It doesn’t make sense. It really doesn’t. From their birth, children look to their parents for what to think. If Dad says it, it’s true. If Mom does it, it’s fine. Parents have influence and control over their children’s minds, and yet they persist in lying to those little minds.
But, parents may protest, it’s not a lie! Santa Claus brings presents to good children every Christmas with his reindeer? They believe that?
But why is it that lying to children about Santa Claus is so different from any other lie children would be punished for? So what parents mean no harm? He’s not real. So what he was based on a good man? St. Nicholas died over 1,600 years ago. Yet parents still lie, and their children believe them.
According to Tom Nicholson, a professor at the School of Education at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, 85 percent of 4-year-old children and 65 percent of 6-year-olds believe in Santa Claus. Children are not unintelligent, however, and soon their minds begin to doubt. One jolly old man in a reindeer-drawn sleigh visiting every home in the whole world in just one night? Somehow this flabbergasting fact becomes too silly and the children realize their parents’ lie. Their parents might laugh that the child has finally seen through their deception, or they might get upset and insist the child keep their new-found knowledge secret, and it’s all a great deal of fun.
The poor children, however, are left to wonder if other tales their parents have been telling them are false, and some feel betrayed. What about the Easter Bunny who supposedly leaves Easter baskets for children? Or the tooth fairy who gives money in exchange for lost teeth? Or the God who forgives sins? Some children might be intelligent enough to know that their parents didn’t mean any harm and move on in life; but logically, why should they believe anything else their parents tell them?
But, parents may insist, telling children to believe in Santa Claus is tradition! Since when were the traditions of the world our standards for life? Parents today need to grow up and realize that the world is lying to them. The world is thrusting in parents’ faces a crazy falsehood that they should lie to their children about Santa Claus, and it’s wrong—like any other lie for which they punish their children.
In her Journal News article “Little white lies grow to strain the parent-child bond, author says,” Janie Magruder writes, “To tell the truth, lies are bad.” She’s absolutely right. So let’s stop lying to children: Santa Claus does not exist.
Sources:
http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=38
http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061016/LIFESTYLE01/610160306/1031
http://topics-az.parenthood.com/articles.html?article_id=2619
You would lie if you said that you have seen your face. You would lie if you said you have never seen face.
What’s worse, you’d be speaking the truth if you said that you have seen your face (How else would you recognize yourself?). And you’d be speaking the truth if you said you have never seen your face.
So, what is truth and what is a lie?
James—just because people cannot truly see their own faces without reflections or mirrors does not mean that the distinction between truth and lies must be blurred. A lie is an intentional untruth, and though parents probably do not intend any harm, they ARE purposefully convincing their children of something that they can not sincerely believe themselves.
Hi Theresa,
Thanks for this post. I stumbled on it via a google search.
I think that there’s a lot of social pressure for parents to partake in the Santa conspiracy, and to be honest, I think that if I had kids I’d probably succumb and go along with it to. But I think that on some level, parents feel that they’re really giving their kids something by lying to them about Santa. I’ve posted about this on my blog actually this morning.
http://pierianpuddle.blogspot.com/2007/12/social-functions-of-santa-conspiracy.html
i believe it is a VERY good thing to allow children to have an imagination… what is wrong with that?
our world is so determined to have an explanation for everything… that our imaginations, what determines movies, cultures and ways of life, are snuffed out.
our children deserve to have an imagination and create their dreams. what problem is this to you? i ask you…
does it hurt you to know a fat man in a red suit “gives” gifts on christmas eve night? wow… you must have much to worry about… :)
i also ask you, what rights do they have if you take their imaginations away? i expect a response. yeah right! haha…
anyway, MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Hello…I found your site via Yahoo! when i was searching for author magazine, and this post regarding The Christmas Falsehood: Santa Claus really sounds very interesting to me.. Thanks.
Julie,
There is a difference between letting a childs imagination grow, and lying to a child. Santa is used as a bargaining chip for parents that can’t control their children. “Don’t lie, cheat, steal, cuss, etc. or else Santa won’t come this year.” If parents have to use lies to keep their children under control, then they most definitely need to go to a parenting class or two. Answer me this: Why use a lie to encourage your children not to lie?