Is pretending to kids about Santa not just completely lying?

axer

I was just reading a thread about kids that found their christmas presents and the trouble it has caused that they are now going to swap them for something else.

It got me thinking - is it morally wrong to blatantly lie to your kids by telling them there is a Santa?

I am not sure. I have no kids yet so am not sure how I would handle it. I have heard of parents who do not lie about it and are honest to their children about christmas presents etc. Is that ruining the fun?

There is also the fact that Santa has nothing to do with the real reason for christmas and at this stage has taken over the real reason for christmas i.e. the birth of christ. Now, I am not a religious person so I am not bothered so much about the last reason but I don't like the idea of blatently lying to any future kids I might have.

What do you think?

Skellington

axer wrote: »

It got me thinking - is it morally wrong to blatantly lie to your kids by telling them there is a Santa?

What do you think?

Then what about the easter bunny or the tooth fairy? What's morally wrong about bringing a bit of magic into a kids life? It's only for a couple of years before they grow up and realize the world can actually be fairly sh!t. Let them enjoy it while they can.

daveirl

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enner43

micmclo wrote: »

It's no different to telling kids their grandparents are gone to heaven and not being eaten by worms. Same principle.

Its not the same thing at all! I mean we all know for sure that there is no Santa wheras no one can say for sure what happens when you die.

daveirl wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Im a bit curious as to what the 'real reason' for Christmas was before Christianity?

JC 2K3

A pagan festival.

alan4cult

enner43 wrote: »

Its not the same thing at all! I mean we all know for sure that there is no Santa wheras no one can say for sure what happens when you die.

Except for the Children. They don't know that Santa doesn't exist. So they can't say for sure. We can't say for sure what happens when we die but everything is realtive so when we eventually find out what happens when we die it can be compared to the death of the expectations of Santa's visit in a child's eyes.

0ubliette

Skellington wrote: »

Then what about the easter bunny or the tooth fairy? What's morally wrong about bringing a bit of magic into a kids life? It's only for a couple of years before they grow up and realize the world can actually be fairly sh!t. Let them enjoy it while they can.

too true. Christmas was the one time of year as a kid when magic actually happened. It was something amazing as a child, and i still love it as a grown up. Kids grow up far too fast these days, i think its only fair to let them have some magic in their lives before theyre too old for it. If or when i ever have kids ill do my best to make sure christmas is 100% magic for them.

rmacm

The holiday that the Catholic church hijacked was Dies Natalis Invicti Solis as far as I know (open to correction on this). I was told by my parents that there was no Santa about the age of 8 or 9. I think this killed Chirstmas for me to a certain extent although my brother and sister still believed at that stage (they're older and wiser now).

This Christmas in particular didn't feel like Christmas as I knew it probably because all of us had grown up. I don't think pretending to kids about Santa is totally lying if it brings them a bit of joy I'm all for it to be honest given that only bit of joy I get out of Christmas now is meeting a small few friends from my home town and the amount of smoked salmon and prawns I get to eat.

ShoulderChip

you need to watch zeitgeistmovie.com

“Mithras, the sun-god, was born of a virgin in a cave on December 25, and worshipped on Sunday, the day of the conquering sun. He was a savior-god who rivaled Jesus in popularity. He died and was resurrected in order to become a messenger god, an intermediary between man and the good god of light, and the leader of the forces of righteousness against the dark forces of the god evil.”


he was not the first sun god either to be born on this day, to have 12 disciples, to be born to a virgin, to be visited by three wise men, to start his ministry at 30 after being tempted by teh devil, to walk on water, to do tricks with bread and fish, to be worshipped with bread and wine, to be killed and rise again after 3 days etc.

take a look into osiris, horus, krishna, buddha, Mithrais, donyeus etc, many of whom share most of these features, horus was from 5000bc and a god for egyptians watch the film to understand why these traits came about.

dr_manhattan

yes, yes, yes we all know that christians didn't invent christmas.

doesn't change the fact that there's nothing wrong with telling kids the odd whopping fib, as long as it's a good one, which hopefully tries to improve their behaviour in some way shape or form whilst retaining a sense of wonder in the world on the 25th of december.

fables, myths and legends are good for kids... and funnily enough one of the few bits of christmas without a price tag. They're not lies they're stories, do you shake your fist at the 'morality' of a fictional novel, written by a big fat liar?

pm1979

axer wrote: »

It got me thinking - is it morally wrong to blatantly lie to your kids by telling them there is a Santa

surely you mean 'lie to your kids by telling them there ISN'T a Santa.'

Because there is a santa.

I saw him.

Tar.Aldarion

Yup, said he was flying around on RTE news, must be true.

metrovelvet

I have pictures.

moe_sizlak

axer wrote: »

I was just reading a thread about kids that found their christmas presents and the trouble it has caused that they are now going to swap them for something else.

It got me thinking - is it morally wrong to blatantly lie to your kids by telling them there is a Santa?

I am not sure. I have no kids yet so am not sure how I would handle it. I have heard of parents who do not lie about it and are honest to their children about christmas presents etc. Is that ruining the fun?

There is also the fact that Santa has nothing to do with the real reason for christmas and at this stage has taken over the real reason for christmas i.e. the birth of christ. Now, I am not a religious person so I am not bothered so much about the last reason but I don't like the idea of blatently lying to any future kids I might have.

What do you think?

i think there mustnt have been much on the telly for you to have got thinking about that

JimiTime

axer wrote: »

I was just reading a thread about kids that found their christmas presents and the trouble it has caused that they are now going to swap them for something else.

It got me thinking - is it morally wrong to blatantly lie to your kids by telling them there is a Santa?

I am not sure. I have no kids yet so am not sure how I would handle it. I have heard of parents who do not lie about it and are honest to their children about christmas presents etc. Is that ruining the fun?

There is also the fact that Santa has nothing to do with the real reason for christmas and at this stage has taken over the real reason for christmas i.e. the birth of christ. Now, I am not a religious person so I am not bothered so much about the last reason but I don't like the idea of blatently lying to any future kids I might have.

What do you think?

In a word, Yes. It is a lie. Now its just a matter of thinking, are lies, in any capacity, right. If you think they are, then fine. If not, then you stop lieing to your child as its a bad example to set. From a christian point of view, lieing is wrong, full stop. Most just see it as harmless fun though, however, its still wrong.

L31mr0d

heres a question for those who do tell their kids about santa... do you's hold true to the whole naughty or nice thing. i.e. you won't give your kids presents if they are bold before xmas... I was asking a few people in work this and they said regardless of what the kids did they'd still get presents, they could punch their little sister in the face and still get a PS3 on xmas day as they believed it cruel to not give them presents.

I thought the whole point of santa claus was that parents could bribe their children into being nice when the family is over in exchange for presents