The Grinch also doesn’t celebrate Christmas – but for very different reasons
By KAMILA KAHN
There are many things I don’t understand in life. Why Rob would take back Kristen. Why men wear stone wash jeans. Why anyone still listens to John Mayer. But there is one thing I really can’t understand – Santa.
I’m Muslim and I don’t celebrate Christmas. Just like the other 1.6 billion Muslims, 800 million Hindus and 13 million Jews around the world. That’s a lot of people who don’t partake in the December 25th celebrations, and yet I am still given that Pauline Hanson type ‘please explain’ look when I tell people I don’t do Christmas. Having been born and raised in Australia I am well aware of the Christian tradition and the commercial tradition of the day, but I still can’t get my head around Santa Claus.
Growing up surrounded by the festive tinsel and jingles in every shopping centre, I never questioned why I didn’t celebrate Christmas like my other friends. I didn’t understand why a one-day celebration took up the last three months of the year in decorations and planning, but went along for the ride anyway. Christmas just made me think of school holidays and the Boxing Day test match at the MCG.
But I knew that coming back to the new school year would bring with it that dreaded question, “What did Santa bring you this year?” I remember one time a teacher drilled me for a full ten minutes in front of the class as to why Santa brought me ‘nothing’. The thought of jolly St Nick not visiting my house left her outraged.
Looking back on this event it perplexes me to think why an adult would react so vehemently to this. Did she not understand that Santa wasn’t real? In fact in our current age of rationalism, why does society continue to instill the myth of Santa? I have many atheist friends who abhor the thought of teaching their children about an imaginary man in the sky but are happy to teach them about an imaginary man in the Arctic.
“He’ll always be that strange old man who only works one day a year”
Is Santa just used to keep kids from being naughty when parents can’t be bothered with another time-out? Or is he more like a socially accepted lie that’s passed on from one generation to the next? Or perhaps he is simply the oldest and most successful corporate brand out there?
Whatever he is, it seems like he is surely entrenched in the Australian Christmas psyche. But to us Australians who don’t celebrate Christmas, he’ll always be that strange old man who only works one day a year and spends the rest of the time judging your every move. Please explain.
Kamila lives in Sydney with her husband and 2 children. Trying her best to live in reality, Kamila cant help but spend most of the day with her imaginary friends in a world beyond words.
Do you celebrate Christmas? Do you ‘get’ the Santa thing?
Comments
62 Comments so far
I also don’t get Santa. I always make Christmas a time to focus on Jesus, giving, celebrating, and being with family – that is what makes it magical to me. My kids have never believed in Santa or the Easter Bunny. Alll else is crass commercialism….
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Your “please explain” says it all.
You Kamila , Dante Chinni and Peter Fitzsimons will NEVER get it ! …Get it now…?
Google Virginia O’Hanlon and listen with your heart and soul .
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People talk about “Santa” benefiting.the retailers….Santa gives my children stocking fillers…most memorable moment today was my.4 year old opening his Santa present and being genuinely stoked that Santa had bought him Batman undies !!! Pretty sure a $5 pack of undies isn’t going to make the stores rich buy the excitement from my 4 year old was amazing!!!…long love Santa !!!!
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Agree, 7year old was super excited over his new coloured pencils! Happens every birthday and Xmas.
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I really do love the Mamamia site and will continue to visit, if only to read other people’s posts…….I think it’s sad though to not see the many offerings (including my own) that would have been posted on Xmas Eve – I felt that these might have been the most personal on this subject especially considering that it’s an extremely busy day for most to take the kind of time to write such a heartfelt piece………….Merry Xmas guys……….xxxx’s
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Our family has never done much about the Santa myth. He’s just another character who belongs to a certain time of year, like lambs for Easter (in the northern hemisphere). My parents never pretended our presents came from Santa.
Yet he remains part of the holiday.
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It’s special and it’s beautiful! My life is nothing but more magical for my memories of Santa. For waking up on Christmas morning and seeing the stumps of the carrots the reindeer had eaten, the crumbs from Santa’s cookies, the reindeer paw prints and of course the presents! I was never ‘let down’ when I found out the truth … I conspired to make my mother tell me the truth and bless her she never did … I put chilli sauce in Santa’s milk … it went on! She still to this day hasn’t admitted there is no Santa, it’s a family joke, I’m in my twenties.
My little sister and I will be sprinkling magic reindeer food on the lawn tonight and waiting for Santa to come tomorrow morning for her. She’s eight. I treasure these years and her excitement. When I have my own children it will be the same again.
We do it because it’s magic and it’s fun and it’s celebration and why the hell not? It’s one of those cultural traditions that makes us who we are and makes childhood so much fun.
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Santa is a beautiful myth. I remember every Christmas being absolutely overwhelmed with a feeling of magic that Santa would be coming. They are some of the best memories I have of my childhood, and I don’t ever remember feeling any resentment or any negative feelings towards my parents when I found out he wasn’t real. I have a 9 year old brother who still believes in Santa and it warms my heart to see him so excited over Santa’s arrival tonight. It really is a feeling like nothing else. We all make a big deal out of Santa in my house, it’s part of the magic of Christmas. I can’t stand it when people go on about how “commercialised” Christmas is, and who refuse to take part in it. They totally miss the experience. It’s not about how commercialised it is, it’s about spreading happiness and being with the ones you love. Whether or not you/your kids believe in Santa is up to you, but in my opinion it’s one of the best things about Christmas.
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Kamila, I don’t understand what it is that you don’t get. If you’ve grown up in this country then you surely understand the significance of Christmas and Santa in Australian culture.
I’ve been a teacher for around 20 years. I’ve taught kids from many different cultural backgrounds and of many different faiths. I have always been respectful of every child I have taught and been interested in learning about their beliefs and traditions, whether it be observing Ramadan, celebrating Chinese New Year, attending Mass on Christmas Eve or simply a tradition of going on a family camping holiday at Easter.
I believe the traditions and culture of every person should be respected. I’m sorry that on occasion your family’s beliefs have not been respected. (The teacher in your example was way out of line.) However, in my opinion your article is disrespectful to those families (mine included) who have a tradition of including “Santa” in their Christmas celebrations.
In my family Santa has always represented joy and the spirit of giving. When I was old enough not to believe any more my mum told me about Saint Nicholas, who was a Good Samaritan. She told me that Santa was real – he lives on in spirit and is kept alive by parents who give presents to their children in his name and in all the people who give selflessly and anonymously at this time of year. She told me that I was now old enough to be part of that by helping to maintain the magic of Christmas for younger children.
I have repeated this story to my kids and they love keeping Santa’s spirit alive by giving to others at this time of year.
It’s not all about crass commercialism!
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Lisa, perfectly written… It is more the ideal of Santa than the actual man. This message of peace and sharing should be ingrained in all cultures and religions
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I’m all grown up and I still believe in Santa (or Father Christmas as he was when I was a kid!)
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I just want to say to those parents that don’t push the Santa thing onto their children (and even those that ‘let the kids make up their own minds’) – can you please ask your kids to keep that belief to themselves!
I’m going to be super pissed if my child (who will believe in Santa) comes home from kindy upset and asks me if Santa is real because “Alice said her mum told her there is no such thing as Santa Claus”.
You might choose to let your child make up their own mind but I’m choosing to let mine believe in some magic and excitement and the joy of giving to others. I will also be telling them (at the appropriate age/time) the TRUE story of saint nicholas and how Santa came to be and why mummy now does what saint Nicholas used to do for poor people.
So please, don’t let your kids ruin that magic for mine! And if they do, please expect a conversation with me afterwards as I will be expressing my disappointment to you.
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I wouldn’t dream of questioning a child, or pushing my view on to them, I made it very clear to my daughter not to tell other children what she felt about it and to let them discover it on their own, she wasn’t even tempted to do that. However, the Santa thing usually works the other way. non Santa-nista’s are often treated as breakers of all things good and beautiful in childhood. Most kids do discover it from other children saying they don’t believe it any longer, you can’t really control that. However, forcing your view on other people’s kids is another thing altogether.
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Well said Suzie! And thank you for making a point to your daughter to let other kids discover it on their own. I can only hope other parents think alike!
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We come from the land down under! Like it or lump it “Santa” works his/her butt off to ensure a magical morning of wonder and excitement! If I ever have the amazing opportunity to celebrate Christmas in another country with other cultural beliefs I will embrace not question them
please feel free to do the same in our wonderful all embracing Australia!
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I find this comment quite patronising. “We come from”, “our wonderful australia”. The article clearly says she was born and bred here so why comment like she’s an outsider? And the beautiful thing about Australia is that we CAN question things freely so I dont see why you feel the need to tell her to like it or lump it.
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You *do* experience Christmas in a country with other cultural beliefs. You could start the embracing right now if you like.
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Based on the article Kamila does not partake in the celebration of Christmas. I enjoy celebrating other cultural celebrations when they happen and was just making a hopeful comment that maybe Kamila might enjoy the Santa love on this awesome holiday! By writing “we” and “our” I meant all of us Kamila included!
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If it was such an ‘all embracing Australia’ then people wouldn’t make comments such as ‘like it or lump it’. Surely being all embracing also means the right to not celebrate certain things as well.
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I think that is the trouble with many aspects of life.
People say, “I don’t do that, therefore I just don’t understand it”. By extension, people with the differing belief are crazy. They need to be educated or to see the error of their ways.
Sometimes there are good valid reasons to try to change people’s minds (case in mind: I am a pro vaxxer, I’m sure there are other examples). Most of the time we just want to feel superior to somebody (case in mind: Anne Hathaway’s no knickers shot. “I just don’t understand why someone wouldn’t wear knickers!”, they say).
I think you really could understand why people perpetuate the Santa Claus story if you tried. I am atheist but can certainly understand why people believe in God/an afterlife – we are all incredibly attached to our ‘selves’ and want to believe in a perpetual aspect of the self, we fear death and want reassurance about what lies beyond, we mourn the loss of loved ones and want to believe we’ll meet again, the idea of God came from a pre-scientific time, we tend to put stock in ideas that many other people also hold (quite a logical heuristic, if sometimes it fails us).
I think it would do everyone some good to try to understand some human behaviour they think they never could.
Sorry, it’s a bit of a soapbox of mine! I do think it was a great article and I also don’t tell the Santa story, so not a massive criticism … just a point I feel is important.
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My fathers family are non practising muslims, my mothers family are orthodox who celebrate xmas on 7th of jan. As kids my somewhat atheist parents always made the effort to create magic and excitement for us. Santa came to our house on the 25th just like it did for every other kid. They never wanted us to be different or miss out or go to school and have to explain that santa doesnt come to our house. Even to this day my siblings and i ( in our 20s) get gifts on the 25th and joke about Santa. It is hard enough being a child and fitting in, kids are forced to grow up so fast, why deny them the joy and happiness. Yes I am aware that
Xmas is about Christ but for me Santa is for kids and their imaginations. You wouldnt kill off Mickey Mouse, Cinderlla or Barney why kill of Santa. I cant wait to have kids and make Xmas a big deal for them.
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Well I am glad someone is questioning Santa!
I am Ukrainian background. For us Santa has nothing to do with Christmas. Santa or as we call him Saint Nicholaus comes on a different day, about 20 days before Christmas which we celebrate on the 7th of January(Greogorian Calendar).
Saint Nicholaus as the name suggests is a Saint, who was according to the legend a good samaritan bringing good to the people, I suppose things like food to the poor and maybe some thing which they desperately needed like clothes. So obviously this is the basic that stayed with the legend and in honour and celebration of this Saint, the tradition goes on to give presents. These days kids have already everything, so of course Saint Nicholaus brings us(me when I was a child, my kids now) toys. My parents and grandparents were telling me that they used to receive walnuts, oranges, maybe if they were lucky a sweet treat.
On Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus as you know, so I won’t go further on about that.
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Thanks! I was raised Catholic and know about St Nicholas a opposed to Santa, but had never had it explained in this much detail
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Santa is a magical fantasy for children. A story to stimulate a child’s sense of wonder and imagination. Santa is the spirit of giving. A beautiful legend, which unlike so many other legends, is ok to stop believing literally once our rational brain tells us it can’t be true.
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Over the next two days I will be deaconing at 4 church services. My kids will be at 2. We are all about the birth of Jesus, that he was a little child just like them and that when he grew up he always loved the children especially. We have given lots of presents to our local welfare organisation, and my daughter loves being Santa’s helper! The hardest thing for me was how to explain why some families needed us to get presents for them – why wouldn’t Santa come for them? I explained (thinking very rapidly) that santa only brings one small present per child and that it was nice for them to get something else as well. I could have told her the truth but why would I? She believes in fairies and unicorns and magic, why not on Saint Nicholas who loves children and likes to. Ring them gifts to make them smile?
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Santa for me was part of the magic of Christmas , I have the most wonderful memories of those years and it hasn’t effected me in the slightest . Well maybe I’m more joyful and quick to believe in a little magic.
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With respect, Kamila….you’ve never asked about Santa before ?
Bigger surprise…no one has apparently volunteered the information.
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Oh Bradley, always the cynic…
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I wasn’t born cynical. It happened when I started having to deal with people.
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As the mother of a 4 year old and a 5 year old, this has been an interesting process for me..
I find it difficult to make a big deal about Santa, they see images and hear the story everywhere right now (and Nana goes on and on) and seem to believe in Santa right now, so I am not going to burst that bubble.
If they ask my outright, I don’t think I will be able to lie, but I also don’t want them to think it’s a total lie.
I have been working on a good response to that question when it comes, drawing on the myths and legends that help to shape the Santa image. I personally love the history of the Santa myths, it draws on so many traditions – I just hate the commercial stuff
My biggest issue is the ‘naughty and nice’ list. I totally hate it and don’t agree with it. I am a uni student and my partner is an adult apprentice, so we are on a tight budget.
I sat down with my 5 year old and explained I want him to be good because it is the right thing to do, and expecting presents is the wrong reason to be good. I am trying to insist that getting presents is a privilege, and not a right, and they should not assume or expect anything. (It sounds a bit harsh now I write it, I just do not want my kids to have that attitude of entitlement and lack of gratitude that I see in so many young kids, including others in our extended family)
I want the idea of Christmas to be what you give not what you get. My partner and I don’t believe in giving token gifts to each other, we never get each other anything at Christmas or birthdays, but I’m not going to force my beliefs on my kids, and there is a guilty pleasure watching your child unwrap a present
I do think there is a benefit to the myth, but I think it is important to be honest when the time comes
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For us Santa was always part of this wonderful, exciting, magical game. Days before we’d be keeping our eyes out for reindeer and elves. Sometimes dad said he saw them hiding in the gatden scouting out the territory! Lol. the night before we’d chop up carrots and prepare some milk. We’d read christmas stories and make sure we went to bed in clean pj’s, ready for the morning and half hoping we would hear reindeer bells during the night. It was always such a wonderful time. my parents even went as far as leaving hoof prints outside (made from icing sugar!) Are we to stop all imaginary games with littlies? Even the ones that are shared around the world? Besides, we grew up catholic, we knew christmas was about baby Jesus and this too was a big part of it, especially on xmas eve. But Santa wss the magic. The fun. the game and glitter and storytelling come to life.
My boy is three this year and I cant wait to share the excitement tomorrow night. I wouldn’t dream of telling the “story” any other way.
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Santa ? Well….I know that the mention of his name makes a lot of children smile. That really can’t be too bad, can it ? Smiling, happy children.
Then they grow up and become cynical adults, some of them demanding that their opinion is the only one worth listening too. Some believing that the next person ought to be heard, as well.
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Great answer Brad! No further explanation needed!!
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“Or perhaps he (Santa) is simply the oldest and most successful corporate brand out there?”
I think that is it. The Santa project is worth billions and has grown increasing extravagant each year.
While we might meet up with family and friends, share a festive drink or meal, the main theme of Christmas is materialistic gratification and it starts at the earliest age.
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We’ve never “gone there” re Santa. Our kids see Santa as a representation of Christmas. We’ve never gone out of our way to mention Santa. My son (5yo) said something about it after the hairdresser rabbited on about Santa endlessly. I told him some kids believe that Santa brings presents and if he wanted to thing that then that was ok. He said no. This is the kid who saw something about the tooth fairy on Peppa Pig and immediately declared it not to be true (we’d never spoken about it).
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Love it Chellebelle! We also don’t do Santa. One daughter took to the idea naturally, the other we actually had to convince that Santa wasn’t real this year. I asked why she thought he was real – she said that someone at kindy said so, so it must be true. Sigh!
We’ve used various logical tactics to help her to figure it out and hopefully stop believing things just because someone once said it was true! Think she’s coming round. Now to ensure that she doesn’t preach the message and spoil it for parents who ‘do’ the story.
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Each to their own.
I was raised in a staunch atheist family. We celebrated Christmas with vigor – for us it was about spending time with family, eating together, enjoying each other’s company. My parents taught us that lots of people believe different things about the story of Christmas.
I’m now teaching my children the same thing, as well as the joys of gift giving, of sharing a meal, of carols by candlelight.
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When there is so much darkness in our society, it is comforting to me knowing that my kids, just for a little while get to escape to a magical place and use their imagination for all things happy and exciting.
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Bravo !
If there is anything that irks me more than a PC adult, it’s a PC adult messing with the mind of a child especially when there are so many adults out there to confuse and befuddle.
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absolutely! why would i purposefully de-santa my little ones? i’d feel like a bully. one day they’ll work out it’s not true and that’ll be that. my mum still gives me ‘santa’ pressies as bit of a joke, as she’s a big softie.
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Is a little bit of magic in your life a a child, whether you are religious or or not. I have the happiest of memories, Christmas decorations, lots of family around for days, great food, lots of yummy sweet treats, of course there are the long awaited for presents and playing in the street with all the neighbourhood kids in our summer pj’s with all our new toys a soon as the sun was up.
The naughty or nice threat didn’t even factor in my mind!
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Good questions! I agree with the vehemence that adults invest in Santa. I also happen to think it is wrong and that my view is blasphemous in our ‘Santified’ culture. My daughters young friend was 10 and still ‘believed’ in Santa, I was treated as a suspicious enemy, when I revealed my daughter hadn’t since the age of 6. When my daughter questioned the Santa story I thought it was a natural part of her growing up and increasing deductive reasoning. I didn’t want to fog her wonderful developing rational mind with lies. There is enough magic in giving and sharing, nature and love without Santa nazi’s insisting that our kids continue to believe in something that is clearly nonsense. Worse, it teaches them to ‘fog over’ if it is in their interest; a child may well fear losing the presents, if it questions the ‘giver’. it has nothing to do with the spirit of the thing. The parents by the way were lawyers, not exactly dumb. I didn’t actually teach Santa, I let her believe it until she questioned it. There was enough in her environment to teach her about Santa and enough clarity in her brain to question the absurd features of the belief in her own time. I see an indirect influence on children’s trust in truth, honesty and what is real and how wonderful that can be, if we are taught to believe that something so unbelievable has any meaning. In principle, it does not empower a child developing an inner sense of right and wrong, and instead outsources it to a mythological bestower of barbie dolls and ipods.The teacher is acting like a true believer, not in Santa itself, but in the cult of having to adhere to it. Very strange! ‘True believers’ of any description cause problems for others.
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Bah..humbug! Don’t know any adults
who suffered any long term issues with trust, morals and truth from finding out the truth about Santa!
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thanks for your reply, however
1. That isn’t what I said. 2.You reply with huff and puff and a pseudo clever ‘truism’, which side steps the point. By exaggerating it, not examining it, you ridicule it and dismiss it out of hand. If you want to criticise what I said, answer it and dialogue with it.
Making the Santa story ‘real and involving it with millions of retail transactions’, does no provide a magical experience. The parent’s and friends love creates it. Remember Santa doesn’t exist! the parents are the ones who create the magic. Their sense of fun, generosity, wanting to make their kids happy. Santa can be a story, kids love magic, but lets treat it like that. Fudging reality with untruth is what I see as the problem. As a phenomenon itself, it can do a lot of harm when combined with other unfounded ‘stories’ that people are expected to believe. There is often an emotional lure, or ‘benefit’. And like Santa, there is often a beneficiary who stays pretty much in the background. If we were to say: lets give the retail owners a real boost to their yearly budget. Lets pretend that Santa squeezes down chimneys and brings them presents, and then give the children presents, which will make them happy anyway and then lets forget we wanted to make the retailers happy and lets pretend it is all about the kids! And when the kids say: that seems like a strange story to me, is that really true? (expecting the parents to tell the truth, which they are told to do and kids are literal) We say: oh yes, of course it is, Santa is true, see he brings you presents! hmmmm
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Oh please!! Why must everything be questioned?? So agree with you Nat!
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me to
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As do I!!
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For goodness sake ! Let the children enjoy a bit of make-believe whilst they are young.
Indoctrinate them once they pass the age of ten !
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Can’t agree with you. I will continue to “fudge” my 7yo sons reality with not only Santa but Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. It is a magical experience and I find that most children I know are quite modest with their gift list, it’s adults that have turned Xmas into the commercial frenzy that it is.
But I simply do not care. My mum still writes ‘from Santa’ on my gift and i’m 47yo and my son will be super happy with whatever he unwraps in the morning and I LOVE watching him on Christmas morning.
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I struggle with this too, a bit. Despite growing up with two fiercely anti-mystism/atheist parents my kids (12, 10 and 8 years) are actively choosing to ‘fog over’ and embrace the mysticism of Santa. Like you, Santa is something my kids learnt mostly from outside the family, though when they were very young I was more complicit in playing along. My eldest is the most dogged, this year I confronted her directly and said: ‘you know the presents come from your dad and I, don’t you?’ She rolled her eyes and said yes, but she is ‘choosing to believe in Santa anyway’.
My kids have enquiring minds and a keen sense of awe and wonder for the world around us, based principally in science and fact. My husband and I have always been very vocal and open about our belief systems, particularly our atheism. I often wonder if their attachment to the ‘magic’ of Santa (when so many of their peers are over it) is a reaction to this, their way of demonstrating their independence. And since we are also big proponents of our kids making up their own minds, this is something I’m copping on the chin. At the moment they want to hang on to the magic and the mysticism (despite logic and evidence to the contrary) and I’m biting my tongue. I figure they will let it go when they are ready. *crosses fingers*
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My youngest just let go of it recently, she is 9. When she started asking if Santa was real, I told her to have a think about it and let me know what she’d decided. When she told me that she thought Santa was us I admitted it, but talked about how we could have fun anyway on Christmas.
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That sounds great to me. Kids love magic and they seem to have a wonderful understanding of it, something like: it is real in the ‘magic way’. I enjoy watching my daughter sort her way through reality, facts and belief and magic. It is wonderful to see her forming and reforming her mental framework. She also worked out that she didn’t believe in God, at the age of 8. But she loves the Christmas tradition and we have the symbols, because it is a focus. I liked the other comment made about being careful to separate magic from entitlement of too much attention and too many presents. The connections the children make that are real for them are wonderful. I couldn’t bring myself to lie about it and didn’t.The writer who asked the questions arising from his muslim childhood, experienced the absurd and painful experience of a teacher who adhered to something supposedly magical without perspective, my point was that sometimes it is hard to question something so entrenched, yet when it is used to hurt ‘outsiders’ to the tradition, it shows the dark side of it. There is one. I think there is something corrupt about the way Christmas is orchestrated and about blindly going along with it, if we didn’t have 3 months of hype and advertising, I wonder what parents would do? Probably down play the toy buying eventually and focus more on the meaning of family giving, hopefully more creative. I think more of us feel some resentment about ‘having to buy’ so many presents, and then override it and focus on the positive side of it, which is giving. The children lead it because of peers and advertising and the expectations they create, when we give into it rather than stay mindful of their needs, we let them determine something that is not earned, is a lie and works to their advantage in ‘getting something’, hence can reinforce entitlement. Parents need to guide their development, include real magic both of the imagination and of favourite stories, but also science which provides knowledge and questions about the greatest magic of all. Preserving authenticity and knowing the value of magic is a hard task, there is so much entitlement and false empowerment of children, or childishness. I would ask your children what they really think about Christmas and what they want to celebrate, a while afterwards, of course! I would be interested in how they are juggling their beliefs about magic, tradition, rebellion, reality, self interest and altruism. There are probably good doses of self interest and wanting to belong to their cohort. it is part of sorting it out!
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Last week a clients young 6 year old told me she didn’t believe in Santa. Hr mum told me that her 4 year old didn’t either because their father (her ex) had told them quite bluntly he was made up, without letting her know he was doing so. He also told them that her ex had told them that the men who dress as Santa in the shops are peodophiles. How depressing. On the way out the 6 year old got a small gift from a colleague of mine who was dressed like Santa’s helper and her eyes lit up and she gave the first smile we’d seen in clinic.
Whether children have the cold hard facts, some do still want the magic.
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Bit mean of the Dad – if he doesn’t want to do Santa presents, why not discuss it with his ex rather than rain on his children’s parade? They are only little for so long these days. I can’t wait until my daughter is much older & realizes how much effort & love went into choosing her presents from Santa & that it was all us.
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I very much agree with not wanting to fog a child’s mind with lies. I don’t know about longlasting issues with truth and trust, but personally I want to have the best relationship with my kids that I can have … and for me that means telling the truth about Santa (and everything else!).
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I celebrate Christmas, It is my favourite holiday of the year. I hang fully understand Santa, but I do love him as he has brought me so much joy over the years. I know Santa is based on St. Nicholas, but his ‘jolly’ image was created by Coca Cola. I’m not sure how elves, reindeer and the north pole got involved!
Honestly, Christmas is about the birth and celebration of baby Jesus, and I personally try not to forget that even though I do not attend church. For me, it is about being thankful for friends and family. It is a reason to get together and share gifts. Santa is part of the magic and goodness of Christmas.
I’m not sure if many kids are worried about Santa ‘watching’ them to make sure they are not naughty. It’s just part of the fun. My dad used to tell us that he ‘just spotted an elf’ and we would run around the house looking for it, excited we were on Santa’s radar.
A lot of Christmas tradition doesn’t make sense, but for me it has been a warm and comforting holiday and I just love it. I also live in Canada (it is -23 degrees below 0 Celcius right now where I live), and as an adult Christmas also helps me break up the winter a bit. I have a month of celebration, lights, meals, get togethers to look forward to until its all over and it’s just bleak winter again.
Hope this answer helps you a bit, although I honestly can’t explain Santa very well, he just ‘is!’
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Haha coka cola did not create the jolly image of Santa. Thomas Nast illustrated the first jolly man in 1881 for a cartoon this established the image of the current modern day Santa.
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Haha coke did not come up with the current image of Santa. Thomas Nast did an illustration of the jolly man in 1881 for a cartoon this established the image of today’s current Santa.
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Yes, the ‘Coca Cola created Santa’ story is an urban myth. It’s probably great for the Coca Cola brand though.
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I believe that he was dressed in many different colours though, until Coke dressed him in their colours and used him in an ad – which is why Santa wears red and white.
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Ahh, neat. Thanks for the info
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I love the evolution of folklore, it’s in every culture and each usually have such an interesting history.
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