Santa Claus: Should Parents Perpetuate the Santa Claus Myth?

[ColdBlooded]

Santa Claus: Should Parents Perpetuate the Santa Claus Myth?
By admin on December 22nd, 2008
http://www.95news.com/santa-claus-should-parents-perpetuate-the-santa-claus-myth/

Santa Claus: Should Parents Perpetuate the Santa Claus Myth?

Problems with the Santa Claus Myth:

Although Santa Claus was originally based upon the Christian figure of Saint Nicholas, a patron saint of children, today Santa Claus is wholly secular. Some Christians object to him because he is secular rather than Christian; some non-Christians object to him because of his Christian roots. He is a powerful cultural symbol which is impossible to ignore, but this doesn’t mean that he should simply be accepted without question. There are good reasons to dispense with the tradition.

Parents Have to Lie About Santa Claus:

Perhaps the most serious objection to perpetuating belief in Santa Claus among children is also the simplest: in order to do so, parents have to lie to their children. You can’t encourage the belief without dishonesty, and it’s not a “little white lie” that is for their own good or that might protect them from harm. Parents should not persistently lie to children without overwhelmingly good reasons, so this puts supporters of the Santa Claus myth on the defensive.

Parents’ Lies About Santa Claus Have to Grow:

In order to get kids to believe in Santa Claus, it’s not enough to commit a couple of simple lies and move on. As with any lie, it’s necessary to construct more and more elaborate lies and defenses as time passes. Skeptical questions about Santa must be met with detailed lies about Santa’s powers. “Evidence” of Santa Claus must be created once mere stories of Santa prove insufficient. It’s unethical for parents to perpetuate elaborate deceptions on children unless it’s for a greater good.

Santa Claus Lies Discourage Healthy Skepticism:

Most children eventually become skeptical about Santa Claus and ask questions about him, for example how he could possibly travel around the whole world in such a short period of time. Instead of encouraging this skepticism and helping children come to a reasonable conclusion about whether Santa Claus is even possible, much less real, most parents discourage skepticism by telling tales about Santa’s supernatural powers.

The Reward & Punishment System of Santa Claus is Unjust:

There are a number of aspects to the whole Santa Claus “system” which children shouldn’t learn to internalize. It implies that the whole person can be judged as naughty or nice based upon a few acts. It requires belief that someone is constantly watching you, no matter what you are doing. It is based upon the premise that one should do good for the sake of reward and avoid doing wrong out of fear of punishment. It allows parents to try to control children via a powerful stranger.

The Santa Claus Myth Promotes Materialism:

The entire Santa Claus myth is based on the idea of children getting gifts. There’s nothing wrong with getting gifts, but Santa Claus makes it the focus on the entire holiday. Children are encouraged to conform their behavior to parental expectation in order to receive ever more presents rather than simply lumps of coal. In order to make Christmas lists, kids pay close attention to what advertisers tell them they should want, effectively encouraging unbridled consumerism.

Santa Claus is Too Similar to Jesus and God:

The parallels between Santa Claus and Jesus or God are numerous. Santa Claus is a nearly all-powerful, supernatural person who dispenses rewards and punishment to people all over the world based upon whether they adhere to a pre-defined code of conduct. His existence is implausible or impossible, but faith is expected if one is to receive the rewards. Believers should regard this as blasphemous; non-believers shouldn’t want their kids prepared in this way to adopt Christianity or theism.

The Santa Claus “Tradition” is Relatively Recent:

Some might think that because Santa Claus is such an old tradition, this alone is sufficient reason to continue it. They were taught to believe in Santa as children, so why not pass this along to their own? The role of Santa Claus in Christmas celebration is actually quite recent — the mid to late 19th century. The importance of Santa Claus is a creation of cultural elites and perpetuated by business interests and simple cultural momentum. It has little to no inherent value.

Santa Claus is More About Parents than Children:

Parental investment in Santa Claus is far larger than anything kids do, suggesting that parents’ defense of the Santa Claus myth is more about what they want than about what kids want. Their own memories about enjoying Santa may be heavily influenced by cultural assumptions about what they should have experienced. Is it not possible that kids would find at least as much pleasure in knowing that parents are responsible for Christmas, not a supernatural stranger?

The Future of Santa Claus:

Santa Claus symbolizes Christmas and perhaps the entire winter holiday season like nothing else. An argument can be made for the importance of the Christmas tree as a symbol for Christmas (notice that there are no Christian images which come close), but Santa Claus personifies Christmas in a way that trees cannot. Santa Claus is, furthermore, a very secular character by now which allows him to cross cultural and religious lines, placing him in an important position for the entire season rather than for Christmas alone.

Because of this, it’s plausible that giving up on Santa Claus will mean abandoning much of the Christmas holidays altogether — and perhaps that’s not such a bad thing. There’s a lot to be said for Christians dismissing the consumerist, commercialized Christmas of America and focusing instead on the Nativity of Jesus. Ignoring Santa Claus would symbolize this choice. There’s a lot to be said for adherents of other religions refusing to allow Santa Claus to become part of their own traditions, representing an intrusion of Western culture into their own.

Finally, there’s also a lot to be said for nonbelievers of various sorts — humanists, atheists, skeptics, and freethinkers — refusing to be co-opted into a religious observance. Whether Santa Claus in particular or Christmas in general is treated as defined by Christian or pagan religious traditions, neither are religions which nonbelievers are part of. Christmas and Santa Claus have strong secular elements, but those are primarily commercial — and who is going to invest themselves in a holidayall about commerce and who can spend the most money on credit?

The future of Santa Claus will depend on whether people will care enough to do anything — if not, things will continue on the same course they have been on. If people care not to be taken over, borg-like, by America’s Christmas, resistance may reduce Santa’s status as a cultural icon.

 

[HERESY]

You can replace Santa with any personage people deem "mythical", and you'll get a response.

I wonder how many people are going to say Jesus?

 

[0R0]

x-mas = valentines day
a day when society deems you show your "love" by spending money on material gifts or else you dont "love" that person...fuck society

 

[Collapse]

Great read.

I don't want to teach my kids about santa claus, they will be taught to be free thinkers and not be brainwashed to believe something that is not real.

 

[0R0]

santa claus is a more powerful jesus in kids minds because if they beleive in "him" they get presents from "him" so ye with faith will be rewarded

 

[ThaG]

You can replace Santa with any personage people deem "mythical", and you'll get a response.

I wonder how many people are going to say Jesus?

 

[WHITE DEVIL]

This falls into the category of who really gives a flying rats fuck

Its a stupid fuckin tradition

Traditions are a unifying thing

We could disavow all myths and let our kids wear robot helmets to school

And tell them to be freethinkers about whether they shit in their pants or the toilet

Every liberal-hippie-Marin county parent who babbles about letting their children think for themselves is a fuckin tootsie roll. Children live in child world. There's no reason to force them into adult reality before you have to.

The internet has accomplished this to a large extent, but still I say fuck nihilists and whiny ass people who talk about their children being brainwashed

Brainwashing is like 'jews and black people are bad'. It's not 'Santa comes from the north pole and puts presents under the tree'.

Why even sing happy birthday or celebrate birthdays? Nothing makes them significant other than the fact that its the day you were born on. There is no scientific evidence that proves that it is better to give people presents on their birthdays.

In short, who really gives a shit? If you do, you obviously need things in your life to occupy your time.

 

[saladbowlking]

^^LOL!!! REAL SHIT....

 

[WHITE DEVIL]

Motherfuckers act like they liberating the minds of Americas children by bein a little christmas snitch

 

[Dhadnot]

This falls into the category of who really gives a flying rats fuck

Its a stupid fuckin tradition

Traditions are a unifying thing

We could disavow all myths and let our kids wear robot helmets to school

And tell them to be freethinkers about whether they shit in their pants or the toilet

Every liberal-hippie-Marin county parent who babbles about letting their children think for themselves is a fuckin tootsie roll. Children live in child world. There's no reason to force them into adult reality before you have to.

The internet has accomplished this to a large extent, but still I say fuck nihilists and whiny ass people who talk about their children being brainwashed

Brainwashing is like 'jews and black people are bad'. It's not 'Santa comes from the north pole and puts presents under the tree'.

Why even sing happy birthday or celebrate birthdays? Nothing makes them significant other than the fact that its the day you were born on. There is no scientific evidence that proves that it is better to give people presents on their birthdays.

In short, who really gives a shit? If you do, you obviously need things in your life to occupy your time.

real shit. That's why even though I don't agree with religion I have no problem with others believing in what they do.

 

[kayvee]

This falls into the category of who really gives a flying rats fuck

Its a stupid fuckin tradition

Traditions are a unifying thing

We could disavow all myths and let our kids wear robot helmets to school

And tell them to be freethinkers about whether they shit in their pants or the toilet

Every liberal-hippie-Marin county parent who babbles about letting their children think for themselves is a fuckin tootsie roll. Children live in child world. There's no reason to force them into adult reality before you have to.

The internet has accomplished this to a large extent, but still I say fuck nihilists and whiny ass people who talk about their children being brainwashed

Brainwashing is like 'jews and black people are bad'. It's not 'Santa comes from the north pole and puts presents under the tree'.

Why even sing happy birthday or celebrate birthdays? Nothing makes them significant other than the fact that its the day you were born on. There is no scientific evidence that proves that it is better to give people presents on their birthdays.

In short, who really gives a shit? If you do, you obviously need things in your life to occupy your time.

/thread

besides even if the kids see the toys r us bags they will still think of santa.

~k.

 

[MaddDogg]

Every liberal-hippie-Marin county parent who babbles about letting their children think for themselves is a fuckin tootsie roll.

*DIES*

Mine as well pull back up the hipster posts.

On another note nice read Rictus.

 

[Mr. Nice Guy]

Every liberal-hippie-Marin county parent who babbles about letting their children think for themselves is a fuckin tootsie roll. Children live in child world. There's no reason to force them into adult reality before you have to

There is a big difference between not forcing them into an early adult reality and perpetuating an enormous consumer driven lie. People can still celebrate Christmas (or whatever holiday they want to call it) without relying on the myth of Santa Claus or buying a ridiculous, debt inducing amount of products.


Yes traditions may be inherently unifying but that does not mean we should presuppose their positive benefits without looking at the objective results of the tradition.


This is a unifying tradition in Uganda;

http://www.nowpublic.com/health/saving-girls-deadly-tradition-ugandas-mission

and yet regardless of what proponents of this tradition may say, because of our relative cultural distance we can clearly see that the negative outweighs any positive unifying benefits. I am confident that someone culturally removed from our perspective might be able to say the same thing about some of our own unifying traditions.



In our case, "Christmas" has clearly been a contributing factor in Americans shift towards a negative national savings rate, which in turn has had a huge influence on our current economic condition.

 

[JoMoDo]

Kids recognize Ronald McDonald more then Santa (at least what I heard, don't feel like looking it up though, take it as you may)

 

[WHITE DEVIL]

There is a big difference between not forcing them into an early adult reality and perpetuating an enormous consumer driven lie. People can still celebrate Christmas (or whatever holiday they want to call it) without relying on the myth of Santa Claus or buying a ridiculous, debt inducing amount of products.

This is an issue of consumption, not tradition. This to me sounds more like a personal economic choice than a mental liberation.

Yes traditions may be inherently unifying but that does not mean we should presuppose their positive benefits without looking at the objective results of the tradition.

Christmas positives:
Gathering of family
Belief in the idea of unjustified or possibly unrequited kindness for its own sake
Celebration of joy and unity

Christmas negatives:
Massive debt due to the need to purchase exorbitant gifts (?)

People buy as they are able. Consumerism and consumption is a complicated issue - while the abuse of credit and the want to 'keep up with the Joneses' does put many individuals and families at risk, this is something intrinsic to America and even in many cases the rest of the world, though some argue it is most prevalent here.

What about many countries such as India and China before 1990-95 and many African nations with an almost nonexistent middle class? Many do not even celebrate Christmas. Would the removal of the Christmas tradition bring about an equitable society in these cases?

Also, should Americans all be frugal and fail to spend more than they need, the economy would suffer a severely tumultuous upheaval, leading to - you guessed it - more poverty and unemployment. In addition, we would have to readjust to some sort of new subsistence economy that exists only among the most poor countries and isolated groups.

This is a unifying tradition in Uganda;

http://www.nowpublic.com/health/saving-girls-deadly-tradition-ugandas-mission

and yet regardless of what proponents of this tradition may say, because of our relative cultural distance we can clearly see that the negative outweighs any positive unifying benefits. I am confident that someone culturally removed from our perspective might be able to say the same thing about some of our own unifying traditions.

Ignorance, hatred, and suspicion of other cultures and countries seems to be a unifying American tradition. And any rational outsider would (as many do) decry this outlook for the amount at which it puts America at odds with the world. This is something anyone familiar with international news hears often. Where are the people clamoring for the American removal of the Christmas tradition?

Where are the articles and viewpoints that blame third world poverty, 9/11, the proliferation of arms and arms races among rogue states, unjust global medicine and health regimes, and an atmosphere of war and violence to the Christmas tradition? You could make a case for any of these being due or largely supported by American ignorance to the true nature of geopolitical issues, or of humanity of the rest of the world, or simply of our general lack of knowledge regarding everything outside our borders.

I have never once heard a case made that the Twin Towers collapsed because of roasted chestnuts or the African AIDS problem is so rampant because of Secret Santa in the American workplace. In fact, I dont think I have ever heard a significant outcry about Christmas that did not come from bearded, turtlenecked men with shithead kids that kick then in the shins while they talk about their open-minded children's upbringing. I have genuinely enjoyed many Christmases growing up regardless of the number of gifts or amount of money spent.

I really doubt that whatever consciousness-building poetry slams or feminist freethinking tambourine circles that go on would have the same positive effect that Christmas has on the mood of America and the connections made with family and friends. Maybe people could all invent their own individual family traditions, free of pretense and false stories. Mine, for example, would be called Deviltime, where everyone watched me fuck my girl and played computer games. While it sounds great to me, it wouldnt have the same positive effect on those around me.

In our case, "Christmas" has clearly been a contributing factor in Americans shift towards a negative national savings rate, which in turn has had a huge influence on our current economic condition.

I highly doubt that the major factor or even 'a' major factor in America's spending habits is the Christmas tradition. While people do spend a large amount on gifts, there are also Christmas bonuses and there is also the 'return' factor whereby some of the money comes back. America's spending habits are a 365 day a year issue, not something easily attributed to rudolf and rum and egg nog.

 

[ThaG]

You could make a case for any of these being due or largely supported by American ignorance to the true nature of geopolitical issues, or of humanity of the rest of the world, or simply of our general lack of knowledge regarding everything outside our borders.

American are just as ignorant about their own country as they are about the rest of the world

 

[Blight]

^ Speaking of that, what did you guys notice about shoppers this year? I was out last night (christmas eve) and it was pretty beat. The least shoppers I ever saw out at the last minute. Either people shopped early or else everyone is broke.

P.S.....

Belive in santa and jesus as a kid? What happens to jesus when your parents tell you santa was fake?