying "It's Father Christmas in this country!!!".

Made a rant about it

I agree, I don't say Santa... it's definitely Father Christmas.