Voice post. AFFECTED AS HECK :c

[raisedinabox]

I remember hearing about an artist who hired billboards one Christmas to put up these huge posters, saying: "Santa gives rich kids more toys

Comments

[victimofnoone]

If kids knew it came from their parents, it would make the holiday just like a birthday or whatever. The original St. Nicholas that most cultures base Santa Claus on totally gave gifts to strangers. Besides, there's nothing wrong with believing in a little magic and developing some optimist instead of just like, being a "realist" and jaded your whole life.

[raisedinabox]

Maybe if you come from a rich family then having a little magic behind why you get the best toys once a year is fine, but if all your family can afford to give you is second hand or homemade gifts, then it seems unfair to be told that what you get depends on how good you are, when regardless of their behavior the kid next door is always going to get something better.

If children honestly believe that story, then they also must believe that the ones with the best presents are the best behaved or the best liked. Personally, I don't think that's a fair message to send.

At Christmas, everyone receives something. Everyone who can afford to give things to the people they care about does so. Families come together and eat together and enjoy each others company, without it being all about any one person. That's what makes it different to birthday celebrations, and I don't think that appreciating the reality of that makes you jaded at all.

[victimofnoone]

Maybe if you were raised in a not-rich family, you would still appreciate getting gifts at all because you aren't spoiled. Besides, there's always someone getting something better or more of what you wanted or a gift that's better six months from now. You'll always be happy to get something and later wish you got something else, even if you love what you got. It's just how people are.

I think kids can believe in Santa Claus without believing that their goodness if a direct cause of their number of presents.

I think Christmas is the same with or without Santa, except the kid's enthusiasm in the morning and their later likelihood to be optimistic and believe in wishes coming true. And if the parents tell them right, I think they learn that they have to work to make those dreams come true, but that they still can. If you grow up without Santa, I don't think you'd really believe in anyone being extraordinary.

[raisedinabox]

If the best example a parent can think of to make their children believe in the capacity for human beings to be extraordinary is a fictional character, then they need to invest in a history book. You want your children to believe in wishes coming true? Forget Santa and teach them about the civil rights movement.

I agree with you though, I think that children can be grateful and excited to be getting gifts regardless of what wealthier children are getting, and I also think they would feel that way knowing that it's their friends and family who give them gifts.

[victimofnoone]

Or you could do both, teach them about Santa and civil rights.

[raisedinabox]

My point is, why lie to your children to make optimists of them, when there's nothing more inspirational than the truth? History is full of the triumphs of human endeavor, and your kids are never going to find out the Martin Luther King was just a story you made up to put a bit more magic into Christmas.

[victimofnoone]

Because it shows that you care enough to put in the effort.

[raisedinabox]

Maybe. I don't think following convention without considering what message you're sending takes a lot of effort. But I don't know, I've never been a parent.

[victimofnoone]

To tell your kids the story? To work harder to give them presents you won't take credit for for a decade? I always admired parents who did the whole Santa thing.

[raisedinabox]

Those are some pretty major presumptions to make about parents who choose not to tell their kids about Santa. That they don't work as hard for their children? Sorry, I don't find that credible.

I mean, whatever I may think about the story of Santa Clause, I don't think it's a reflection upon the parents who tell it. I just also think that it's worth reconsidering the value of it.

[victimofnoone]

I'm not saying parents that don't do the whole Santa thing don't work as hard. I'm just saying Santa is evidence of caring.. that's all.

[raisedinabox]

Maybe. I guess it's all a matter of perception.

[victimofnoone]

Did your parents do Santa with you?

[raisedinabox]

Yes, and in doing so made evident in themselves all the good qualities to which you've just referred.

[Pause]

Uh, that came out a little stiffly. They did tell me Santa, but it wasn't treated as a big thing.

[victimofnoone]

So you believed in Santa. Or you didn't, but you knew about him. Help me out.

[raisedinabox]

I believed in him, but my upbringing isn't really representational of what most children experience. I was an only child raised out in the country, so I didn't have a lot of outside influences on what I was learning. I just believed whatever my parents told me and whatever they said on TV.