Santa

[phathui5]

Just wanted to see how many of you have "Santa" at your houses. Dh wants to so it, but I'm not sure.

[steph]

well, i didn't vote because dd is too young to have a concept of santa yet... we probably will have santa at our house... i think he's got virtues - giving gifts, and being jolly... i think it's important not to focus too heavily on the whole "make a list of what you want" part of it..., more what would make you happy this christmas kind of thing.... i also think it's good to have a few supernatural beings around for special occasions... we all need the mystery and wonder of something special....

[LavenderMae]

I can't vote but I would have to vote,yes and no. Because we do have Santa but my dd(ds is too young) knows we are her santa. We have also told her the story of St.Nick.

[Mollie]

we do, although we emphasize the "giving" part, and don't make it seem like a real person is going to squeeze down our chimney. hahaha.

we much more emphasize the birth of Jesus, talk about that every day. that is much more real to DS than santa.

but, I still like santa. haha.

[FreeRangeMama]

We won't have Santa (not as a "real" person anyway). We have decided to approach it as we would any other fictional character. If ds wants to pretend Santa is coming then we will (just as he can pretend to be an astronaut or that space aliens live in our basement or whatever). That way we still have the magical fun of xmas (and everyday life) without deceiving him. I think it will be more fun that way anyway, we can make the story to be anything we want-instead of reindeer we can anything we want. We would prefer not to deceive ds so this was the best solution for us. Since we don't really celebrate xmas anyway (but our families do), we think this will work well in family situations where some of the children will believe in Santa. We hope so anyway....

[DaryLLL]

We sure did when the kids were little. They eventually figured it out on their own, esp the youngest, who is naturally more cynical than the girls were at his age, living with 2 sarcastic and jaded teenagers!

If we had another child now, we wouldn't do Santa, as we are now practicing pagans. We have Holly King, but he is a symbolic-diety-archetype. He doesn't bring presents. When I put tags on gifts tho, I can't help but say they are from--Santa, Mrs Claus, the elves, Rudolph and the other reindeer, just as my mom used to do!

[barbara]

We are pretty honest with our kids. They have all known the truth about the Santa and St. Nick and Father Christmas stories, from a young age. We sometimes let the grandparents play at pretending there is a santa with flying raindeer who brings presents, but the kids know better. It is fun to pretend though and so we don't spoil the fun.

[Bekka]

We haven't initiated the idea of Santa, but dd is asking questions about Santa, etc. (Does he live where it's cold). We answer her questions with "some people think ..." I think it's fun but we won't make a big deal about it. I really love other aspects of Christmas more: music, most of all. And family together time. But we'll tell the story of St. Nicholas. Sometime.

[menudo]

We live in an area where Santa is everywhere. Even in church growing up Santa bought out a cake for Jesus. So when DD was small I began saying things like "It is believed that..." etc. I don't want her thinking that we blatantly lied to her but I would not deny her the fantasy. Many people I know who were told from day one "there is no Santa" ( but were not of any other Faiths who did not agree with Santa or not Christian) really felt they missed out on something. Anyway, if you tell my 5yo there is NO Santa now she will laugh at you and tell you you're wrong!

[heartmama]

We had a huge thread on this in Parenting Issues last month.

I vote yes, although we don't go overboard. Ds enjoys the fun of it. If he asks a direct question about the Santa issue I answer with "We are all Santa and doing things for one another at Christmas is the real magic of Santa". But if he asks to leave cookies for santa, or milk, we play right along. IMO it is no different than any pretend play. My mother still gives me presents from "santa" and to this day I like thinking there is something extra magical about them.

And anyway, who am I to say there isn't a jolly old toymaker living at the north pole

Heartmama

[Meiri]

We have Santa. He brings each child one special gift and his helpers do their best to make sure it's the child's heart's desire.

I've told DS, ever since he made the connection about us helpers, that Santa is the Spirit of Giving. In that way he is as real as we are.

[lovingmomto3]

No, we don't "do" Santa Clause. We were both raised in Santa believing households and, neither of us ever had a traumatic experience with finding out. We just decided that it was not in keeping with our religious beliefs to pretend that there was a jolly fat guy that came and gave the kids gifts. We try to emphasize that all good things come from the Lord and that all gifts (whether it be my dh's job or a toy at Christmas)were provided by Him. We also don't like the thought of little kids being manipulated into being good by their parents by "Santa is watching you" or " You better be good or Santa won't come see you." We teach our children that there is only one omnipresent, and only one omnipotent God and for us to say that Santa can see everything is contrary to these teachings.
My five year old actually gets a kick out of telling people that he doesn't believe in Santa. We went to the mall last year when he was four and the lady kept trying to get him to talk to Santa. He plainly told her that "we don't believe in Phony Clause" She was absolutely speachless. Hehe. That was so funny.
Janie