This guy — a philosophy professor natch… ummm… doesn’t like Santa. From the Baltimore Sun:
Parents should stop teaching their kids to believe in Santa Claus. Reading stories about Santa is fine, and encouraging generosity and imagination is great. But tricking children into believing that an omniscient fat man, with a red suit and rosy cheeks, will slide down the chimney bestowing presents on Dec. 24 is just flat-out immoral.
First of all, it’s lying. It’s one thing to lie to save someone’s life, but stop kidding yourself. “It’s fun to watch the kids get excited” is hardly a noble cause. Nor is it harmless. I’ve amassed recollections of “finding out the truth about Santa,” and many were stories of genuine embarrassment and resentment. The systematic deception makes children feel taken advantage of or like the butt of a joke.
Children crave knowledge about the world – they want the truth – and parents are their most trusted source. It shouldn’t be surprising, then, that a violation of that trust spawns strong reactions.
Additionally, parental efforts to perpetuate the lie discourage children’s efforts to think critically. A parent telling a child to ignore the evidence against Santa’s existence encourages the child to think that believing whatever one wants is more important than weighing evidence and believing the truth. Parents who try to explain away the evidence with crackpot excuses skew the child’s ability to discern good evidence from bad. And magical explanations? Do you really want your kids to be gullible enough to believe in magic? To perpetuate the lie, the parent has to effectively tell the child to “stop thinking and just believe.” That is not what you want to teach your children.
My first reaction is “Pull the stick out of your butt dude.” After second thought, my reaction is “Pull the stick out of your butt and quit being a killjoy.” I sympathize with those who don’t “do Santa”, but please — are there really children out there traumatized by being lied to about Santa? Really?!? If you are now an adult and you are somehow bitter about your parents devious lies to you about jolly old St. Nick then you need to get a life.
I don’t push Santa on my kids, but I don’t discourage it either. I don’t think they give it much deep thought. They take the pictures, they open the presents, and we read the true story of Christmas from Luke 2. I’m not into lying to children, but neither are they ready for the unvarnished truth of every situation either. I’m not saying it’s wrong to not do Santa for your kids…. they’re your kids do what you think is right in that regard. I am saying it’s not wrong, in most cases, to do the Santa thing with your family either — maybe if you have an extra sensitive kid or one that’s extraordinarily dumb credulous and the shock of learning the truth will devastate them.
Me? I don’t want Santa dumping down my chimney so I’m not taking any chances.
I don’t have any children, so I’m free to pontificate freely.
I suspect that, if I had kids, I’d play the Santa game with them. And that’s how I’d present it. We’d treat him as real until they act, then I’d explain that it’s a game we play with the younger kids. Keep it light. You’re only young once… if that much.
That should have been, “We’d treat it as real until they ‘asked.’”
Admit it, Lars, you have a ghetto side.
Ho ho ho.
SANTA CLAUS IS NOT REAL?!?!?!?!?
“so I’m free to pontificate freely.”
Can Lars say that on 3D?
He’s allowed. Republibot 3.0, not so much. I kid, R3, I kid.
The Sun’s circulation must be way down. I’m sure they appreciate the plug. What an awful paper.
the writer lost my interest at “first of all.”
what is this, a lecture from an 8th grader?
My oldest got a big kick out of it when she figured it out for herself at the ripe old age of 8. She likes being in on the secret with us, knowing her little brother still believes. It’s pretty harmless. Kids are not little hot house flowers – they can take it.
I actually have a friend whose husband claims he was traumatized by “the Santa lie”. Idiot.
I told my kids it was a really fun game that many families play and if they’d like to play it, I was fine with that. But even if we choose not to play, it’s an important part of some families fun, so please don’t ruin the game for them. There will be punishment involved. My oldest two looked at me like I was nuts when I suggested they sit in Santa’s lap at the mall. “Why would I tell *him* what I want for Christmas?” was my oldest’s very clear response. It’s part of the fun and game was not a good enough answer and all the rest of the clan followed his lead.
I loved the Santa game as a child and my family went all out, footprints in the fireplace, jingle bells being heard out back, the whole bit. It didn’t bother me when I found out, of course by that point I figured most of what my parents said was outright lies. But I’m willing to acknowledge not everyone may have felt that way
I believe the clinical term psychiatrists use to describe this guy’s affliction is, “This guy’s a douche.”
Mrs. Firefly and I have been doing some form of Santa for some quantity of offspring for over 16 years now and I don’t think I’ve ever lied about any of it, yet all Little Fireflies believed for some portion of their lives and the Littlest still believes. You can “do” Santa without lying, if you choose, and you can do Santa while lying your pants off. It’s a great lesson for kids.
I remember hours of playground speculation as a kid of 6, 7, 8… as we tried to piece it all together. It was like the first mystery of life I solved on my own. If anything, the fact that my folks “did” Santa taught me to be a good sceptic, not believe everything I hear and investigate things on my own. My mom is a tremendous liar, so she lied up a storm regarding Santa. I don’t do that because I don’t like to lie, but you can answer your chlidren’s questions about Santa without lying, and still keep the myth alive. None of my children have flat out asked me, “Do you and mom put out the gifts?” And, if faced with that question I’d answer truthfully.
I don’t care that families, even Christian families choose not to do it. My best friend’s family are Catholic and did not “do” Santa and it didn’t affect our family’s ritual. This guy needs to get a grip. Are there no more grown-ups left in the world?
I am currently enjoying my first christmas with a daughter who is now old enough to be excited about a visit from father christmas…I’m just enjoying it too much to agonise about trauma,lies and other mumbo jumbo.
I would think this guy would be a little red faced about publishing his particular pathology where everyone can see it.
This should be between him and his therapist. Or is this part of his therapy?
Libs are always parading their pathologies and passing them off as “policy”.
I think his whole problem stems from irregularity.
If the Easter Bunny does this to people who don’t believe, I’d hate to think what Santa would do.
our children had no problems with Santa Claus, and enjoyed the whole panoply of Christmas; and truth be told, so did I when they were young. One year, when they were about 5 and 7 and on the edge of starting to question the whole Santa thing, I took my boots, dipped them in the ashes from the fireplace and placed footsteps leading out of the fireplace to the tree and then back again (we had tiles and hardwood)…they came down Christmas morning, took one look and their eyes went wide in wonder…it was a rather nice moment.
Of course, by the time of the next Christmas the magic was gone, but it felt good to keep that childhood magic going for just one more cycle.
The guy is a douchebag. I know my Dad would tell him…..mind your own business. I think the issue is this: There are people who believe they are so educated that they want children not to be children…
Stephanie…exactly…I’ve had many conversations with people who offer opinions on how I should have raised my children…none of them had any.