The Santa Claus Debate

Do you know people that say once they have kids or once their kids are older, they won't be telling them about Santa Claus? I know a few. They claim it's lying to your kids. Whaaaaaaaaaaaat?

Come on, seriously? Listen, there's only a short while in your life that you believe in things like magic. Why would you rob your kids of that? Think about it, when you hit probably 10 years old at the latest, you don't believe in Santa anymore, you don't believe in magic, flying reindeer, you don't believe in wizards or elves or magic. That's not a long time in one's life to believe in the impossible, to believe in something fairy-like and wonderful.

Why would you take that away from your kids? So what if it's a big fib? So what if Santa Claus isn't really real? Does it matter? Do any of these people actually resent their parents for telling them that fib? I can't imagine a single one of them, upon discovering that Santa Claus was make believe was angry with their parents. They probably didn't care. The discovery is usually so gradual, that hardly any of us could really mark the occasion upon which we figured it out. I think I kind of gradually came to the conclusion, but I remember keeping the lie going for awhile even after I knew, because I enjoyed the fib enough that I wasn't ready to let it go.

So, if you're a reader and you're one of these people who thinks parents shouldn't "lie" to their kids about Santa, can you tell me your reasoning? You can't act like we're always completely honest with our kids. We can't be. We make things up all the time. "Oh yeah, it won't hurt that much at the dentist" or "it's just a needle, you won't even feel it". We fib all the time about little things. I don't think it's such a big deal to fib about something magical and wonderful.

D.