Call me the Grinch. I know this is a bit of an inflammatory subject so I'm going to say upfront I don't intend any malice towards any of you who think differently than I do.
here are our reasons as to why we don't "Do Santa".
1.) It's a lie. Plain and simple. If that's the only reason that I get to state, it stands by itself. One of parents primary responsibilities is to teach their kids to be honest and truthful individuals. Something that is a little hard to enforce when you insist on the existence of a fat man in a red suit with pet reindeer
2.) Christians may hate or love me for this, either way this reason is a huge importance for us. I'm not much of a church goer, however, I do have my own beliefs in God. Consider what it means to teach a young child to believe in Santa clause. You are teaching your child that a person exists that is benevolent and has super-powers. Who can do incredible things. Who sees their actions while remaining unseen. Who rewards good behavior and with whom (if you encourage letter writing to Santa) the child can communicate. If you are a Christian parent, you are very likely teaching your child at the same time in their life and at the same stage in their development, to believe in God- A powerful and benevolent being with "super powers", who sees their actions while remaining unseen. Who rewards good actions and punishes evil actions and with whom the child can communicate by praying. In fact, you encourage them to pray to this unseen being. To induce belief in your child in both of these teachings, you are relying on the fact that children naturally believe what their parents tell them. But, one is an unimportant falsehood and the other Truth. Belief in Santa is temporary. Eventually kids figure out mom and dad have been telling them a white lie. I don't believe it's that much of a stretch for the astute child to wonder whether the other story about the invisible, benevolent being who is the cause of all things, seen and unseen, has also been a white lie.
3.) This reason has everything to do with all of the unfortunate children in the world whom Santa routinely "forgets". It is simply cruel to coddle belief in a figure who purports to know every child by name, yet is discriminate in his gift giving, showering some children's homes while skipping others. While no one likes to be the source of their child's disappointment, it is far better in this case for the parent to take the blame for the absents of gifts on Christmas morning than St. Nick. As humans we are subject to weaknesses, inadequacies and failings that our children will eventually understand and overcome. Such understandings and acceptance may not as easily be earned from a figure who falls short of his promise to deliver a special gift to EVERY good boy and girl.
4.) Talk all you want about "winter solstice" or whatever just being a secular holiday. Don't care! Why do we call this Christmas? Because (regardless whether it was actually in the spring) it's the time we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.
in our family (Nathan, the kids and i) we are teaching our children where this tradition of saying there is a Santa came from (the true St Nichols story). to us Christmas is more about volunteering and basking in our own self made family traditions like cruising around for the best lighted house, drinking hot chocolate, making our own tree ornaments, giving, decorating and of course baking all those scrumptious treats. our children do not feel deprived and i feel confident in our decision to not "do Santa" for the reasons i stated above.
lastly, i know one of our children is going to let the cat out of the bag to a classmate, friend or maybe even cousin. kids will be kids and they are so very honest as we all know. protecting other children from this truth is not our responsibility it is their own parents responsibility to be prepared if they are going to tell their children a fable such as Santa that not everyone is going to agree with their beliefs. we have done the same to our children with god, we have educated them that not everyone believes in god and everyone has their own opinions and they are allowed to those opinions and i feel parents who decide to "do Santa" need to educate their children in the same way. it is not our responsibility to tiptoe around others beliefs and doing so is unrealistic.
so this is why we don't "do Santa" some friends, family and strangers disagree with us and that's OK. the biggest reason why MANY (not all) celebrate Santa is because their parents did and their parents parents did and so on. we have put more thought into it then that and definitely researched it including talking to a child psychologist to see what their take on it was. so like i said we are very confident in our decision!
No comments:
Post a Comment