Deep spiritual question - Santa Claus

Hieromonk Joined : 20 May 2008 Posts : 154

Here's a question for you guys, provided any of you are parents. Of course non-parents can chime in as well.

Did you teach your children about santa claus? My friends who are Christian run the gamut. Some did, some didn't. Nearly 100% of my friends who are not Christians did teach them about santa but then Christmas means something totally different to them.

I'm curious to hear your reasons why you did, or why you didn't.

Also if you did teach them about santa, did you follow suit with the Easter bunny and/or tooth fairy?
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Subject: Re: Deep spiritual question - Santa Claus Mon Jun 09, 2008 5:12 pm

my parents never told me there was a santa claus.... apparently i never asked because they determined early on that if asked they would tell us honestly that there wasn't, but not bring it up.

that way we could believe our kid-like dreams, but my parents never lied to me... i'll probably do something similar
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"sometimes a little more than you think you want is still a little less than you actually need"
"brilliance seems too often masked by stupid people"

Xenophile Joined : 09 May 2008 Posts : 147

My plan is let my daughter be familiar with Santa and all the traditions. However I'm not going to lie to her, but present it as tradition.
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Hieromonk Joined : 20 May 2008 Posts : 154

I've been lurking in a couple of other Christian forums - does that constitute infidelity? tongue

and I came across this thread
Santa thread

Its a long and a tad old but still relevant. Like any long thread there seems to be a bit of hijacking and such but overall it gives some pretty good insight into what a lot of Christians seem to do with regard to satan claus err umm santa claus Very Happy

Some people in the thread teach the kids about santa
Most responses were along the lines that lying is sin and so they've danced around the whole issue in some way such as telling them about the historical St. Nicolas, or avoiding the whole situation.

Here's my question what's the difference in santa and other fictional characters like Mickey Mouse. We talk up Mickey to our kids like he's real and granted he doesn't come into our house and leave presents the concept isn't that much different.

I'm a big believer and fostering the kids imagination and fantasy life, I realize there must be a balance and I'm not necessarily struggling with this but rather curious

On a completely different note, as I said I've been lurking around in other Christian sites. Some seem kind of wacky others very fundamental. I think I found a couple that seems to have a good balance - apart from this place of course.
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Subject: Re: Deep spiritual question - Santa Claus Wed Jun 11, 2008 10:03 pm

- its only considered infidelity if you dont advertise this forum while you're there...

that said... can you give us some links?? I couldn't find any worth visiting and thats why I created this....
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"sometimes a little more than you think you want is still a little less than you actually need"
"brilliance seems too often masked by stupid people"