Regarding Santa Claus [NO KIDS ALLOWED]

[Gokuofuin]

mmm anyone who thinks that telling your children that Santa exists is the same as telling..... say your child that his dog ran away when you actually ate it, is absolutely insane.

It is called a 'white lie' not malicious by nature and normally made for the benefit of the person who is being lied to.

END

 

[JoesshittyOs]

Haha, What? Really, you pity the guy that finds joy in the little things while you're over there thinking that being a cynical egotistical "realist" on every small children's fairytale is the proper way to live a life?

Yeah, I'm envious of you. Sounds like you really are living large over there bud.

I am, actually. What about it? And if it weren't for us cynics, there would be 50 suckers every minute born and 232 to take them.

Hating and questioning every pointless tradition, holiday, and mythical creatures just to prove that you're somehow smarter for pointing out why simple fun things that have never harmed anyone (except you, from the sounds of it) is a laughably pointless way to lead your life.

And no, I have no problems with cynical people. It's fine to question your government, or to go in and see if the guy fixing your car is screwing you out of an extra fifty bucks.

But pointing out the absurdity of a fat man who flies around the world to deliver presents to kids? That's not being cynical, that's searching for things to just to fuel that rage addiction you proudly call "cynicism". Never have I heard of someone who remains heartbroken to this day that their parents lied to them about Santa Claus.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

Because kids are happy believing in the magic of Santa. One of the few traditions that makes sense to me.

 

[Maze1125]

He is not a lie, he is a story told to children to make them happy.

Exactly. Lying to children is wrong. Telling children stories is fine.

To those who are against telling children about Santa: Will you never read your children a bed time story?

Stories are fine. Yeah, if parents force the idea of Father Christmas so fully that it becomes a lie or even belief system, that's bad and will likely have bad consequences when the child finds out the parents were purposely doing that, but a good parent won't make it more than just a story and so won't have any problems.

The situation isn't a dichotomy between absolute truth telling and outright lies.

 

[JoJo]

The Editor of the New York Sun way back many years ago said it far better than I ever could:

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

Dear Editor-
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, ?If you see it in The Sun, it's so.? Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O?Hanlon

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that?s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

There's nothing wrong with childhood idealism, indeed it's a healthy stage in development. When they finally mature and learn the world isn't quite as it seemed, then just maybe instead of complaining about how shit it is on internet forums they'll decide to try to make it better for everyone

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

Because its fun to... Hell, where would the spirit of Christmas be if the young kids wern't looking forward to getting stuff from a magical man who gives them presents? If parents didn't tell kids about Santa then decorations would suck at christmas... They'd be no grotto, no Rudolph... Man you are talking about making the world suck... Boo to you...

 

[Ddgafd]

I think that kids shouldn't be told about the real world until they're old enough to handle it. Telling a child about all the cruel things in the world at an early age will turn the child into a pessimistic and bitter realist, which is never a good thing. I would like to know: Would you rather read the news or a fairytale for your child? Saying a story is the same as a lie is exaggerated. Lies don't have morals, but stories do, like the story of Santa Claus. The moral is, that acting nice pays off in the end. I don't see how teaching kids morals will hurt them later on.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Err how about trying to give kids some imagination and believe the unkowm/ magic/ fantasy/ legend/ myth?
I mean it was fun to believe some unforeseen thing since reality is grim and gritty. I mean what the worse can happen to lying to the kids all this time? They're children (unless they going to grow up with trust issue).

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

Why di there have to be people thinking they're cool and edgy for being a "realist"? Yes we get it, you dont see the world the same way as those other fools, you see the world for what it truly is, what a clever person you are. /sarcasm

Parents tell their kids about Santa because its fun, your childhood is something special, its a time where you can believe in magic and wonder about the world, kids should savour that as long as they can

 

[Sirron Kcuch]

It's simple:
If Santa doesn't bring that awesome and expensive gift the kid's been asking for, they'll be suspicious and stop believing in Santa, so his/her parents have to pay even more in order to keep the kid fooled.

yep, it's all a conspiracy.
LOL

Okay, I wasn't serious there, but it actually makes sense o_o

I think the point of the story is just that, having a theme for celebrating Christmas.
However I find much better knowing that my parents/family/whatever have made some kind of effort in order to give me a good present, rather than some magical fatass went thruough my chimeney.

And when you get to give presents to your family it's quite enjoyable.

People keep saying it's just a story. Stories are harmless, but this is more of a lie than a story. You don't trick your children into believing that Superman exists, because you know that it could be harmful. The same way you don't tell them that sticking their fingers into a plug will make them like Pikachu.

Santa is by itself a harmless story, but could become harmful the moment the kids ask too much things for Christmas.

That's my opinion, though

 

[Erttheking]

You know I consider myself I bit of a cynic...and this thread made me facepalm. This isn't a big deal, it's part of being a kid and frankly when I learned I wasn't exactly tramuatized for life. And frankly if you have such an issue with kids being told lies than you can't just be talking about Santa. If you have such a big deal with this than you should be willing to sit down with your seven year old neice and say "Your mommy is leaving your daddy because he's fucking her sister, tens of thousands of people in the middle east want to kill you and are willing to die to do so, and pregenency happens when a boy sticks his wang in you, in a few years sticking his wang in things will be ALL boys your age will want to do and birth is the most painful thing that you will probably feel, which is a direct result of said act. Also your pet cat didn't run away it got run over."

Yeah, I don't see you doing that anytime soon. Let kids be kids for the love of God. Frankly this world could use more idealism and less cynics reminding us how much everything sucks and how we're all going to die old and alone one day...and this is coming from a cynic.

 

[Bealzibob]

It's strange how people get so worked up by santa and what not.

Well it's never really been a thing for me as I was incredibly skeptical and cynical as a young child and as such I never believed in santa and humour the idea till it was abolished around the age of 8. I treated most things in my life like this I suppose and a mutated pessimism seems to work for me.

As for the actual reason for it... well I always assumed that is was another of the "unclean masses" gauges for morality. I've witness the whole "be good or santa won't give you a christmas present" thing and it works fairly good as pacifying an annoying child. It tends to backfire so it probably wouldn't last if stores didn't parade it for a good quarter of the year.

At the end of the day it is another fairly harmless tradition and as such I still celebrate it in the slightly sad "old persons birthday" kind of way of a big meal and light present giving.

 

[Sirron Kcuch]

"Your mommy is leaving your daddy because he's fucking her sister, tens of thousands of people in the middle east want to kill you and are willing to die to do so, and pregenency happens when a boy sticks his wang in you, in a few years sticking his wang in things will be ALL boys your age will want to do and birth is the most painful thing that you will probably feel, which is a direct result of said act. Also your pet cat didn't run away it got run over."

You do have a point there. It's true. But what I tried to say is that Santa is a good thing, but kids can misunderstand it, which doesn't happen often.

 

[Erttheking]

"Your mommy is leaving your daddy because he's fucking her sister, tens of thousands of people in the middle east want to kill you and are willing to die to do so, and pregenency happens when a boy sticks his wang in you, in a few years sticking his wang in things will be ALL boys your age will want to do and birth is the most painful thing that you will probably feel, which is a direct result of said act. Also your pet cat didn't run away it got run over."

You do have a point there. It's true. But what I tried to say is that Santa is a good thing, but kids can misunderstand it, which doesn't happen often.

That comment was more intended for the OP, sorry for the mix up.

 

[him over there]

God I hate fun, My children will only be able to like something after a dissertation on why it exists and why it deserves to be a fun experience. Honestly because it's fun. that's all there is to it. It is a way for children who don't quite understand the reason behind and the morals within xmas to have some find.

 

[MasterOfHisOwnDomain]

Because it makes Christmas fun. Heck, I wish I still believed in Santa, then I might actually get vaguely excited about the idea of Christmas. Seriously, the world is already full of enough cold harsh realities without you destroying a fun invention.

 

[Zack1501]

I'm going to say to stimulate imagination. In my opinion imagination and creativity is the best thing there is. It make videogames, art, books, tv, jokes, and a lot more. I can see you as the type of person who is never moved at all by books or movies because you just sit there thinking, what do i care this isn't real. Reality is not fun, why force kids into it to soon?

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Ok this does seem quite trollish but I am going to keep this short and if you can't find at least three life lessons telling kids about Santa and then revealing he is not real teaches them then I shall weep.