Do you think it is OK to tell a child Santa is not real? Or not?

Or do you think they need to be told about Mr. Tshardzkardica?

Plastic or myth which do the kids need to know?

Inquring minds want to know!

It is the sole discretion of the parent or guardian to make such decisions.

What if Lil' Johnny tells his kid sister Lit-ler Annie that it ain't so? Is it OK to punish Lil' Johnny?

And I apologize up front if any of my potential future responses come off as considering absolutely absurd the idea that teaching young children to believe in santa claus is somehow detrimental to them or worthy of 'how dare they' type idealism.

:sarcasm:

If Johnny knew better, and did it out of knowledge that he would hurt her feelings, than absolutely 100% he should be disciplined, as that is inappropriate behavior.

I guess I could have said "lie" for myth. That really does say an awfully lot about us as a culture.

If a parent wants their child to feel the magic and spirit of christmas, the tooth fairy and the easter bunny then that is the parent's business. There is a small window of time in life when it is so innocent that fantasy and myth can be explored and enjoyed. Having the nerve to judge parents for sharing the special joy that is santa claus with them by calling them liars is downright pathetic.

If the parent has fun with the child and it is done in the overwhelmingly harmless way as is typical, then I don't see how it is any of your business or concern. I would challenge you to provide me any remote evidence that perpetuating this myth to children somehow negatively distorts them later on, or is partially responsible for later-in-life denegration of civil society. From where I sit that notion is beyond absurd.

As a liberal, one thing I cannot stand is self-righteous preachers trying to shove their misguided ideals down everyone elses throats because they feel they are the ONLY right ones.

For the record, I can't wait to put on the santa claus outfit for my kids and see their faces when they are old enough.

Sorry you find offense.

I accept that you feel it is a parents choice. Sorry you take that as upsetting.

you should.

And sorry if I don't take your replies as just innocent exploration, as I wasn't born yesterday.

And thanks for accepting my postion :eyes: but do you also accept that the alternative argument is frankly none of your business?

And that is OK by me.

I'm asking for yours.

Is it or is it not your business if a parent wants their own kids to believe in santa?

I think that the perpetuation of fables, myths, lies, etc in society is interesting.

I have no agenda other than to ask questions to plumb that. If that bothers you I am sorry.

my toast.

I most definitely didn't get the vibe that you were just exploring, especially with the 'liar' line. But if you are truly pure in exploration of an interesting social topic, then no ill will here at all.

:toast:

:toast:

post war. I like the ones I can disagree with, even to the extent that I had come off prickish, yet still resolve it with clinck and a chug LOL

It's all good HS1628

Kids tend to relinquish that myth in their own time, not somebody else's.

If a myth is useful to explain a thing, then there's nothing wrong with it. And just because a myth doesn't contain genuine, historical fact doesn't mean that it's a lie. It's like poetry in that way. Was Kubla Kahn a lie? No, it was a poem, and it's not judged on that sort of scale. Further, all good myths contain truths, again, not necessarily truth of the factual kind.

Having said all of that, I also believe that myths can be very dangerous. They're dangerous when people try to take them too literally. And they're dangerous when their adherents don't allow their mythology to change with the times. If the fundagelicals looked at Genesis as beautiful poetry with some great truths, they'd save themselves and the rest of us a lot of heartache. But they insist on the literal 7-day thing, and the Eve-from-rib hypothesis, and so many other stories from the Bible. This constitutes a broken-down myth, one that's no longer functional or useful.

In the case of Santa Claus, clearly it's a great deal more light-hearted than the above-mentioned material. It lets both kids and parents have a little magic in their lives. It's not a lie. It's great mythology, and it works (one of those pre-reqs of great mythology).

So when they ask at a pretty young age if Santa Claus is real, you just tell them, "Yes, Virginia, the SPIRIT of Santa Claus is very real". When they're old enough to catch that 'spirit' part, then they're old enough to let go of that myth--at least until they revive it in their future roles as parents.

(most ideas listed here credited to the late great Joseph Campbell)

Thanks.

:cry:

What kind of crap are you peddling on this site?

Next you'll tell me the Tooth Fairy didn't leave that quarter under my pillow!

Just try to tell me the Easter Bunny didn't bring me that candy and hard boiled egg.

Evil, evil mind you have!!!

I'm going to find my Leprechaun friend and go get some green beer :beer:

. . . whenever I see a satire prone subject line and want to post something funny, someone always seems to have beaten me to it.
Oh well.
R

:hug:

It's going to be a bad day for you, isn't it?

:hug:

Mr. Hooper's death was enough to throw me over the edge!

The other characters are puppets though.

Cookie Monster is a puppet?????? You are out of your mind!

That's a good one :bounce:

When we were returning from Easter Sunday mass when she was about 2.5yo, she proclaimed loudly and with glee:

"The Easter Bunny isn't dead anymore!"

I guess she got her stories a wee bit confused. :blush:

kids :)

GO BEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SEVEN IN A ROWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

Didn't realize he was such a nature lover.


On edit:

Wait a second....SANTA'S DEAD? This is too much in one day :cry:

was a real Santa, until they told me differently. Then I admitted it! Am I bad or what? :crazy:

Cause that is a basic approach of Du'ers towards the Bush Administration.

I am assuming you are teaching your kids how to be appropriately skeptical! :)

I was a kid I believed that. So I figured if it was good enough for me and done no harm, then it may be good for them too. LOL

then, I must be bad too.
In my family once you find out the secret it's your job to help be Santa. So Santa is real as long as people want to make others happy and surprised.

Now I never told my parents I knew, I had two older sisters, I held out for Santa gifts until Jr. High baby.

LeftyKid's four and he knows that Santa's imaginary, just like Dora or Elmo and he's fine with that.

It was something along the lines of:

"What Santa? You freaking retard, Santa's not real, your parents put that shit there."

I mean there it is, someone standing up to authority and settingn the record straight! or not?

I was ticked that I didn't figure it out myself. I would have preferred to find out from my parents. I believe it was in kindergarten, maybe before first grade.
But, it was a key turning point in life where I realized the world isn't the way I thought it was, and began to question much of what I thought I knew. I became an athiest soon after that.

two events closely related in time?

my way of thinking towards religion. But I can't say if it would be any different if that world had never created in the first place. It may have just facilitated the inevitable.
My mother tried her best to raise me with religous beliefs (United Methodist). We went to church every Sunday, sermon and Sunday School. I never told her I was an athiest. Even today, I'm not sure how she would take it.

They were big-time Christians at the time, and they figured that if we found out Santa was make-believe, we would think the same thing about Jesus too. Ironically, I'm now 31 and I DO actually "do the Santa thing" with my kids and I don't believe in Jesus anymore. Their plan totally backfired. :P

BTW, when my son was in kindergarten, another student whose parents told her there was no Santa also told that to my son. My son was very upset, but three years later he still believes in Santa - and insists that he doesn't like that girl who told him! I don't know what he'll do when he finds out for real, but I hope it will be okay because he likes believing in all sorts of magic.

he's not real. The other kids will do it. For me it was the muslim family across the street who never got to celebrate christmas. I was seven years old when they told me.

hear it from friends or their older siblings eventually.

Frankly, I think they like to play along with it as long as possible.

When I was seven (or eight?!), I found the presents saying "To: Mutley From: Santa" a week before Christmas. I didn't tell my parents I knew Santa wasn't real until I was twelve! :rofl:

Why pass folklore off as truth? That's what fundies do. There's plenty of ways to keep the mystery, surprise and sense of wonder alive without resorting to lies you have to take back later.

IMHO

J.

between lying and pretending. Santa Claus folklore is *FUN*-- for kids and for parents. Until you are old enough to have your own money and select gifts for others, christmas isn't near as much fun without the suprise of gifts from Santa.

And I think that is pretty undeniable.

how to break it to them gently . . .

Kids figure it out all on their own. Plus, it's a great idea to teach them about "ideas" and how much more meaningful "ideas" are in the world than an old guy firing all his elves and outsourcing their jobs to India, and using FedEx to deliver presents because it costs too much to fire up the old sleigh and besides the flying reindeer were hunted to extinction and the north pole melted.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaa!

If a child gets presents they feel no need to reciprocate (which is a good thing). Once my kids found out Santa wasn't real they felt bad because they couldn't give me gifts of equal value - it made them feel inadequate.

Most of my friends and I figured out the truth about Santa long before we let our parents know we knew. That way we could keep getting not only the gifts from them but also those surprise "Oh, look what Santa left while you were at Christmas Eve Mass!" gifts too.

A question for those of you who don't believe in perpetrating childhood myths like Santa or The Easter Bunny: Do you tell your kids even though you've told them the truth about various childhood myths that it doesn't mean they should go around telling that to other kids?

The worst thing is being the "last to find out", in my opinion.

Before that age, they can't really tell the difference between fantasy and reality anyway, so you are kind of wasting your time.

I just explained that it was a fun "pretend" that grown-ups like to do for their kids, and that now they could play it with the littler kids. Usually their only concern was whether they would continue to get their Christmas presents!

brother still believes. my 12 yr old niece tried to tell youngest last year, and my son was adament she not tell him and ruin it for him. he thinks a kid should be able to believe as long as they can. just makes christmas extra special. we were tlaking about this just last week. so i asked him, what does he think about the notes santa left them every year, now that he knows it was mom and dad. he told me that was such a wonderful idea. he loved that we did that for him

this kid is academic, encyclopedia reading little intellectual that wants the truth in all of lifes questions. regardless if it is beyond his years, he still wants the adult to be straight with him

but

christmas is special. and the easter bunny and the tooth fairy. the fun in being a kid

so if you have a desire to take a little joy and play away from a child, sure it is ok

if you have a love for children, play with them in this imaginary world that they dont get to be in long

when the tooth fairy comes, she not only leaves a dollar, but she leaves a little fairy dust behind. then the kids sleep in that sparkle for days, sparkles appearing thru out the house for weeks after the fairy has picked up the tooth

loves them all. he loves to do all the stuff he didnt get to do when he was a kid. i am so thankful to him that he has the creativeness nad enthusiasm, cause,...... it is the special. it is what the kids will remember. and what they will do for their kids. and it is fun, to watch these bright shining faces so happy and full of joy

then again, there is the responsibility teaching it isnt about santa or gifts or having things. giving is big here. receiving is big. but really it is joy and love and ......... well i could say family, but for our family, it is for everyone we meet. and we keep this attitude year around.

it is worth it. and it is a tickle for us adults.

My daughter mentioned the $1 and the fairy dust to a friend.

Her friend was a bit put out because, she said, the tooth fairy doesn't leave her fairy dust.

Whoops!

:toast:

Or they come in and tell you.
Sooner or later.

My kids are 11 and 8 and they still believe. But they've been asking a lot more often. I always tell them that I believe in Santa. I'm actually amazed that they're still hanging in there. I think the jigs gonna be up very soon.

We take my husband's work boots and wet the bottoms, then stick them in the fireplace ashes. Then we walk Santa tracks from the fireplace over to the tree. We eat the cookies and spill the milk.

Gotta have some concrete evidence to keep this going.

I do worry sometimes about them being teased by their peers, but they still have classmates who believe. I don't want to be the one to blow the magic. That magic time is so short... then it's work, taxes and death. And Republicans, yikes. Let them have a childhood as long as they can.

Are your saying adulthood includes some quality that is unattached from magic?

Hmm. I wonder if that changes when you get to be a Grandparent?

"Mom, I HAVE to know! Is he real, or not?"

Of course I had to tell the truth.

I was never very comfortable about the whole myth anyway: "Yes, Johnny, there is a magic man flying around, somehow managing to visit every house in a single night, except for those houses of non-Christian or poor children." Er. Great guy, huh?

I never really had my heart in it.

;-)

i was soooooo proud!

good kiddo, now go out and question the neighbors with the 'W' bumpersticker...

When they don't get what they want for Christmas, even though they told Santa exactly what they wanted. Or older kids will tell them.

I figured he wasn't real when I set out cookies and milk for him. The cookies and milk were gone, but somehow I realized my mother ate and drank it.

I guess that's when I became a skeptic.

and it's wrong to allow lies told them by others to stand.

No child should be encouraged to believe in imaginary, mythical beings, including Santa.

My kids never "believed" in Santa as anything other than a nice story.

I want an entire Party made out of folks like you!

Santa isn't an issue for us, we are nontheist, so we don't celebrate Christmas.

I've asked him to tell his friends "I don't believe" not "He doesn't exist". This way, hopefully, everybody can co-exist and the other parents won't get mad at me. ;)

However, I did struggle with the Tooth Fairy, he just lost his first tooth.

My husband asked our son his thoughts on the tooth fairy, he thought for a few minutes then told us (in a manner which made me think he pitied us for believing such a thing) that he didn't think the tooth fairy was real.

He told us that people can't fly (though we all agreed, wouldn't it be neat if Superman was real? We also agreed, we can't wait until the movie this summer!), and the tooth fairy was like superman, make believe.

I love your films!

We talk about Santa - but sort of with a wink and a nod.

I think if pushed they'd say they'd LIKE to believe in a santa, but don't.

But they do know there's no god!

from the youngest of age adn the amazing things it does for children in development.

i disagree

and there is a difference between lying to your child and santa clause. again, children can figure this out

were telling him; his own doubts; and what i had up to then upheld... he asked me if santa was real or not.

i did not want the other kids to hurt him because of his innocent belief that yes,there is a santa, so i told him the truth...

i was the one who ended up hurting my child's innocence...and i will forever regret it.

Santa, the Easter Bunny, the tooth faerie et al aren't real. They are still little enought to believe that they are real and I say don't rip a harmless and pleasant thing away from them.

He thus never believed Santa was real. It sure didn't seem to take any pleasure out of Christmas (or in our case, the solstice) but I did have to tell him that some parents pretend to their kids that Santa is real, and it would not be polite of him to tell a little kid that Santa wasn't real. He was aghast that parents would LIE to their own kids. So I guess I did right by my little guy. He really hated, and still hates, liars, so I made sure I never lied to him about anything he asked.

and teaching your child that some things just need to wait to be fixed.

I got a very similar reaction from my son when I asked him to leave it at "I don't believe".

He wanted to know why the other moms & dads don't tell their kids the truth.

But my wife wants to promote the myth... So I have pretty much just let her do what she wants. The only thing is I refuse to actively promote the lie.

So when they do ask me about it, as in yesterday when my son asked me if reindeer really can fly I in turn asked him if he had ever witnessed reindeer flying.

He said he has seen it on TV many times.

I asked if he has ever seen things on TV that aren't true. Yes.

and so on and so on.

Hopefully I can give him the tools to figure it out himself without just telling him it's all BS.

But did he really think that tv reindeer fly?

I am committed to the belief that seeing a word not actually there is due to an OVERLY fast mind!

I suggest small doses of EtOH at regular intervals.

besides, as Christians they just replace Santa with other imaginary friends.

all a fairy tale.

and they believed, lol. so i guess i never did "lie" to them. tahnks for bringing up that point

for telling all the other kids he wasn't real. I really got chewed out, but it sort of made the principal look stupid when I then asked him if I should then just lie to people because I thought I had been taught to tell the truth. I was always an obnoxious trouble-maker. I still am sometimes.

On edit: I should also say that I think that is up to the parent to decide. I have no problem with it either way. All I ask is that they let me know so I don't say the wrong thing when talking to their kids.

How many years ago was this?

I suppose, I can believe it when I think back how it was 35 years, when I was in the first grade.

I hope times have changed since then...

and boy did everyone have fun pretending! And nobody had to be disillusioned one day finding out the truth.

I leave any and all myths, legends, fairies, and other fun imaginative things for the kids to believe or not believe, and from 6 to 42, we love 'pretending!'

My six yr old did just ask very seriously just exactly what was true, and I called in the whole family, and each person just explained how they felt, so she got lots of different answers, and decided that even thougb its 'mostly made up', that she has decided she wants to believe in it for a while longer.

(she was however miffed to find that me and dad ate the cookies and the milk, and said at least let HER help this year!)

...that the OTHER Xmas tale is also fake?

now!

Jesus myth. It didn't take long for it to dawn on me that one is for kids, the other for adults. Same message.

Mine already knows.

My dad died 11 months ago, my son wanted to know where he went after death.

I told him I didn't know. He then asked about god, I told him his grandfather didn't believe in god and neither did I (or his dad for that matter).

I told him I wish we could see grandfather again, but that was doubtful at best. I didn't tihnk we would and his grandfather didn't either.

However, his grandfather lives on in all of us, because without him, neither he or I would exist.

It was a little beyond him, he is only 5.5, but by some of his questions, I think he got more than I thought he would.

Sorry about your loss.

How I handled it is like this: When my son mentioned wanting something, I would say "Maybe Mom and I - I mean Santa Claus - can get it for Christmas". Or sometimes I would come out with an unsolicited "Ho Ho Ho!". The idea is to let them know where the presents really come from, and that Santa Claus is all pretend.

satisfy American kids at Christmas time, I never understood giving the credit to a non-existent entity. Parents work hard to provide for their kids and the kids need to know that. Perhaps they wont be thing machines if they understood money is a finite object.

"Mom, Dad...we know Santa's not real, but we didn't want hurt your feelings."

They went with the "zeitgeist" when they were little, cheerfully choosing to believe in him. When they got to a "certain age" they asked me.. "Mommy? Is Santa real?"

and I replied, "I won't lie to you. How badly do you want to know?" If they chose to play along for another year or so, how bad was it? One of them never did ask. He just kind of grew into the assumption that Santa was a happy make believe.

The truth was just understood at a certain point..The oldest told me at 17 that he was glad I let him believe in it when he was little.

While I understand posters not wanting to lie to their children by telling them that "Santa" is a real person, I really don't understand the animosity towards the fable or myth of a Santa figure. We encourage children to read fables in which animals can speak like humans, fairies exist and can fly, time travel is possible, and little boys never grow up. I don't see the Santa myth as much different from most literature, but that's of course just my opinion.

As a child, my favorite "movie" was Fantasia, and I hope that my son will one day love it too. I think it's a wonderful example of the imagination at work, and though I have very little creativity personally, I am a great admirer of those who do. Indeed, the imagination is wholly ignored by most of the US public education system these days, since one is not needed to pass the standardized tests. I'd actually like to see children encouraged to use theirs more, and to cultivate the creativity that is sorely lacking in many of us today.

I agree with your points.

We engaged in various types of imaginary play with our children when they were very little. The early childhood years are magical and allowing your child fantasy play helps to foster creativity.

That said, my children both found out from friends about Santa by around five years old. They still enjoy the giving spirit of Christmas. In fact, my ll year old is going to donate $50 of her Christmas money to the children of Darfur. I was so pleased that she came up with this on her own.

My parents didn't want to lie to us about Santa, Easter Bunny, tooth fairy, etc. because they were afraid that we would then think Jesus was a myth too. I have to say that I really feel like I missed out on something because I was growing up without these things. I think that a belief in imaginary things and myths are an important part of development and I can still find ways where I think it affected me to not have gone through that (like the fact that it is now very hard for me to be creative or imaginative about things). And it's very hard to be the kid at school who knows the truth while all the other kids believe, but taking serious your parents' warning not to tell the other kids. So I was just sitting on this secret all through school until the other kids figured it out, and honestly it felt a little lonely.

I now have 3 kids and we celebrate Santa with them. We also do the tooth fairy and the "solstice fairy", but not the easter bunny because we don't celebrate Easter. The solstice fairy tradition has become a favorite in our house - since the winter solstice is just a couple days before Christmas, the solstice fairy brings a book or small toy. That's also the day we do the largest amount of our holiday baking. My kids insist that they are nowhere near ready to give up on these things yet. Even my 8 year old, who *has* already had kids tell him that it wasn't real, still very much wants to believe. My oldest said two years ago that he thought he heard the reindeer's bells outside his window while he was trying to sleep. We never mentioned that before, and Santa only brings the kids one present each and the rest are from us. It's interesting to see how much of the myth they will create for themselves, and for me that innocence is very sweet.

Pretending is fun.

Ever since I can remember, I've been reading Superman comic books. I used to go with my dad to pick up the sunday morning paper, he would always buy me the latest superman book.

Much to his surprise, I kept the habit.

I also read as much mythology as I could. At first it was Hindu mythology (my parents immigrated from India in the late 50s, became citizens after the required waiting period) in comic book form, then in their translated text (Mahabharata, Ramayana, etc..). I never, however, believed any of it was real.

I've been reading my children some of these stories. I love to pretend with them and get lost in a make believe world once in awhile. As long as everybody understands, reality awaits at the end of the day. LOL

I hope one of my kids will share my fascination for myths, legends and all things Superman, we shall see. Otherwise one day they will have boxes and boxes of comic books to take to the dump. ;)

Can't though. I loved pretending with my kids. They eventually figured it out and were fine with the truth- once they knew they would still get presents! I think the Santa Claus, tooth fairy, Easter Bunny stuff is great. Childhood is a magical time and to me these are traditions passed down through the generations. I don't know anyone personally who is scarred for life because they once believed in these beloved figures. I was a little pissed when my oldest came home from kindergarten and said a classmate told him his parents weren't telling the truth about Santa.

not ok to tell a child that Santa is real in the first place. It teaches people that it's ok to lie.

It's ok to tell all the stories and all because they can be fun, but children should understand that it's just a story right from the beginning.

by parents or someone at the end of the leash.

er, security leashes

tie 'em down and then tell 'em

Is your point that kids are too engaged in their lives to stop and listen to something like that? Or something else?

I was making a lame joke.

Sorry to have confused you.

I think kids are way smarter than we are. Growing up is too often a process of unlearning what really matters.

I let kids figure out the Santa Claus thing on their own. I have a personal belief in Santa Claus that allows me to always speak positively of Santa's existence, so despite having raised two of my own and running a nonprofit that provides mentoring to dozens, if not hundreds of kids, I've never told a kid that there is no Santa.

Which is to say, depending on how you define Santa, he is or he isn't.

No doubt that the vast majority of posters in this thread do not "believe in Santa," but isn't it interesting that avoiding the denial is considered to be important, especially when it involves younger childred?

I can't begin to explain that in any erudite manner, but I think it is very interesting.

to describe a spirit of giving and warm feeling that some of us still allow into our lives in mid-winter. For now, I think it exists.

That's what happened to me. After I hit the kid who told me and started cying on the way home.

Toughened me up for all of lifes little "disappoinments".

I think my dog ran away from home that day too.

She is the most believing person I ever knew. She wants to believe in every god and every fable and every everything.

As she tells it, when she was 12 her concerned parents finally forced her to hear that Santa wasn't real, while she covered her ears and closed her eyes.

It is your choice wether or not to tell your own children. I loved believing in Santa Clause. I don't think I would have enjoyed Christmas as much if I didn't. If you never believed in Santa, or you were too young to remember when you believed, it is probably hard to relate. I didn't become a gullable adult. I don't see the harm in keeping the tradition.

Yes, they're gonna be Jewish anyway. But I'm gonna tell them to not tell other children though.

like talking snakes, rib = woman, animals came from a boat, etc?

out of in time. Even the virgin mother is a hard one to conceive.

There are to some folks a living breathing Santa, same as to some we are all from that Virgin Mother.

I'm still working on that. They already seem to believe it as if by osmosis anyway in this culture. (oooohh evil TV I love ya!) I'm much more concerned with God. Now that's a myth I have a real problem with. Especially for kids. Hell versus the north pole..hmmm I wonder is that why it's cold there? Santa is not the devil! He's the secular Christ. Everybody's waiting on the man with the bag. Whoa...to put it another way..another site I was on long time ago-this was one of the el supremo flame subjects of all time..those parents that LIE to their kids about Santa. And you are calling me a liar? It's innocent. It's wrong. It's innocent. It's a lie. It's wrong. It's innocent. See you in four thousand posts.

He's a metaphor, dammit. Which is not the same as a lie, or even a myth.

When a child is old enough to understand the concept of symbols and metaphors, then she is old enough to be told the truth -- Santa Claus is the embodiment of the spirit of generosity. We give this spirit a name and a personality to make that metaphorical concept more accessible to small children and to remind us to live up to that ideal.

This American obsession with truth vs. lies has flattened the symbolic underpinnings of our cultural icons. This is no different in kind than the fundamentalists that insist on a literal interpretation of the Bible. Both sides of the coin display cultural illiteracy.

I base my opinion on whether or not it's OK to perpetuate the myth of Santa, by viewing how most adults live.

See, I don't like myths, either. Or narratives, or meta-narratives, or constructs, or magic or "majik" or religion, or any of it. Women who shave their legs bug me. Adults who check their horoscope bug me. People who go to church bug me. Grown men and women who read Tarot cards, and go to psychics bug me. Romantic narratives bug me. Good v. Evil bugs me. People who worship trees bug me. Men who trade up bug the fuck out of me.

We all live "the fictions." We're all a bundle of constructs -- some of which are agreed upon by greater society, some of which make up our individual quirkiness. Some of the people, on here, who are decrying Santa Claus, I'm sure, get bikini waxes. Why the fuck, would you rip the pubes off of your genitalia, unless you've been sold a bill of myth? Why would a person with a rational mind, believe in one of the many -- yet, all equally absurd -- incarnations of "spirituality?" Why would you live in a taupe house with vinyl siding? Work your whole life away to buy shit? Live in an unhappy monogomous relationship for fifty years? Why would anyone watch one moment of formulaic television, if they weren't indoctrinated by myth and narrative?

This whole world is full of myths and constructs and fictions. Out of just about all of them, Santa Claus is pretty much THE MOST FUCKING HARMLESS of them all. That's the only reason Santa Claus doesn't bug me. Letting children believe that myth is a psychological cakewalk, compared to all of the bullshit that society drills into them at every other waking moment.