How many ban Santa in your homes?

[BrasilNuts]

My son and I just got done writing a letter to Santa Claus.

[vaiger]

I will stand with the minority here. My wife and I both come from staunch pro-santa homes. When we started our own family, we talked about it and came to the same conclusion. We feel our number one goal as a parent is to hand off a personal faith in Jesus Christ to our kids. When we thought about telling our kids that a big fat man performs miracles and gives you good gifts on Christmas and he is real and you should believe in him even though you usually don't see him........oh, and by the way, Jesus performed miracles and loves you and wants to give you the most important gift and you don't see him.......we got concerned that those messages sounded quite the same. So, in light of our family mission, we have decided to be truthful with our kids about santa. We have taken the approach all along that lots of folks pretend that Santa is real and if they want to pretend he is real too, that's okay....but it is just pretend. Jesus on the other hand, is real. All of our cousins, etc. do the Santa thing and our kids have never blabbed. On Christmas morning, we are in a house full of kids with our extended family every year and you can't tell the difference in the kids that do Santa and the ones that don't. They are all very excited in the days leading up to it and they are incredibly excited on Christmas morning.

We are not ba-humbug people at all. We love Christmas. We decorate for Christmas. We loving buying gifts for others and receiving gifts. We read stories about St. Nicholas. We just choose to keep Jesus at the center of our celebration. We have lots of fun Christ-centered activities that we have done over the years and continue to do that add to the Christmas excitement while keeping the real meaning at the center.

My oldest is 11 now and we have never regretted our decision for one moment.

All that being said, great theologians hold different opinions on the matter and even James Dobson has said that he does not believe it is harmful to do Santa with the kids. So, I don't have stones to throw at the Santa crowd and I believe it is a pure coincidence that you can rearrange the letters in his name to spell "satan".

[sigrug17]

Santa isn't banned, but Obama, Pelosi, Holder, and Reid...are!!!! ; )

[Deerbnb]

My kids don't think much of it. We teach about giving and how Jesus gave himself for us and Santa never came into it. Do we make a big deal over it? No, They have fun with it like anything else, but that is the extent of it. I think folks get too worked over too many things.

Yep, Santa even visits our church to hand out gifts to the kids on the night of our Christmas program. I might add he visits AFTER the entire program that is centered around the true meaning of Christmas.

I have enjoyed reading all responses, what a can of worms someone opened hahaha.

JESUS is the reason for the season. But there is room to fit in tradition in MY FAMILY Christmas.

Merry Christmas to all....

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

[daddyo]

Yep, Santa even visits our church to hand out gifts to the kids on the night of our Christmas program. I might add he visits AFTER the entire program that is centered around the true meaning of Christmas.

I have enjoyed reading all responses, what a can of worms someone opened hahaha.

JESUS is the reason for the season. But there is room to fit in tradition in MY FAMILY Christmas.

Merry Christmas to all....

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

I remember Santa coming to visit in our church as a kid (late '50's - early 60's) and handing out candy. I remember being fairly impressed that Santa was a Christian, too.

[D3vo]

If you keep Jesus first I am with you 365 days a year, but I am with the rest. I say let children be children as long as you can. I would no sooner take Santa away than include my daughter in disucssions about how tight the finanaces are. If my daugther asks me point blank is Santa Claus real I will answer the question honestly, but in 7 1/2 years that hasn't happened.

[laktrash]

sorry couldn't resist

[BLACKVANDRIVER]

IMO, I feel that something like letting children be children is something that now days they are being robbed of. My son is 3 and I got all teary eyed at the Parade last week just to see the excitement and glow on his face and hear him screaming Santa Santa!

Now I realize that the comercial industry has ruined what it was all about but I know that some day my son won't be screaming Santa and he will now that it was all just make believe fairy tales.

But, if I start taking away all the things like Santa, Easter Bunny,ect things that might one day give him the imagination to dream and create as a child all because I didnt want him to then who knows what he might have dreamed or inspired to do as a man.

On a side note. How many men believed in Saint Nick on Christmas Day 1914 WWI "The Christmas Truce"

The Christmas Truce (World War I, Holiday Stories)

[Guest nicemac]

Anything that encourages a child to use his/her imagination is a good thing.

Anything? Really?

[bajabuc]

Santa's not real?

am so

[Guest db99wj]

am so

Laugh out loud post of the day!

[R1100R]

am so

My Daughter said bajabuc was Santa Claus while sitting next to me looking at his picture. So it must be true!!

[Timestepper]

am so

Uh, Santa? Please tell me that you're wearing a flesh colored shirt in your avatar pic and that you're not really bare-chested. I really would like to sleep without nightmares between now and Christmas!

[TNMP40]

Get a Life

[Timestepper]

Had one. Gave it up for Lent. Doesn't seem to be worth the trouble to look for another one.

[Guest Broomhead]

Get a Life

Polite much?

[peejman]

As many others have said, please don't let your cynicism stifle your child's creativity. The mind of a child can come up with some amazing things. For example... I spent about an hour eating pancakes with my 3 yr old the other day. It seems his toy cars had been magically transformed into pancake shooters. We were sitting in the floor using toy cars to shoot (imaginary) pancakes at each other. We were snatching these flying pancakes with our mouths and eating them up. They were quite tasty and I was quite full when we were done. Bet you didn't know that was possible, did you?

[daddyo]

Get a Life

C'mon, expound on that profundity.

[Smith]

I have no problem with people having fun with it. The only thing that makes me uneasy is the lengths that some adults go through to convince and argue with kids of the idea. Seriously, I've actually had people get irrittated with my kids becasue they doubted the claim.

[Mike.357]

I came clean to the 9 year old grandson about it the other night. No point in trying to force myth upon him when he plainly knew better.

He was not upset at all and wanted to hear it from me.

But i did crawl his butt for his efforts in trying to ruin it for his 4 year old brother.

[shaftbass]

I'm glad my parents let me be an American kid and enjoy the excitement of Santa Claus on Christmas. Christmas movies, pictures with Santa, looking out the window trying to find him, milk and cookies, the endless lists.

I guess if you want to technically look at it, it's a lie. I told my mom as much when I was 6 and found out he wasn't real. But looking at a lot of things technically can make them seem bad, even when they're not.

Of course, I was heartbroken when my brother showed me presents that were to us from Santa a week before Christmas that were hidden under the bed, but it's fun to think back about when you found out Santa wasn't real. Just about everyone has that story, except the Jehova Witness kids. I don't want my kids to be like Jehova Witness kids.

Santa lives.

Here's some food for thought for those who ban Santa and the representation thereof in your home. Do you also ban the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, and/or God in your home?

Edited December 15, 2011 by ReefBlueCoupe

[Guest nicemac]

Here's some food for thought for those who ban Santa and the representation thereof in your home. Do you also ban the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, and/or God in your home?

Sorry but belief in Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and God are not the same thing at all.

[cajunpredfan]

Here's some food for thought for those who ban Santa and the representation thereof in your home. Do you also ban the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, and/or God in your home?

I was with you until you added the big guy.

Driving home last night with my 15 yo daughter I asked for her thoughts on this subject. She said that she loved Santa as a child and was glad that we gave her the opportunity to imagine. She said she loved Santa. She was also glad that we did not try to convince her otherwise when she started to seriously doubt in his existence.

[shaftbass]

I guess the Santa thing could be seen as a life lesson to teach kids to think for themselves. Something isn't right, things don't add up, and think something isn't real even though you've been led to believe he/she/it is? You're probably right.

[Oh Shoot]

I guess the Santa thing could be seen as a life lesson to teach kids to think for themselves. Something isn't right, things don't add up, and think something isn't real even though you've been led to believe he/she/it is? ..

That is the succinct case for agnosticism.

- OS