Let the Christmas shopping begin! Halloween hasn't even passed yet and Walmart has set up one of those music demo players that plays nothing but Christmas carols. They've also already lowered prices on toys, sending other stores like Target to lower their prices too. The journey for the best bargain has already begun.
And while store managers are getting ready for Black Friday, I wonder if the little kids are getting ready to send Santa their Christmas wishlists. When I was younger, I never wrote a Christmas wishlist. I don't know how my folks always ended up buying me exactly what I wanted. But I remember there being kids who did make letters. Did they really send that letter out? Could you imagine it's address?
To Santa's Workshop in the North Pole, area code unknown. And what did the USPS did with those letters? Did they slap a big "return to sender" stamp on it?
It was such a let down knowing it was Mom eating those cookies I baked on Christmas Eve instead of the fat man himself. It hurt just as bad when I found out there really was no tooth fairy. Parents are full of lies. The Easter bunny? Barney? They're all lies!
I don't know if I would tell my children these lies... or false hopes, whatever you want to call them. My mom told me that I went to some kids birthday party and they had "Barney" come in. The guy in the costume hadn't tucked his hair in all the way so it was hanging out of his giant purple foam head. She said I cried the whole party because Barney was a fraud. (Hey, Barney was my life!)
Why let your kids think one way and then have them feel so let down when they find out the truth? That sucks. But I guess it's teaching the facts of life at an early age.
Would you go out of your way to tell your children about things like Santa and the tooth fairy?
Comments (15)
*hugs* barney was my life too lol
i believe in telling my kids about santa and the tooth fairy... it makes them wicked creative... now, if they ask me about the reality of them, i'll tell the truth, but what they choose ot believe is fine. i think ripping these things away from children makes them cynical at an early age...
Thats a hard question for me to really answer at this time but awesome topic at that I'll eventually *if I don't forget* get back to you on a more sufficient answer.
Actually now that I saw blazinhott99's answer I was thinking just like her but she said it exactly the right way that I couldn't.
@blazinhott99 - I agree with you Good answer.
Ok...Well I used to be a Jehovah's Witness. *Waits for everyone to say, OMG...CULT CULT* So we didn't believe in all that stuff. My mom told me right away it was all lies. I of course had to be a good boy and not tell others that believed in it. Anyways I feel believing in those is almost equal to believing in winning the lottery, you always think your gonna win and it's really gonna happen to you, then you buy the ticket and your wrong...LOL It's false hope. I mean if there is nothing to believe in then what fun would this world be?
I think me and my sister always knew the truth but we always had fun pretending we believed. I remember one of my aunts trying to convince me that reindeer were real, and I probably thought she was crazy =) I don't feeI was deprived though, not believing. I think it actually made it more fun.
@blazinhott99 - & - @pinky93085 (since you agree with her) - I get what you're saying, but doesn't it also teach them to believe in whatever they're told at an early age?
@brain51983 - Well, you could believe in something that has a chance of actually becoming a reality. Take the American Dream for example. It's still a dream but it can come true.
@LyricallyCharged - no, i'm giving them the OPTION to believe. i would let them deduce their own reasoning until they decided if they wanted to know.
@xo_vintagelove_xo - I think between telling the kids that Santa is or isn't real, I like your input best (Having fun pretending Santa is real yet not being caught up in the lie) Because I think that if you reveal Santa isn't real from the start, then I feel that you are taking away one of the joys of childhood, yet if you let the kid truly believe in Santa, then you'll end up hurting the kid later on.
Do you mind sharing how your parents did it?
@rinrinchan@revelife - Well I'm not sure how they let us know, it was too young. But we always set out cookies, and left messages for santa on the magna doodle (look it up if you don't know), and things like that. Most years we were at my grandparents for Christmas and on Christmas eve all but, say, my grandma, would go out to look at lights. When we got home, 'santa' had been there! Apperently the Chicago area was on the beginning of Santa's route =)
Now that I think of it, my parents may have never really told us in so many words that santa was not real. There was just enough clues left, and they way things were said or joked about, that we figured it out early on. My aunt's insistence that he was real actually helped too!
Barney *shudder*
I will probably tell them about Santa and the toothfairy. Maybe the Easter Bunny, too. But since Barney is kind of a thing of the past now, probably not him.
The funny thing is...I've never really told my kids one way or the other. I refer to Santa bringing the presents and the Toothfairy bringing the dollar...but I never have clarified whether or not they are mystical creatures or myself. My exhusband is a Jehovahs Witness and this past Summer told my daughter that Santa wasn't a real person that it was just a man in a suit. Well, the other day H said, "mom, I know Santa isn't real." and I asked who it was then (thinking she would say "you") but instead she responded with...."he's just a really nice guy who comes in our house and brings me presents". To be frank, I don't know which is worse. But I do make a point that if my kids ask is such and such a real...I usually just respond with a "what do you think?" because I do have it in the back of my head that lying to them isn't really justifiable.
i never really celebrated christmas. i didnt believe in santa.. come to think of it, i never celebrated anything seriously lol.. maybe halloween from ages 8-11 but that was it!
I think at a certain age everyone knows the truth...but I chose to believe. I still remember my cousin getting into trouble for telling me that Santa was a fake when we were little. As a teacher once told me: "Santa is in our all of hearts."