Santa or No Santa?

[Cecilie1200]

So where do you stand on teaching your children to believe in Santa? I've mentioned on another thread that I never did, and believe that this is part of the reason that my children don't seem to have ever experienced a "drop" in their level of Christmas excitement as they got older. Anyway, my hyperliteral rugrats would have gotten pissed at me for lying to them.

What about the rest of you?

 

[xotoxi]

I only teach my children the truth.

And the truth is that Santa likes a HUGE plate of cookies and he'll be pissed if the plate isn't HUGE!

 

[Cecilie1200]

I only teach my children the truth.

And the truth is that Santa likes a HUGE plate of cookies and he'll be pissed if the plate isn't HUGE!

Since I'm the one in charge of cookie-baking around here, anyway, there's no point. I might as well just bake myself a big plate of cookies openly, and be done with it.

Although in my house, it's more Christmas fudge than Christmas cookies.

 

[Ringel05]

Santa or No Santa?

Not sure. What does the clause have to say? And be sure to check the fine print.

 

[Oddball]

 

[Mr. H.]

It's fun when the kids are young. As they get older they figure it out themselves, then you switch to the "spirit of Christmas" mode. By middle school/high school it's all about the money and high tech shit.

 

[uscitizen]

You can't celebrate the birth of Christ without Santa!
I guess he hauled the wise guys around.

 

[Anguille]

Santa or No Santa?

Not sure. What does the clause have to say? And be sure to check the fine print.

Read carefully, don't fall for any sleigh of hand.

 

[Cecilie1200]

It's fun when the kids are young. As they get older they figure it out themselves, then you switch to the "spirit of Christmas" mode. By middle school/high school it's all about the money and high tech shit.

So far, my two oldest have never gone through the "all about money and high tech shit" stage. My daughter came by last night, all excited to show me the presents she had bought for her son, boyfriend, and little brothers, and wanting to know if she could hide some of the presents here. My oldest son wants to look in the toy section of every store we go to for age-appropriate presents for his baby brother. Christmas always makes me feel better about the job I did raising these two. Brats they often are, but they have very generous hearts.

 

[Dis]

My 5 year old nephew wants to know why we have to ask "Santa" for something when we can just go to Target and get it...

Of course, he also wants to know what the point behind getting dressed up in costumes, and going door to door asking for candy is when we can just get that at Target, too, so...

 

[xotoxi]

I only teach my children the truth.

And the truth is that Santa likes a HUGE plate of cookies and he'll be pissed if the plate isn't HUGE!

Since I'm the one in charge of cookie-baking around here, anyway, there's no point. I might as well just bake myself a big plate of cookies openly, and be done with it.

Although in my house, it's more Christmas fudge than Christmas cookies.

May I come over to you house?

I LOVE PACKING FUDGE into my mouth.

 

[Cecilie1200]

You can't celebrate the birth of Christ without Santa!
I guess he hauled the wise guys around.

Actually, his origin is as a Catholic saint, the patron saint of children, in fact.

Saint Nicholas ::: Discovering the Truth About Santa Claus

 

[Cecilie1200]

I only teach my children the truth.

And the truth is that Santa likes a HUGE plate of cookies and he'll be pissed if the plate isn't HUGE!

Since I'm the one in charge of cookie-baking around here, anyway, there's no point. I might as well just bake myself a big plate of cookies openly, and be done with it.

Although in my house, it's more Christmas fudge than Christmas cookies.

May I come over to you house?

I LOVE PACKING FUDGE into my mouth.

Sure, why not? I just got done with my tamale-making binge, and tomorrow I start on Christmas fudge for all the people who need presents, but not enough for me to spend money on.

 

[xotoxi]

You can't celebrate the birth of Christ without Santa!
I guess he hauled the wise guys around.

Actually, his origin is as a Catholic saint, the patron saint of children, in fact.

Saint Nicholas ::: Discovering the Truth About Santa Claus

If you say Saint Nicolas over and over really fast, it becomes Santa Claus.


Saint Nicolas
Saintnicolas
Saintniclas
Santniclas
Santiclas
Santiclaus
Santaclaus
Santa Claus

 

[Cecilie1200]

You can't celebrate the birth of Christ without Santa!
I guess he hauled the wise guys around.

Actually, his origin is as a Catholic saint, the patron saint of children, in fact.

Saint Nicholas ::: Discovering the Truth About Santa Claus

If you say Saint Nicolas over and over really fast, it becomes Santa Claus.


Saint Nicolas
Saintnicolas
Saintniclas
Santniclas
Santiclas
Santiclaus
Santaclaus
Santa Claus

I suppose, but I suspect the name change comes more from the Dutch translation. "Klaus" is the Dutch form of the name "Nicholas", and much of our modern American representation of Santa Claus comes from a desire of descendants of Dutch immigrants to re-identify with their roots, and a variety of writers, poets, and artists adding their own interpretations.

 

[xotoxi]

Actually, his origin is as a Catholic saint, the patron saint of children, in fact.

Saint Nicholas ::: Discovering the Truth About Santa Claus

If you say Saint Nicolas over and over really fast, it becomes Santa Claus.


Saint Nicolas
Saintnicolas
Saintniclas
Santniclas
Santiclas
Santiclaus
Santaclaus
Santa Claus

I suppose, but I suspect the name change comes more from the Dutch translation. "Klaus" is the Dutch form of the name "Nicholas", and much of our modern American representation of Santa Claus comes from a desire of descendants of Dutch immigrants to re-identify with their roots, and a variety of writers, poets, and artists adding their own interpretations.

That works too...that is if you trust the Dutch!

Anyone who builds their country below sea level hasn't got much common sense.

 

[Cecilie1200]

If you say Saint Nicolas over and over really fast, it becomes Santa Claus.


Saint Nicolas
Saintnicolas
Saintniclas
Santniclas
Santiclas
Santiclaus
Santaclaus
Santa Claus

I suppose, but I suspect the name change comes more from the Dutch translation. "Klaus" is the Dutch form of the name "Nicholas", and much of our modern American representation of Santa Claus comes from a desire of descendants of Dutch immigrants to re-identify with their roots, and a variety of writers, poets, and artists adding their own interpretations.

That works too...that is if you trust the Dutch!

Anyone who builds their country below sea level hasn't got much common sense.

Seems to have worked, though, because they're still there and you don't see THEM having a "New Orleans during Katrina" moment.

Sometimes, the most sensible thing you can do is stake out a piece of land no one else wants, because then no one's likely to come kill you for it.

 

[Big Black Dog]

I never bought into the Santa Claus thing when I was a kid growing up. It just didn't make alot of sense to me. However, when I found out there was no Easter Bunny I was totally destroyed emotionally. It caused me to nearly fail the 9th grade.

 

[007]

No Santa, and forget Christmas too. Don't believe in any of it.

 

[Samson]

Recently my 7 year old told me that her friend, Emily, said her parents told her there WAS NO SANTA.

I've always loved memories of childhood that included a rich fantasy life: A Fairy actually crept under my pillow for teeth, werewolves came out on Halloween, a Magic Rabbit was responsible for Easter Fun, and SANTA CLAUSE WAS REAL.

I considered all this, and the comparatively prudish lives poor Emily's parents had sentenced her too, and replied to my daughter that:

If she wanted any presents from Santa, then she had to believe in Santa.

Does she believe?

YES.