1. No sane, rational adult truly believes that the figure "Santa Claus," as described in contemporary culture, actually, ontologically, exists. None, zero, not one. NOBODY believes in a figure living in the North Pole, working with elves and flying reindeer, monitoring the works of all children omnisciently, creeping down chimneys each 12/25 to reward the good. Nobody, not one person.
So, I guess the result of all this deception is exactly what it's meant to be: a harmless fantasy that makes millions of children happy every year, and is eventually replaced by reality-- in all cases.
So, what again is your problem with the myth?
When your children first asked where babies came from, did you immediately fill their heads with the complex and wonderful concept that is sex? ...or did you do what the majority of parents do, and simply say that they come from Mommy's tummy?
When trying to make them careful to not talk to strangers, did you immediately launch into a dissertation on the varieties and symptoms of mental illness, sexual deviancy, and social constructs, or did you simply do what the majority of parents do, and simply say that there are "bogeymen" out there?
I don't suppose your children get small coins under their pillows in exchange for a wrapped-up tooth either, do they?
I prefer to allow children to have their fantasies, both positive and, where appropriate, negative until they're better able to handle the real world.
All I ask is that, if someone has a problem with my method of child-raising, they either come to me or keep their mouths shut. I'd prefer they not circumvent me and take it to my kids directly.
It's that simple.
If you are speaking about me personally, I do not have a tooth fairy and I did teach my children about sex in a way that young ones understand. They don't have an Easter Bunny either but they do know about a resurrected Jesus on the day of Resurrection.
God or Santa?
God or Jesus?
God or the tooth fairy?
God or the Easter Bunny?
Many to you these are small thing that aren't important but to some who love Jesus with their whole hearts, an idol is an idol, not matter how accepted culturally.
You fulfill parts of my prediction as to responses exactly. Your point is always made in defending the Santa-lie, and is so easily answered that one wonders as well at its tenacity.
So what, in anything that I actually suggested, hinted that I think that children should always be told all possible details about every area of life in the first conversation?
And is it really true that, in your thinking, you only have two options -- lie to children, or tell them everything that can be told about everything in your first conversation on the topic?
And, finally, to answer your question: I never lie to my children. Never. And they have an exceptionally rich fantasy life. I just teach them that some things are fun make-believe, some things are true, and there is a crucial difference.
Dan
Very well said.