Santa Claus
It seems that a majority of Americans enjoy convincing their children that a fictional character exists who brings presents at Christmas. Even many atheists, who wouldn’t for a moment consider teaching their children about a fictional god. In fact, most of them probably grew up believing the same thing, and don’t consider themselves any worse off for the experience.
I have two strong reasons for disagreeing with this practice. First, it is actively deceiving the child knowing that the story is not true. I brush aside any arguments of “it’s fun for them” as irrelevant. If you wouldn’t tell them that the moon really is made of green cheese or that jelly beans grow on trees, why should this be any different? You are actively encouraging them to believe nonsense, which will teach them to accept as true something for which there is no evidence, instead of thinking skeptically. Do you really want them to accept any stories without question — even from you?
Secondly, selling the Santa story to them encourages greed and a sense of entitlement. If you believe presents come magically at no cost to your parents from a magical man who delivers them with joy, having spent his entire year with no other goal in mind, why shouldn’t you write a long, long list? If your parents needn’t be satisfied with your behavior to earn you a pile of presents, you learn quickly that authority figures can be disregarded without penalty. And don’t think that the sense of entitlement evaporates when they stop believing in Santa.
For these reasons, and simple intellectual honesty, I will not be a party to this deceit, and I would encourage you to give it some thought before you participate in it just because it’s what is considered “normal” in our society.
July 12th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
i must say i agree with you on this one.
July 14th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
In all seriousness, perhaps there should be a study done. One group is composed of children who have been led to believe in the existence of Santa and then the other group would comprise children who have been told Santa is not real. I’m not sure how much it would accomplish but it would certainly show the effects on the children’s social growth and development. This is a childish thing to argue over though (no pun intended … well maybe a bit), but quite interesting. I’ll go neither one way or the other, however. I agree with many of your points, Shawn, but I also know firsthand the joy a child gets on Christmas morning after Santa brings presents.
July 19th, 2007 at 6:12 am
I think for the most part everyone who celebrates christmas does it for giving and receiveing not to celebrate the history behind the holiday. When children are growing up, if you just give them presents on christmas i could understand why they might become selfish and what not but having them beleive in Santa Cluas? Comon, that is fun for them and you are not making it so that they will beleive every thing they tell you. By the age of 5-8 is when most children find out Santa isnt real. Well to be honest when I found out that Santa wasnt real, I thought it was nice of our parents to have played a part in it. From all those years of trying to hide presents, putting milk adn cookies above the fireplace, watching santa claus movies and knowing that we were into them, helping our imagination grow, learning to expand your dreaming mind, etc. There is plenty of good that comes out of it. To sit back and think about it, I will definately do the same for my children. I cant see any harm that it will have on them. No I wont teach them about god because I am an atheist myself. I will teach them why christmas came about just not in a spiritual sense because if they want to become a bible thumper than I wont stop them. But christmas is fun for everyone, sometimes not money wise, but at the end of the day it is a great excuse for the whole family to get together.
July 27th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
[…] expected, the post which caused the most feedback from people disagreeing with me was the Santa Claus article. People seem to think that lying to children is justified if it makes them happy. I am reminded of […]