Anymore I feel that Santa and the Easter Bunny should be done away with. THey take away from the true meaning of the Christmas and Easter.

 

pfogle, do you have children?

Santa isn't detracting the meaning of Christmas, we're doing that to ourselves - buy, buy, buy, spend, spend, spend, want, want, want...

 

I would play along with the tradition until they grow to be 5 or 6...then I would break the news to them. I found out there was none when I was that age. Just call me Scrooge :-P

 

I say it depends on the kid. And if you got a good kid in front of you, chances are, that kid will figure it out on his own.

 

I don't personally, but I do have several very young cousins, and nieces. Christmas and Easter are about Christ, not food, toys, and spending money.. I'm sorry. I just get irritated because all the secular christmas songs get the full versions play, but the ones that really tell about the season either have no vocals (therefore no message) or are cut off.

 

I grew up way out in the country in a small shack of a house, it was the best my Dad could do for us 9 kids. I was 8 years old and it was a COLD Christmas eve, with about about 6 inches of snow on the ground. The coal stove in the kitchen had the house toasty warm, and Mom's cookies smelled sooo good in the old oven. The cedar tree that I had helped to find and cut down was decorated and all lit up with the huge colored bulbs and popcorn strings on it ....

It was just after dark on that Eve, when my 16 year old sister took my hand and led me outside . As we walked thru the snow I asked her " What are we doing out here sis ? " She replied , " We are watching for Santa" . We stood there a bit, talked about what we wanted him to bring us, and all of a sudden she pointed to a bright star going across the skyline real fast and said " There he is !!! ". I remember standing there watching that star , thinking Wow, there really is a Santa, and then going to bed that night a very happy kid. That was 44 years ago, and I recall that memory like yesterday, a priceless one

 

Well since my kids are 2 & 5 I am a Perpetuator. Kids seem to have to grow-up too quickly and I do not want that for my kids. IMHO

 

That reminds me of old times, Greg.

I was about 10 when I got brave enough to go out to the barn to see if the animals would talk at midnight on Christmas Eve.

 

I will never tell my kids that santa is real. I will raise them to be honest, and tellin' them santa is real and then they find out he's not, aint that a giant lie? yes it is. I will let them have fun in all the other ways of christmas. My parents old me from day 1 that santa aint real, and it never hurt me any.


Also, there aint no way in hell i'd let them sit on any mall santa's lap. way too many phedo, phedo, phedo..... uh... kid rapers.... out there.

 

> Suppressor or a Perpetuator ?

Neither.

Any lie is destructive and when you tell them the truth when the kids in school say they are idiots for believing in Santa, you destroy their faith in things a bit, imo. Having your tearful child ask why you lied to them has no clean answer.

When they ASK then you should tell them the truth, though you should not go out of your way to do it either. My kids thought Big Bird was real, we even went to Sesame Street in PA to have fun with the characters and I have a tape of me doing the blue screen thing with the kids, Elmo, and Zoe.

I was not even in the 1st grade, maybe four, when I realized Santa was not real and I kept the truth to myself and did not wreck Christmas for my younger siblings or classmates by rubbing the truth in their faces.

imo, I think you have to draw the line between harmless and causing harm, between make believe and worshipping idols, and you have to have enough common sense to know the difference.

The birth/conception of Jesus the Christ is the reason for the season, not Santa. That is what I stress in my house and when I get asked I tell them the truth. Though my older children understand they are not to wreck it for the younger kids OR anyone else unless they want to deal with a very angry father.

For a few years I did a lot of work with Toys For Tots, so I guess that is promotion in a way. Though my concern was not with Santa, but, that kids had toys at Christmas time and could celebrate too. I think it is hard to encourage someone to celebrate when they have nothing given to them. To me, Santa is a way to give something to a child I do not know.