@SuperNicktendo
When I was a kid we would celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve and around 7pm my grandpa would go and take a nap. We would then sing Christmas songs until Santa would come to our house and hand out presents to everyone! After he was finished he would leave and go about his way on to the next house. After he left my grandpa would wake up from his nap and we would tell him how he just missed Santa Claus and he would be upset about it every year. Eventually I did see the suit in the back of our van and put two and two together but I wasn't disappointed or betrayed that my grandfather played Santa and actually played along with the game until he was finally too old to do it. One of my favorite memories of my life.
@petelarson4239
Remember kids, it’s illegal to drive with the dome light on.
@tobybartels8426
I never lied to my kids about Santa. I told them early on that I'm Santa, and they didn't believe me!
@Kimmaline
Okay, so one day when my daughter was six I was in the shower, and the door flies open and she comes stomping in. She crosses her arms, fixes me with a stern face, and says, "Mama, you're actually the Easter Bunny, aren't you?" I was trying desperately to get us out of an abusive situation with her dad and promised myself I wouldn't ever lie to a direct question, and her raw indignancy and crossed arms was frikkin cute as hell, so I maintained a straight face and said, "yeah, Maggie. I am. You got me." "See, I knew it. I've been thinking about that for a while." And she leaves the bathroom. About 90sec later the door to the bathroom flies open again, this time so hard it bangs into the wall. "THE TOOTH FAIRY TOO?!?!?!?" 🤣🤣🤣 I discovered that whether you want to do Santa or not, other people do it for you. "Oh, are you excited about Santa coming?" and "What did Santa bring you?" "Eight more days until Santa comes!!!" from the time they can barely speak. My daughter obviously weighted my opinion and statements far higher than other people's, which always made me nervous about lying. But lemme tell you, I've raised her to be so skeptical about crap other people tell her or things on the internet that she will read something historical and come to me and say, "I'm sure this is crap, but it's such a cool story so I wanted to ask you what you know about it." (Teaching them media literacy is truly not that hard, tho mine is a little weird feminist leftist freak because of my job. She's always been steeped in it since so many of her aunties are basically professional feminists.) My actual issue with Santa is inequality, mainly of the systemic sort. My daughter's elementary school was about half kids in million-and-a-half-plus houses, and half kids in low income apartments (go Marin!) I thought it was an interesting microcosm to study, and it got the school funding that most low income kids would never have access to. But here is the thing. The rich kids had FAR more extravagant Christmases than the lower income kids, plus there were some parents who just didn't believe in giving kids very much while other parents lived it up. But to these kids, it felt very much as though Santa was favoring some of them over the others for some really inexplicable reasons. Sure. Kids need to learn that the world is unfair. But some of these lower income kids were struggling with less than ideal home lives already, they had already dropping self-esteem, and listening to the super cool presents Santa brought their friends, but not them, really just drove home the point that they weren't worth as much. It made me so sad. Especially for the kids who had one or more undocumented parents, they already felt like they didn't fit in....yeah. It sucked. I combatted this by telling my daughter that you had to order things through Santa and pay for them, it's just that most parents keep that part a secret. I wish more parents would use this narrative because it allows you to do what you want for Xmas without making less financially advantaged kids feel left out.
@Aphoboth
"If you're a kid don't watch this, go watch sexual Disney things" Nailed it. Innocence saved. hahahahaha
@SometimestheY
We have a teen and a tween. Santa has always visited our house--leaving just a couple small fun things and notes for the kids--but when they got old enough to start questioning if he was real (like noticing that mom's handwriting, despite my best efforts, seemed to share some commonalities with Santa's...), we didn't exactly lie in our responses so much as give kind of tongue-in-cheek, vague answers, leaving it open for them to figure out. When our oldest was 10 or 11, we all came downstairs Christmas morning to delightedly discover we had also been visited by "Tiny Santa": she had woken up before all of us to surprise everyone, adding extra decorations and little handmade gifts and notes, on top of those already left by me as official "Santa." She figured it out, and just jumped on in and added to the magic. Amazing. Tiny Santa and I now stuff stockings together after her little bro and younger cousins have gone to bed on Christmas Eve.
@KattReen
I'm autistic, and as far as I know the constant lying to both children and adults is how you can tell someone is neurotypical(I'm kidding, but really though...) Trying to make me believe in Santa was an annoying effort on my mom's part, I felt infantilized even as a very young child lmao. Credit where it's due, she DID manage to make me believe that SHE believed in Santa, because I remember trying to explain to her that it's just a fictional character from stories and television. My mother could not appreciate having very perceptive four or five year old, and her persistence was really annoying. To this day she tries to edit history and insist she definitely had me fooled and that every christmas was one of childlike wonder. I have a tendency to die on every hill, so I truly have to take deep breaths and try to remind myself that it is okay to just allow her to be wrong. I think the reason some kids are so devastated over the lie is because some parents have made Santa such a massive production. It's not just cookies mysteriously disappearing, , or presents mysteriously appearing... It's sometimes on the level of that millennial birthday week level shit with a Santa Claus extended universe. When the jig is up it's not just a myth busted, but someone single digit in age having to deconstruct their entire relationship both to their trust in their parents and their relationship to the holiday. Leave it a vague and fun mystery, and the kids will figure it out on their own. Don't catfish your kid with Santa.
@salyx
I have always loved Santa. My parents were really into it and my sister and I had stars in our eyes over it. I can’t even remember what prompted me to ask my mom about the reality of Santa, but she said: “Santa is the spirit of giving just to make someone else happy. So any time you give to someone out of the goodness of your heart, that’s Santa.” I’m 44 years old and still believe in Santa, because I see that spirit of giving.
@digitaljanus
When our twins were born we read other atheist/agnostic/skeptical parents' approaches towards Santa. We ultimately decided that we would just put out Santa presents and play along until our kids directly asked us, then would come clean. It felt like a good way to encourage inquisitiveness and skepticism. Our kids had other plans, since they were terrified of Santa almost immediately. As infants their Santa pictures are just them wailing, and as soon as they were old enough to articulate their fear, our one child especially expressed extreme anxiousness towards Santa. (And this was during COVID, so Santa mall appearances were restricted anyway.) So we came clean early. But we did tell them not to ruin the surprise for other children, and as far as we know they did so. They are avid readers though, and love fantasy stories, while still displaying a healthy level of curiosity and skepticism so thus far we have no major concerns. But Elf on the Shelf is a narc and has no place in our house.
@ilmarimujunen9180
If the lie of Santa helped grow kids in to critically thinking adults, we should have way more critical thinkers. Or perhaps they just forget everything they learn.
@Tubular1845
I don't lie to my kids about Santa and they don't seem to enjoy Christmas any less than I did as a kid.
@gapsule2326
This is why you need at least two parents so one parent can only tell lies and one can only tell truths forcing kids to unravel the riddle and pass the gate of knowledge.
@nebuloushammer8773
My cousins were wealthier than my family and I never understood why Santa gave so many gifts to them. Were they really that much better than me? When I realized that my parents were the real Santa, that was one of the most beautiful moments of my life. I can't wait to be the Santa for my kids. There was one moment when I learned to be skeptical of authority figures when I was in kindergarten. I was playing with a toy and another kid wanted it. The other kid bit himself on the arm and framed me for it. I was taken to the principles office and spanked with a meter stick. I will never forget that feeling of confusion, pain, and realizing how stupid adults can be.
@deevnn
It's never smart to lie to your children even if everyone else is doing it. Your children need to know that they can trust you.
@jasonpatterson8091
There are so, so many opportunities to teach your children about critical thinking and looking for evidence in life that you don't need to invent one. Additionally, this provides an excellent opportunity for teaching your kids about kindness and consideration in the face of absurdity. Getting a four year old not to shout that Santa is a lie in preschool? That required work.
@teletubbiestunetwister9570
My issue with the lie about Santa is that it's used to threaten kids about their behavior. The "someone can see you all the time" like god stuff is the trouble.
@whatcanidooo
I disagree. I think it primes kids’ brains to fundamentally misunderstand how reality works and breaks their trust. My siblings and I are the only people we know who feel fundamentally unable to believe in anything supernatural. I think it is because we were raised never being lied to. We were allowed to play pretend and did constantly, but we were always taught the difference. It saves me so much trouble not to have to be afraid of ghosts and shit. It’s very normalized for adults to believe in magic, I’ve noticed. It often feels very unhealthy and I’m glad my parents didn’t prime me for it like most parents do
@CatarinaStone
as someone who blieved in santa until quite late (9) I really don't look back on it as having been betrayed by my parents/grownups at all. I have fond memories of christmas when I was really young
@MidnightMiik
My mom just told me Santa wasn’t real before I figured it out on my own. It made me distrustful of authority and adults in general. It was shortly after the big reveal that I found myself in Sunday school being told some Bible story by the Sunday school teacher and I raised my hand and asked “How do you know that’s true?” The teacher said, “Because it says so in the Bible?” Confused, I asked, “How do you know the Bible is true” The teacher said, “Because it’s the word of God.” Me: “How do you know it’s the word of God?” Teacher: “Because it says so in the Bible.” Right then my juvenile bullshit meter started flashing red. To this day, I’m shocked at how many people believe the Bible is the actual word of God and not just a bunch of crap some dead guys made up a long time ago.
@Spiral.Dynamics