Santa Claus/Father Christmas

Of course we should delude children in this way, its a magical wonderful idea and by the time you find out you don't mind because you are getting presents. I don't see why you should take all the innocence away from children they are still children and should believe in magic.

The best answer I can think of is here -

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Or Try This

http://www.educa.rcanaria.es/usr/zonzamas/virginia.htm

This sounds a bit like a UK govt. policy .... the nanny state ... kind of thing that they'd do!!!

'don't tell your child the story of Father Christmas, it may psychologically affect them for life'

Oh please!

Kira

children have a way of sorting this out for themselves that said the look my oldest had when see saw the cookies had been eaten,the milk drank and the bits of carrots on the sidewalk left behind by the reindeer was priceless. i'm going to miss that.

#4:

Grandmother, I surely didn't mean that the story of Santa Claus will psychologically affect anyone for life.

But I understand that some things probably have long scaped your very tired mind.

In fact, even I myself must confess I would have to struggle to remember what Santa Claus offered me when I was a little girl (or at least, to remember more than 2 or 3 things at the most).
I don't remember exactly how old I was when I stopped believing in Santa Claus either. Perhaps because there was a "period of acceptance". There was a period (about 2 or 3 years) in which I felt sad and disappointed that Santa Claus didn't exist.
Then, I finally accepted it, and the story of Santa Claus became a joke.

I'm not a parent, and I'm not concerned in the least about that.

But to be sincere, I'm not sure if it's necessary to tell children the story of Santa Claus, as if it was true.
I think if I have a child, I will most likely tell the story of Santa Claus like the story Cinderella, the story of Sleeping Beauty or any other. "You know, legend has it that if children are good, an old man with with a white beard who lives in the North Pole will come and bring presents to them..."

After all, in their childhood, girls dream of being beautiful when grow up, about meeting a charming 'prince', about having this or that profession... and so on...

However, sooner or later, we have to accept that things can not be always as 'pink' as we wish...

So, why the need to tell lies on purpose?...

(To me, that sounds more or less like saying, that all girls will become beautiful when they grow up, they will all find a 'charming prince' who will carry them in their very strong arms, and so on...)

I wrestled with this a bit when I had my son. I am totally playing this whole parenting thing by ear...anyway, I eventually decided not to tell him anything. When he got old enough to absorb the whole Santa concept from the world around him (he's 4 now), he asked me if there was really this marvelous old guy who wore an outrageous suit and had flying reindeer and brought kids presents. And I told him the truth -- that some people believe in Santa and some don't. That it's all about magic and some believe in it and some do not. I told him it was up to him to believe whatever he chose. And he immediately brightened and said that he DEFINITELY believed in Santa -- which I think is pretty cool. And so we have gone with the Santa thing...it is really so much fun!

What do you say to your 4 year old when he's scared of the monsters (wherever they might be - under the bed or just the lights on an office building he see everynight that look like angry eyes) - do you poo-poo the idea that there's monsters and tell him he's silly or do you make him feel safe - so that the monster's won't bother him???

With my 4 year old I always shoo away the monsters and invent new ways to prevent them coming into the apartment etc etc... He then feels much more secure in his world - he's sure there's monsters so you need to deal with them.

The same with Santa - let them believe in it for as long as possible, some (like my wife when she was a kid), continued to "believe" so as not to disappoint their parents... I would just say though, not to use Santa as a threat - "If you're not good, Santa won't come".... because you know "he" will bring presents...

Having played Santa professionally over the years, all I can say is nothing beats the look on a child's face, the wonder in his eyes, as he comes up to this complete stranger with no fear (well most of them anyway), to talk about what they would like. And you will find that most kids aren't as selfish as we think they would be - many times Santa was asked to bring things for other people in their lives rather than themselves. It has been a very humbling experience playing jolly old St. Nick and I still love doing it.

And my final word - isn't there a little Santa in all of us - and why should be deny this part of us to our kids and those around us.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night....

I, like Waterdragon, was also conflicted about whether to tell my daughter or not - I didn't want her to feel I'd lied to her. So, I didn't say a whole lot either way. I guess it's lucky for me she never asked about monsters under the bed!!!

She's 10 now, and I SO REGRET not making Santa a bigger deal. If I had to do it over again, I would go all out and make reindeer dust (glitter with uncooked oatmeal, thrown about the grass), and take bites out of cookies and the whole kit 'n caboodle. In fact, even though she knows Santa isn't real now, I told her how sad I was that I didn't make it a bigger deal, so now we both kinda pretend and make a big deal about Santa. I was a young mother, single and unsure of myself. My sister was the best mom I knew (and still is!!) and so I just did what she did, because I didn't really know what to do.

I guess we live and learn, huh?