re: Santa equals LYING to your children?? D&D

Quoting Emmiboo:" Santa WAS real. So it's not a total lie. He made and delivered little wooden toys to every child in his ... [snip!] ... magical elves and stuff to be so nice. Still the magical elf story is fun but I will make sure they know it's just for fun."

Did you not see my posts on the history of "Santa Claus"? St. Nick became a saint for raising people from the dead. He was a rich man that gave away all of his money and gave a father dowry money so his girls didn't have to be prostitutes. HE DID NOT go house to house and give presents. You are thinking of the NORSE GOD ODIN.

Again, the "Santa" you know was created by the Montgomery Ward Department store and Coca Cola. You bought into their marketing big time.

Quoting khigh:" Did you not see my posts on the history of "Santa Claus"? St. Nick became a saint for raising people ... [snip!] ... "Santa" you know was created by the Montgomery Ward Department store and Coca Cola. You bought into their marketing big time."

Santa is not St Nick. I never said he was. An old guy (not Odin either) in a european village used to make and deliever gifts to kids in his village a long time ago. Nothing to do with st nick or odin. I bought into nothing.

Quoting Emmiboo:" Santa is not St Nick. I never said he was. An old guy (not Odin either) in a european village used to ... [snip!] ... to make and deliever gifts to kids in his village a long time ago. Nothing to do with st nick or odin. I bought into nothing."

Sinterklass? Yeah...he was made up. It's a Dutch tradition based on Saint Nicholas and where we got the name Santa Claus. There has never in the history of people been a guy that breaks into people's houses to deliver toys.

http://www.sinterklaasrhinebeck.com/what-is-sinterklaas.php

Quoting Mrs. Post-tato Head™:" So I'm one of those super realistic parents who doesn't lie to my children at all. If they ask me a question ... [snip!] ... so we don't celebrate Jesus' birthday or anything like that, so I don't need any advice from that angle... LOL Anyway, D&D"

We don't do the santa thing here.. we like to keep christmas about Jesus and have that be the main focus, however we read stories about santa and all that, my son knows he's not real.. but it's still a fun "pretend" part of christmas. We let him know that.
My reason isn't because I don't want to "lie" to my kids. I understand it's a fun christmas thing, and if parents wanna do it, that's fine. In our house we really just want the main focus to be on Jesus.

Quoting crazy coupon lady:" I know 3 sisters who were traumatized over, and 100% truth they hated their mom for lying to them, ... [snip!] ... to a word their mom said. lol They were 8,9,10 yrs old. I used to babysit them, before they went to live with their dad."

any child that traumatized over finding out about santa has other unaddressed issues for sure.

Quoting Blaine Edwards:" any child that traumatized over finding out about santa has other unaddressed issues for sure."

Actually no they dont. lol They are older now, all in their early 20's lol But they were always told never to lie for any reason and really took it to heart when finding out their mom lied to them for all that time.

Quoting crazy coupon lady:" Actually no they dont. lol They are older now, all in their early 20's lol But they were always told ... [snip!] ... always told never to lie for any reason and really took it to heart when finding out their mom lied to them for all that time."

i have my doubts about that, but okay.

Quoting Blaine Edwards:" i have my doubts about that, but okay."

It dont matter.
But if you were there when it happened , when they found out the truth, it was like someone had just told them grandma died. lol

Shoot I found the stash of presents one year and still thought santa was real lol. My mom told me that she buys the presents we NEED like clothes because santa doesn't make clothes, he just makes toys. So the toys were from santa, the clothes were from mom and dad lol.

I'm an athiest and I will still celebrate Christmas because to me its about family, not religion, and Santa is one of those things that comes along with Christmas. I loved sneaking out onto the couch to try to catch santa when I was little, I wouldn't deny my child the joys of all that, and waking up to the milk gone and the cookies eaten and wondering how I didn't hear santa and wake up lol.

Yeah, it's lying...but it's not a malicious lie, IDT.

My son will just know of Santa as a sweet, made up old man. No different than the Easter Bunny or Tooth Fairy.

The legend of Santa Claus can be traced back hundreds of years to a monk named St. Nicholas. It is believed that Nicholas was born sometime around 280 A.D. in Patara, near Myra in modern-day Turkey. Much admired for his piety and kindness, St. Nicholas became the subject of many legends. It is said that he gave away all of his inherited wealth and traveled the countryside helping the poor and sick. One of the best known of the St. Nicholas stories is that he saved three poor sisters from being sold into slavery or prostitution by their father by providing them with a dowry so that they could be married. Over the course of many years, Nicholas's popularity spread and he became known as the protector of children and sailors. His feast day is celebrated on the anniversary of his death, December 6. This was traditionally considered a lucky day to make large purchases or to get married. By the Renaissance, St. Nicholas was the most popular saint in Europe. Even after the Protestant Reformation, when the veneration of saints began to be discouraged, St. Nicholas maintained a positive reputation, especially in Holland.

Irrespective of whether you are a child or an adult, it is impossible to imagine Christmas without the legendary Santa Claus - a plump, jolly-natured, white-bearded man wearing a red coat with white cuffs and collars who moves around the world giving gifts to the children on the night before Christmas. As a child you must have spent quite a lot of time thinking, 's Santa Claus real?' As you grew up that question must have been replaced by, 'How did the legend of Santa Claus must have come into existence?' In a bid to find an answer to this very question, we delved into the history this tradition, and the information we came across was quite amazing in itself.

Santa Claus History

In the United States and Canada he is known as Santa Claus, while in United Kingdom he is more popular as Father Christmas. Even today, children across the world wait for Santa to get them their well-deserved gift. (No wonder, the children spend their whole year wondering, 'when Santa Claus will return?'.) While children wait for their gifts, adults wait for this moment because it makes Christmas celebration even more special. Even though the aforementioned description of Santa Claus aptly describes how we see him today, it has not always been the same. Whilst going through the history, you'd realize that the Santa Claus legend has come a long way to become what it is depicted as today. Given below is a summary of Santa Claus history which will give you the details of the journey of this legendary figure throughout the history.

St. Nicholas and Sinterklaas
The American Santa Claus draws inspiration from St. Nicholas of Myra, as well as the legends of Sinterklaas and Father Christmas from Europe. 'St. Nicholas' of Myra (present day Turkey which was then under the Byzantine Empire) was 4th century Greek Christian bishop renowned for his practice of giving gifts for the poor. One of the numerous legends about this great saint shows how he helped a poor man to marry off his three daughters by gifting away three bags of gold coin to him. St. Nicholas has been an inspiration for the Americanized Santa and so is 'Sinterklaas' - a legendary figure associated with Winter Holiday in various European countries. These European countries celebrate Sinterklaas tradition every year on 5th December (i.e. St. Nicholas eve) or on the early morning of 6th December. Yet another mythical figure which is closely associated with the legend of Santa Claus is 'Father Christmas' - a symbolic figure associated with Christmas celebrations in English speaking countries. Even though Father Christmas was considered to be a symbol of the spirit of Christmas celebrations just like the Santa - he never got Christmas gifts for children like Santa did. More recently, however, the two figures have been associated with each other, thus making differentiation very difficult.

Odin from Norse Mythology
While St. Nicholas, Sinterklaas and Father Christmas have been the most prominent influences for the legend of Santa, there are citations of many other influential figures in the history with whom the Santa Claus has been closely associated. One such figure is Odin (Woden) - a god from the Norse mythology who ruled the heavenly dwelling of the Norse gods Asgard. According to a popular folklore, when Odin used to hunt on his flying horse - Sleipnir, in the sky; the children used to place their boots filled with carrots and straw near the chimney for Sleipnir to eat. Odin used to give these children toys and candies as gifts in return for this favor. The practice of keeping boots near chimney flourished in Europe for a long time, and eventually made headway in the United States in the 17th century through New Amsterdam - which was then a Dutch colony. Eventually boots were replaced by stockings, and thus came into existence a new Christmas tradition of hanging stockings at the fireplace.

The Legend of Santa Claus in America
In the 17th century, this legendary figure made its way to the United States and Canada though the Dutch and British colonies. In the United States, the image of Santa Claus received a major makeover as the American cultural influence made him more than a mere gift-giver. The fist instance of the use of name 'Santa Claus' by the American media can be traced back to 1773. By 1809, the bishop's apparel worn by Sinterklaas had long gone, and the Americanized version represented Santa as a Dutch sailor with a thick belly and a green coat. As time elapsed, the thick belly became even thicker and Santa became a plump old man wearing a red and white coat. The modern image of Santa Claus - the one with which we tend to associate Santa today, is attributed to some of the most popular works of the 19th century American cartoonist - Thomas Nast. In fact, the story that Santa lives at the North Pole is also attributed to one of Nast's works.

Even though the history of Santa is quite interesting in itself, it is at times marred by some urban legends - the most popular among which is the myth that Santa Claus was a Coca Cola Company creation. Even though, Santa was used as a brand ambassador by Coca Cola Company in 1930s (and he does wear a red and white coat which are the colors used by this company,) concept is not at all its own creation. This may come as a surprise for many, but long before Coca Cola's Santa came into the picture, brand Santa was used by the White Rock Beverages to market their products. Even though the legend of Santa is traced back to several centuries, the concept continues to inspire writers, artists, and more importantly children - to good deeds, even today. After all, every child aspires to see his name in Santa's 'nice list', and not in the 'naughty list'!

Yes it's a lie (no way around that) and I'm perfectly fine with it. As others have said, I have so many wonderful magical memories of Christmas and I want my children to experience that same joy and magic. Christmas is still a very special happy time for now because of those childhood experiences.

<blockquote><b>Quoting Alicia Holz:</b>" Irrespective of whether you are a child or an adult, it is impossible to imagine Christmas without the ... [snip!] ... good deeds, even today. After all, every child aspires to see his name in Santa's 'nice list', and not in the 'naughty list'!"</blockquote>




When I was a baby my first stocking was actually a red boot that my parents had for both me and my sister. Later Mom made us our stocking which I still have and use. Thanks for this info it was nice reading it.

My fondest memory as a child seeing as this D&D got me thinking of my childhood and Christmas.
We were at my grandparents place on Christmas Day and us Kids were told that Santa was making a very special trip just for us and coming to Grandma and Grandpas house and giving us our special toy. We were so excited and couldn't even play cause we were always waiting and watching for Santa to show up. He finally came and he gave us all our gifts. I got a doll that had a blue dress on I loved that doll and I still have that doll. My daughter actually plays with it at my Moms. Still to this day I don't know who was the person who dressed up like Santa but I remember the excitement and anticipation that we all had that he was coming to see us.

Those are why I have my children believe in Santa as I have many memories of our Christmas's as children because of that belief. If you think it is lieing it is harmless lieing and shouldn't damage your child if there are enough fond memories of the fat guy in the red and white suite.

Quoting khigh:" Did you not see my posts on the history of "Santa Claus"? St. Nick became a saint for raising people ... [snip!] ... "Santa" you know was created by the Montgomery Ward Department store and Coca Cola. You bought into their marketing big time."

And thank goodness for that. It would be a lot harder to celebrate Christmas as an agnostic if it had to be all about religion or based on something "real."