Ho Friggin' Ho!
I can't remember exactly when I stopped believing in Santa Claus. You'd think this would be a semi-traumatic experience and I should be able to recall it. Then again, like most people, I claimed belief in the fat man long after I actually figured it out. No point in killing off the cash cow.
I do recall that I started having doubts about the Easter Bunny before I started questioning Old Saint Nick. I'm not sure if it was that I found the idea of a walking-talking rabbit far fetched while the idea of a guy who flies around in a reindeer-pulled sled seemed perfectly logical. Well, maybe not perfectly logical. I think I became an Easter Bunny athiest while remaining a Santa Claus agnostic.
Perhaps it was because Santa had a much richer mythology than the Easter Bunny that made the jolly elf seem more real. I could name all of Santa's reinders + Rudolph and knew he lived in the North Pole and was married and had elves making brand-name toys.
On the other hand, I really knew nothing about the Easter Bunny. Where did he live? Did he paint all those eggs himself? Why did he even do this in the first place? Santa, of course, wanted to see all the good little boys and girls happy on Chrismas morning but what's up with the Easter Bunny? Is the rabbit interested in childrens' hapiness or was he just some kind of merry prankster hiding eggs all willy-nilly?
Of course, the best lies are usually the simple ones. The ones that don't have too many details that can be disproven. So it seems to me that Santa would be the one I called out first. Sure we know a lot about him but there's a lot of holes in his story. How does a fat guy fit in the chimneys? What about kids that don't have chimneys? How does he fit all that stuff in the sleigh? And even with flying reindeer, how does he get to every single house in the world in one night?
In contrast, since we really know nothing about the Easter Bunny, there's a lot less to question. For all I know, there could be mutliple Easter Bunnies. It would be relatively easy for my neighborhood bunny to hide all the eggs in my block in a single evening. Besides, I had squirrels that got in my house once, so it would be pretty easy for a rabbit to get in there as well. So it would seem that Santa would actually be more far fetched.
Of course, a child's logic isn't anything like normal logical logic. For example, the idea of a lecherous old man spying on me to see if I'm naughty would give me the creeps now, but as a kid I had no problem with it as long as it meant I'd be getting shiny new toys. Makes me wonder if the need for privacy is a learned behavior since I obviously didn't think twice about it as a child.
Another thing that never struck me as a child was what a raw deal the Tooth Fairy got. Santa works one day a year and he hogs all the glory. The poor Tooth Fairy has to work every day; weekends and holidays, since kids are always losing teeth. Yet she doesn't get much respect. There is no Tooth Fairy Day. We get a day for the lousy groundhog and clueless Chris Columbus, but no recognition for the woman who selflessly gave her entire fortune and only asking for a tooth that I would've thrown away in return. It's just not fair.
I do recall that I started having doubts about the Easter Bunny before I started questioning Old Saint Nick. I'm not sure if it was that I found the idea of a walking-talking rabbit far fetched while the idea of a guy who flies around in a reindeer-pulled sled seemed perfectly logical. Well, maybe not perfectly logical. I think I became an Easter Bunny athiest while remaining a Santa Claus agnostic.
Perhaps it was because Santa had a much richer mythology than the Easter Bunny that made the jolly elf seem more real. I could name all of Santa's reinders + Rudolph and knew he lived in the North Pole and was married and had elves making brand-name toys.
On the other hand, I really knew nothing about the Easter Bunny. Where did he live? Did he paint all those eggs himself? Why did he even do this in the first place? Santa, of course, wanted to see all the good little boys and girls happy on Chrismas morning but what's up with the Easter Bunny? Is the rabbit interested in childrens' hapiness or was he just some kind of merry prankster hiding eggs all willy-nilly?
Of course, the best lies are usually the simple ones. The ones that don't have too many details that can be disproven. So it seems to me that Santa would be the one I called out first. Sure we know a lot about him but there's a lot of holes in his story. How does a fat guy fit in the chimneys? What about kids that don't have chimneys? How does he fit all that stuff in the sleigh? And even with flying reindeer, how does he get to every single house in the world in one night?
In contrast, since we really know nothing about the Easter Bunny, there's a lot less to question. For all I know, there could be mutliple Easter Bunnies. It would be relatively easy for my neighborhood bunny to hide all the eggs in my block in a single evening. Besides, I had squirrels that got in my house once, so it would be pretty easy for a rabbit to get in there as well. So it would seem that Santa would actually be more far fetched.
Of course, a child's logic isn't anything like normal logical logic. For example, the idea of a lecherous old man spying on me to see if I'm naughty would give me the creeps now, but as a kid I had no problem with it as long as it meant I'd be getting shiny new toys. Makes me wonder if the need for privacy is a learned behavior since I obviously didn't think twice about it as a child.
Another thing that never struck me as a child was what a raw deal the Tooth Fairy got. Santa works one day a year and he hogs all the glory. The poor Tooth Fairy has to work every day; weekends and holidays, since kids are always losing teeth. Yet she doesn't get much respect. There is no Tooth Fairy Day. We get a day for the lousy groundhog and clueless Chris Columbus, but no recognition for the woman who selflessly gave her entire fortune and only asking for a tooth that I would've thrown away in return. It's just not fair.