Misadventures of the 10lees

Now that I think of it, I'm not sure we were ever deceived with Santa. I always remember presents from the parents. Oh well.

My best friend in elementary school who believed for a little longer than most of us. When our class was doing a toy drive for needy families, she raised her hand and asked why we were doing that when Santa Claus was bringing their presents. Lots of kids laughed and she was humiliated and totally crushed. I am not sure what I will do when our little one's come along some day, but I know for my friend, it was really tramatizing when she found out there was no Santa and kids can have a wonderul childhood enjoying the spirit of Christmas.

Wow, see I think that would be a horrible experience and might have crushed me as a child. (though I would have not had to live with the humiliation for long since I switched school almost every year, I can't imagine living that down) Ouch....

Jeremy, you didn't even get presents from Santa?? I did even though I knew - up until I was in college. Always need a good reason to get extra presents.

I hate the idea of lying to your kids about something as silly as an overgrown elf delivering presents to all the kids around the world.
Christy and I disagree on this point. She thinks that I will destroy my children's childhoods by not allowing them to fully experience the joys of ole St. Nick, and all the childlike fascination that comes with it. I just dont want to have to deal with figuring out the right time to break the news to them that it was all a lie.
I'd rather just teach them the true meaning of christmas, and how santa is just an extension of the christmas spirit. I'll probably do the same as mom, and give them presents labeled by SC, but I would rather not do the whole shpeal.
So, my wife is convinced that my child will be the first one to ruin it for all the other kids in class. Yep, I'm raising Ebinezer incarnate. Such is life i guess.

Not that I remember (at least from the immediate family). I do remember vaguely wondering why people actually though he was real and asking about that. I have sorta an odd opinion of presents I guess too. I sorta dread some of them, since I know it'll be something I don't care for and I'll feel bad since they usually thought it'd be good. I also did the split the cost thing with my parents in like Junior High. Like one year I needed a new receiver, so they paid for whatever was even for all the siblings and I paid the rest. Maybe I was (am?) just weird though. :) At least it got me stuff I'd enjoy.

I am running into that too with my boyfriend (of course we are not currently having a child together), but I didn't think it destroyed my childhood and I don't remember telling anybody else and destroying theirs either. I think it depends on whether you have a child who will be destroyed by the lack of truth telling or not. I have no idea how you gage this - but if they are anything like mom I would probably tell them or they will despise you forever.

Jeremy, I don't think that is wierd. I haven't done that but that is because I like getting presents whether it is exactly what I wanted or not. It's the fun of knowing the person thought of you when they picked it out. But everyone is different and picking out your own present is great too because then you get exactly what you want. (especially if it is high priced electronic gismos) :-)

as the oldest child, and inherantly more curious than most of my friends, i discovered that around 11pm on christmas eve, my mom would be wrapping gifts i hadnt found before, and dad watching sappy christmas movies whilst sipping baileys. after i could stay up a bit later, i learned where i could hide under the couch for the best view. yes, i know, very Alias of me. maybe i should get a job at the cia? i loved to watch my mom carefully putting the presents under the tree. i never stayed for the whole process. i guess i had some semblance of decorum or privacy, even at 5 or 6. i'd sneek back to bed, and smile knowing that these people loved me sooooo much.

i know my sister was told about santa at a young age (from a christian frind who's parents completely and rudely discredited SC and humiliated a LOT of children and angered a LOT of parents - if you are adamantly against SC, please, have a bit of decorum and respect for other people's lives, and be quiet). but kenzie and i silently "believed" together. never questioning it, bc we already knew the answer. i think our silent partnership fed my parents and gave kenzie and i something to bond with.

if i have a child as curious as i was, sigh, oh well. :o) i'll have more to deal with than sneeking around to see SC... but you should always respect a child. you'll know your own child. it's always better if a loved one tells the truth instead of lying. sometimes kids need to believe. sometimes they need the truth. Roland, i wouldnt worry too much about your differences w/ christy. you'll figure it out. :o)

my parents told us that santa wasn't real from the beginning. we never believed in him. that being said, we were NOT allowed to tell anyone else. my parents explained it as "a fun game that people play" and that santa was pretend like big bird (see? never belived...). apparently a few teachers were upset with my parents, but they wanted us to understand the real meaning behind christmas (as well as other holidays...no easter bunny in my house). i never spilled the beans to any of my friends...i let them find out on their own (i'm pretty sure i would have been in a ton of trouble if i told anyone). we still got presents from santa, though...

As someone who has always had an overactive imagination (I was convinced that I would marry Kermit the Frog and used to make mom take me to J.C. Penny to kiss the feet of a Big Bird statue) (No lie).

I never really felt betrayed by finding out that these things weren't real because a part of me still believes they are and a part of me always knew they weren't. The magic makes them real even if they're not really real. It was fun when Mom and Dad told me that they'd found deer tracks in the yard or had heard sleigh bells on the roof at night, so when the house popped at night, I was fairly convinced it was reindeer. I liked believing there was a Santa, and because I had two younger sisters, I got to pretend I believed for a long time.

I don't remember ever being told. At some point, I just knew there was no way a giant fat man was coming through my chimmney, no matter how much anybody protested that he could. Especially because we didn't actually have a chimmney. Then again, I couldn't really fly, and cartoons weren't really real, but that didn't stop me from pretending to fly or from watching TV.

The kids at school probably told me, but I didn't like the ones who said things like that anyway, so I didn't usually listen to them. My cousins probably told me, but they also told me they'd found Indians burried under their house and that their parents were going to put a swimming pool in their basement, so you can guess how much stock that held. I think probably Dad told Sarah and I because he needed help wrapping up Mom's presents. I think for awhile, I thought my parents believed even though I didn't, so I pretended I did. I don't really know.

I guess it never occurred to me to be traumatized because in the end, I came out with more presents, so who cared if he was made up? I was probably more traumatized when I found out that joining the Big Bird's Buddies club did not, in fact, mean that I was going to get to hang out with Big Bird (who I also didn't really believe was a giant bird).

Maybe I've just always been able to tell the difference between things that are real and things that are pretend and have always been able to believe in both in the two seperate realms. And anyway, I tend to agree with dr. g. I knew that I was very loved and very lucky to have my parents and that was what it was really about, not neccessarily a fat man in a red suit.

I have three kids who understand what the meaning of Christmas is all about and they also still believe in Santa. Mike and I have not told them the truth about santa as they will figure it out soon enough, and why spoil their fun. I did find it baffling however that my 7 year old daughter saw a couple of presents that I had forgotten to take out of my van after one of my shopping excursions. Well, these presents were the "santa" gifts. One of these said gifts were hers. She would passively ask me something like, "mommy, do you think that santa will bring me toy dress up shoes?" Well, as you can see, that was supposed to be her santa gift. I could have exchanged the shoes and bought her something else to be her "santa" gift, but I went with the shoes. Christmas morning rolls around and she opens up her "santa" gift, and yes it's the toy shoes that she had been eyeing in the back of my van for like a week. I sat there in amazement as she didn't even mention a peep that she had seen these shoes before. Oh no, she was all excited, "how did santa know that I wanted these shoes!" I’m thinking she’s in denial about the whole santa thing. Yeah, she made no connection between the toy shoes in my van and the toy shoes she got from santa. Kids, they really do want to believe in the fairy tale I guess.

Santa brought me Nintendo and the PowerPad. I didn't have time to question his existance because I was too busy kicking ass at Track and Field.

I don't think my parents ever told us there wasn't a Santa Claus. My next door neighbors told me once that there was no Santa Claus, but my brother and I talked about it and couldn't really figure out where my parents got the money for all the presents if there was no Santa Claus. Turns out my mom had all these multiple savings accounts or something.
When my nieces were born we Santa was mericulously reborn again as we all started recieving presents from him again.
I think my family had more like a don't ask don't tell policy. My brother and I didn't ask because we didn't really want to know. I do know that when I was young on Christmas Eve my dad has these sleigh bells and would pretend to be SC, but I also knew that was pretend, but was not allowed to tell my cousins. Christmas has always been a huge holiday in my family though. You could actually see my house from like a mile away with all its light. I used to hate it, but now I miss it a lot. I think it just makes everything more fun.
We all still knew the true meaning of Christmas. I think many of you are over analizing this whole Santa thing after all if you child is truelly that tramatized by finding out that Santa is not real then the said child is in for a long life of hard disappointments. Children grown up fast enough if believing in Santa makes Christmas time more fun for them I really don't see what it can hurt.

Santa was akin to the Easter bunny for me and my brother. My parents saw no reason to try and trick us into something that wasn't real...

My Grandfather desperately tried to get us to believe. He'd give us presents labeled "Santa" and we'd get confused because we knew it wasn't our parents and since Santa didn't exist it must have been one of our relatives...

Our parents told us who it was and so whenever we thanked him for a gift he sent he'd get a sarcastic frustration and insist that it was Santa.

The idea of actually believing in Santa was so foreign to me that when people talked about kids learning that Santa wasn't real I took it more like an urban legend than something real.

So as the child that sought truth and was told a lie - I will tell you that I was the youngest at the time of the lying parents report.

I was not interested in fables at the time but only the truth ... but that pretty much sums up my time on earth. Not interested in lies and falsehood. I don't mind entertaining things like the Polar Express - but I know what's true and not true. I also saw alot of God in the Polar Express - the lost ticket that shows up again (nothing is ever lost in our experiences on this earth) and SC's reflection in the bell as God's interest in us - bending down to see how we are to interact with us.

It says in the Bible to "Train up a child in the way he/she should go." In other words this child needs to be raised as he has a natural bent - such as a truth seeker ... and not putting our own ideas on a child - "You will someday work at this job - instead of his own dreams.

If a child asks a direct question - is there a Santa Claus and a parent lies to the child - be prepared for an angry child if they've taken your word for it. If a child asks a direct question - I figure they want to know.

I was more interested in my children believing what I SAID than believing in Santa Claus. As one that HATED The Wizard of OZ.

Since most on this blog didn't have a problem with their experience of SC - I figure their parents raised them properly.

BTW - Ten was told to not tell anyone. She may have blabbed to her cousin - but the cousin went to her parents and her parents continued the lie and I HEARD about it. I don't know the problem - she to this day doesn't believe in God.

See I think there can be a direct correlation between a child believing in SC, parents and God.

I asked God to help me raise my children and I believe He did help me.
Love,
m