Guest blog submitted by LyricallyCharged
Let the Christmas shopping begin! Halloween hasn't even passed yet and Walmart has set up one of those music demo players that plays nothing but Christmas carols. They've also already lowered prices on toys, sending other stores like Target, to lower their prices, too. The journey for the best bargain has already begun.
And while store managers are getting ready for Black Friday, I wonder if the little kids are getting ready to send Santa their Christmas wish lists. When I was younger, I never wrote a Christmas wish list. I don't know how my folks always ended up buying me exactly what I wanted. But I remember there being kids who did make letters.
Did they really send that letter out? Could you imagine its address -- to Santa's Workshop in the North Pole, area code unknown. And what did the USPS do with those letters? Did they slap a big "return to sender" stamp on it?
It was such a let down knowing it was Mom eating those cookies I baked on Christmas Eve instead of the fat man himself. It hurt just as bad when I found out there really was no tooth fairy. Parents are full of lies. The Easter bunny? Barney? They're all lies!
I don't know if I would tell my children these lies... or false hopes, whatever you want to call them. My mom told me that I went to some kids birthday party and they had "Barney" come in. The guy in the costume hadn't tucked his hair in all the way so it was hanging out of his giant purple foam head. She said I cried the whole party because Barney was a fraud. (Hey, Barney was my life!)
Why let your kids think one way and then have them feel so let down when they find out the truth? That sucks. I guess it's teaching the facts of life at an early age.
Would you go out of your way to tell your children about things like Santa and the tooth fairy?
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Comments (27)
I was raised Jewish and I am currently pregnant. In Judaism, there isn't such lies as the easter bunny or santa. Just the tooth fairy :D
I plan on raising my child not Jewish, but raising them celebrating both Jewish and Christian holidays, so as they grow older, they don't feel as I did (the lonely Jew on Christmas) and they can make a decision as to what they wish to continue celebrating as they get older.
I don't really know how the Santa thing works...what all you're supposed to do for him or anything, but I'm sure someone will help me with all that stuff.
You only left out cookies? DIDNT YOU LEAVE A CARROT FOR ROULDOLPH!??! ;)
I noticed the christmas stuff at walmart already out...and then thought to myself... Wheres Thanksgiving stuff? Isnt that really the most important of the two holidays (As we celebrate them...I know Jesus is most important...but i mean with gifts and all...thats not what its about really, its about being THANKFUL)
I tell my cousins and other small children I know(with permission of their parents of course) the story of Saint Nikolaus. He was a real man and It makes it easier to explain that Santa is a way of rememebering the good things he did. It also shows them about giving to other kids who have less, which is fun.
I'm not really going to tell my daughter about Santa, but I'm not going to make a big deal about there being one. I'm gonna try to stay neutral on it and if she's asks about it later on, I'll tell her to make up her own mind about it I guess.
Santa is more like a make believe game for us. Our kids know about him, but they also know he's pretend. As for the mailing Christmas letters to Santa, in Texas, you will get a reply from Santa if you send in a letter to Santa Claus at the North Pole! It's just a generic letter that they probably have thousands of copies of, but it sure does make your kids excited to get mail! I don't know if the post office does that everywhere, but in Fort Worth they do!
I can't believe what I am reading! My daughter LOVES Santa and I am glad that she believes in him. Last year, he even called our house and she was beside herself with excitement. That is what being a kid is all about!
Kids figure out on their own that Santa is not a "real" person. It is fun and exciting for them to believe in it while they are little. My 15 year old still pretends to believe in Santa so the younger childrens' excitement does not dim. He still says he is going to put things on his list for "Santa" which in code means he wants me to buy it for him.
I don't think that all kids feel let down when they learn the truth, especially if they learn on their own. I think that when it's gradual it doesn't sting as much as the neighborhood kids telling them there's not a Santa Claus.
My boys both still believe in Santa! We love Christmas around our house and discuss all aspects of it. They do believe though, because as my mom always said, "If you don't believe, you don't receive!" Every year we write a letter to santa and I always send them a reply from work on Christmas paper and in a Christmas envelope. I do this for my co-workers children also and the kids just LOVE it. There is just something about the innocence of it all. I was not destroyed when I was told he wasn't real. I mean usually most kids just figure it out and it's no big deal. Kids are gonna talk and I'm sure my boys have been told he's not real but they still believe. We even watch the news on Christmas Eve night to see where Santa is now....LOL!!!
i will teach my kids both that Christmas is first and foremost about Jesus and celebrity His birth.
But Santa is what i loved about being a kid
going to sleep early before Santa arrived to my house
and i was always so happy that the few items i put on my list i received
Like Ginlee said, I've heard of programs that send a "reply" letter to Santa letters.
I remember looking for my cat and stumbling into a hoard of presents labeled, "From: Santa"...I was bawling and heartbroken...not so much that Santa wasn't real, but that my mom had lied to me. For that reason, Megan will know that things like Santa and the Easter Bunny are make believe...but I also want to encourage her not to spoil it for the other kids around her that do believe. I don't want her to be "that" kid. LOL.
I just don't understand people being crushed that Santa isn't real. It is fun, the magic of Christmas. And eventually you learn that it's pretend. But it's not a LIE, it's PRETEND. There's a difference between the two. I am grateful to my parents for the sacrifices they made so that "Santa" could get us all things we wanted for Christmas. I don't remember ever being mad at my parents for lying to me. We celebrate Christmas as Jesus' birthday, and we also celebrate with Santa. Santa even comes to our church Christmas program and the kids get to sit on his lap. It's all in good fun!
My parents never had "the talk" with us about Santa or the Tooth Fairy or whatever. I don't remember them really being big on pushing the fantasy on us. If anything we kind of thought my mom was their helper and she did these things at their command. In any case, we always knew it was our parents but we still liked, and I still do enjoy, pretending to believe, I guess. We do the same thing with our daughter, we don't push it but we just do it.
@Luv2BMama@xanga - I've never understood that either - I don't think I've ever met anyone who was devastated when they found out the truth about Santa.
I love Santa - the whole thing is just fun. I will definitely teach my kids about Santa.
But like@lil_lady_j@xanga says - Christmas in our house is mainly about Jesus' birthday.
they will eventually figure out he isn't real.
i did. i wasn't heartbroken.i'll let them enjoy everything when they can.
@filtered_sunlight@xanga - LOL - I WAS that kid. I was horrified at the concept of Santa as a child (who knows why) and decided very early he wasn't real, and never hesitated to tell anyone how I felt on the subject.
I got in trouble a lot as a child! :)
They'll learn he isn't real later. I mean, just learning things in school by the 3rd grade teaches you it's impossible for reindeer to fly and that one man can't make it around the world in one night.
I never believed in santa for whatever reason. Now I feel like I missed out on something because I never got to experience that.
I did believe in the tooth fairy though. Honestly, I believed in that fairy til i was like...12. No lie. Because once I lost a tooth and had it wrapped up on the fire place and my mom took me and my sister outside to play and there was no one else home. When I came in there was a quarter where the tooth was. That had me convinced there was a tooth fairy for a very long time. lol.
No. Probably because that's not how my parents did it. Especially Santa Claus. My mom made sure that she got all the credit. She didn't want me to think that some stranger made all my dreams come true. It was her hard work that got it done.
I'll let my kids believe in santa claus, the tooth fairy, and the easter bunny. I will encourage it. My parents always act as if they are real, and tried to help us believe by having late night "sightings" and personal letters from the toothfairy, etc. I eventually figured it out (after trying to deny for quite a while) and it didn't damage my psyche or anything. It was just sort of the "well, I guess everyone was right- and it does make sense really" sort of moment. Sad, but not horrible. But I can still remember what it was like to believe in those things, and it was wonderful. I wish I could still believe magic existed in the world like that- I think it's something every child should get the chance to experience.
With my own kids, I'll tell them that these figures aren't real, but they are there to help celebrate special events. Then I would encourage them not to spoil the secret for the other kids. I remember stumbling upon the letters we had written to Santa in my mom's closet. I promised her I wouldn't tell my younger siblings.
@RoAngie467 - Good answer; I agree!
Kids can still enjoy Santa and the Tooth Fairy while knowing they don't exist in human form and that they're just symbols and representations for fun things. Even child psychologists have acknowledged that it can be dangerous to teach your child something that isn't true because they don't learn to distinguish between reality and fantasy until they're between 6 and 8 years old. It's one of the last "senses", so to speak, for children to develop.
All my kids believed in Santa. Actually, they still believe in the spirit that is Santa. The rule in our house is this; when you stop believing in Santa you get underwear for Christmas. Nobody wants undies in their stockings so everyone gets in the spirit of the holiday.
When the older ones figured it out, they weren't crushed. They were excited that they got to help keep it real for the younger ones.
My mama told us straight up that none of them were real. We didn't really celebrate Christmas either, we got presents but no decorations. I LOVE the Christmas season and I plan on telling my kids the story of the real St Nick. I'm cool with them 'believing' in them as long as they get that they are not real.
my husband & i were both raised with the santa & easter bunny myths as we were both raised in extremly christian homes. as adults we don't practice any reliegon at all, so we decided to NOT go down the whole santa/easter bunny route since we don't practice the releigon that goes with those things. we celebrate summer & winter solstice. we have a solstice tree in the winter but we never wanted to do santa. however, our families were VERY ANGRY at us for it. and went ahead & told our daughter about santa & easter bunny behind our backs & despite our wishes. so there were a couple of years there when my daughter belived in santa because of that, but once she got into the first grade we told her the truth. our families are still mad at us about it. we've tried to explain to them that we don't celebrate christmas & do the santa thing any more than we would celebrate haunaka or kawanza or ramadan because we don't practice any releigon at all. but they just don't get it & refuse to listen to us. so it's been an uphill battle because of them. but now our daughter knows that everything is from mommy & daddy we got her the presents because we love her. our solstice tree is decorated with picture frame ornaments with pictures of our family members and we open presents on solstice (which falls before christmas) and then we go to our families houses on the 25th. so it works out pretty good that everything isn't crammed into one day.
Ouch that barney situation sounds rough.
I feel for you. I loved him too :)