Is believing in Santa really such a good thing?
By Lauren Fitch
When Santa Claus became just a folk tale Most of us probably believed that Santa Claus existed at some point in our lives. I can clearly remember the way that I found out he wasn’t real. My mother had told me that she would buy me a Beatles calendar for Christmas and I watched her buy it, yet on Christmas day the package was clearly marked “From Santa”. I asked my mother, loudly, why “Santa” had brought me a calendar I had watched her buy for me. She told me to be quiet because my younger sister still believed. I put on a charade for another couple of years, but eventually my sister figured it out. I don’t think that my mother should have lied to me throughout those years. There was no benefit to lying and in act it had a profound effect on my life because it led to my decision to become secular. When I was younger, I found a lot of joy in church. I would go every Sunday, see my friends and I would get a snack. To me, Santa and Jesus were just two sides of the same coin. You couldn’t have one on Christmas without the other. Since Santa was a story, I assumed that Jesus and his birth was also just a story. So, when I found out that Santa was a lie, the seeds of doubt became planted in my mind. To me, it meant that Jesus was a just a story too. I waited it out for a few years, but discovered that others made a distinction between the two stories. Fast-forward a few years and I found myself leaving religion because it was incompatible with my scientific and reasonable approach to life. I’ve heard religious people echo my sentiment that lying to children about Santa Claus limits the credibility of religious communities. Not only that, but your children should be able to trust you. If you tell your child that Santa is real and the child finds out that he is not real, the child will and should lose trust in its parents. Not only that, but I actually appreciated Christmas gifts more when I learned that my parents bought them. It made it more personal and it was still fun to wake up on Christmas morning. I know that I’m not everyone, but I just can’t condone lying to kids no matter what. If the cat dies, I’m going to tell them that the cat died. If I bought them their presents, I’m going to tell them that I bought there presents. It saves a lot of confusion, heartache, and for the religious, it could save their faith.