Stupid comments about not doing Santa

[KBecks]

Thanks for sharing. I am not a fan of Santa, mostly for the deception factor.

But we've decided to do Santa very very very small at our house. As in, the presents come from us, we won't talk about Santa much at all, but we won't deny the Santa experience. Does that make sense? At the in-laws Christmas celebration, Santa visits and brings small gifts to each child, and so that tradition will probably be the only Santa we do.

Although as a kid I loved setting out cookies and milk, so I may cave. Maybe Santa will just do one small gift at our house, or just small gifts in the stockings.

I hate the bribery of being good for gifts.

Anyway, thanks for sharing the experiences. It's amazing how dominant Santa is in our culture!! While I like that he is about bringing happiness to children, I hate that he is also a consumer idol. And mall Santas just suck.

[KBecks]

Happy birthday to your Christmas baby!

[Wife_and_mommy]

Happy bday to G, Angela. :)

I think I got the idea for a birthday cake for Jesus from you. It was a smashing success last night. Thank you. :)

OP, I'm sorry you have to deal with people. It's almost over for this year. :)



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I love them most when they are sleeping.--Me
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[tarahsolazy]

I'm with you Jeanne, all the way.

I hope to avoid the whole Santa thing as much as possible. As in, I will never tell my son he's a real person, never threaten, ring bells outside his window on Christmas Eve, etc. I have no problem pretending about Santa if he finds that fun, but I'm not starting it. The deception part feels queasy to me, so I don't think I should be forced into doing it.

I hear this the most, "oh, but you'll miss the magic of Christmas". Well, I never believed in Santa, and I thought Christmas was pretty darned fun as a kid.

We'll see what next year brings, when he's almost 4. It was easy to avoid this year, since he's just almost 3.

[C99]

>This is the most sticky one. My DS is a little young and it
>doesn't come up his preschool yet, but I'm sure it will some
>day.

Really? My DS is a week younger than yours, attends a twice-weekly Christian-based Mother's Day Out program that emphasizes the religious aspect of Christmas, and Santa Claus has come up among his peer group already. As for us, we're not actively promoting Santa, but not actively discouraging it. By the time my parents told me about Santa/Tooth Fairy/Easter Bunny, it really wasn't a surprise. I don't ever remember feeling betrayed. I was more irritated with the crazy story my mom told me about ear piercing than finding out that Santa didn't exist!

[buddyleebaby]

I was actually aware of that custom, but the comment came from an Irish Catholic, so I don't think it was a cultural thing.

Right, but just because THEY are Irish Catholic does not mean that it is not an honest question. They, like you, could be aware of the custom and are trying to see where you're coming from.

OR they could just be being sarcastic and stupid. : )

[crayonblue]

I totally understand! We don't do Santa either and people kept asking Lauren if Santa was going to bring presents. They seemed totally shocked when she would reply, "Santa isn't real and Daddy puts presents under the tree!" (not sure why only Daddy does this, but that's ok!)

I don't have anything against Santa really; I just don't see him as necessary. We are trying to focus on Jesus's birth at Christmas and adding Santa in the mix isn't something we feel like doing.

[punkrockmama]

I'm sorry you've had to deal with some real knuckleheads, Jeanne. People just don't get that not everyone does things the way they do, and that it's just fine that way.

We do Santa over here (left cookies out for him and stuff). But one thing I will never understand is the whole threat thing. If you're not good Santa won't come or he's watching you. That makes my skin crawl when I hear about it.

[dogmom]

In my orginal reply to you I put something in about the lack of cultural diversity awareness in my workplace and my fairly firm conviction that is was a sarcastic remark, but that sounded to petty so I edited it out.
;)


Jeanne
Mom to Harvey
1/16/03
& Eve 6/18/06

[jgriffin]

We got a bit of the opposite this year. I got flak from a family member when I posted a picture of E on Santa's lap on my blog (it was the typical screaming child photo and very funny). The comment was essentially how could we bring E to see Santa and fill his mind with falsehoods, and she hoped it was just for the sake of a photo and not because we were planning on teaching E the mythology of Santa.

*sigh*

E is not even 17 months old, and still has no concept of stuff like Santa (heck, he finally figured out opening presents this year, but has no idea where they're from). And Santa came to the daycare party to give out presents, anyway (the photo was obviously not a mall Santa!)

Our plan for E is not to lie to him, but to tell him that some people believe there's a guy named Santa who gives presents (which is true). If he wants to believe in Santa I'm not going to try to convince him otherwise, but if he asks, I'll tell him it's me and DH. We haven't worked out the logistics yet, but we've got another year to worry about it, at least. :)