There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence.

Romance? Have I been hearing about the wrong Santa?

I fail to get the point behind believing Santa's real, so don't leave your kids with me if you need them unabused. I'm likely to slip and hard.

I guess it's because I never believed that I can't imagine what believing could add.

Romance? Have I been hearing about the wrong Santa?

Haven't you heard about the one who's always kissing Mommy?

Jesse! are you AIMable?

The year's best errors -- a roundup of newspaper and magazine errors and corrections from 2006.

From the Orange County Register:

Cannabis is a synonym for marijuana. Because of a reporter’s error, the word was misspelled in an article on Page 15 of the News section in the Sept. 22 edition of the Register.

As with many corrections, it’s all about what they’re not telling you. Here’s the original, offending sentence:

The pot growers had tapped into an irrigation line for landscaping around the gated community of Stoneridge, and had rigged up a network of white, 3/4-inch PVC piping to grow the cannibals.

Why do parent's make their kids believe in Santa Claus (and the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny)? Is it just because their parents made them believe?

I mean it's a decision we're going to have to make in regards to our child, and even though my parents had us kids believing, I'm not sure why I would want to intentionally decieve my own.

Why do parent's make their kids believe in Santa Claus?

So that they don't have to wrap presents?

My presents from Santa were always wrapped. As is the occasional gift from Satan, which started out as a genuine typo (write-o?) by my grandmother, but which was on a gift of underwear that got directed to the wrong person.

For me, it was a compromise. I'm very much of the ita school of thought, and probably for the same reasons. I believed when tiny, but had doubts for as long as I could remember. I just knew my parents had no money, so I couldn't work out who bought the presents, if there was no Santa.

I'll tell you though, kids want to believe in Santa. Ben figured it out when we forgot to leave tooth fairy money once, then got total amnesia about it. The amnesia was such that when his (3 years younger) sister asked me point blank about Santa (and I told her the truth), and then told him, he was utterly shocked. They both told Chris, at the time. Chris blocked it out. Julia has now blocked it out, even though she spent the better part of a day or two, in tears.

Chris asked me this week. I asked him if he really wanted to know the truth. He said he did. I asked him if he really wanted to know the truth, even if the answer was, "There is no Santa." He said he did. I told him there was no Santa. He asked where the presents came from. I told him that his dad and I bought them. He then started arguing with me, and didn't want to know, and said I was wrong and he didn't believe me. I told him that he didn't have to believe me, and he was free to believe whatever he wanted.

He has since totally wiped that from his memory. And of my three children, he's the least capable of maintaining a pretense about this sort of thing. He's flat out convinced himself I was teasing, even though I never said, indicated, or acted like I was.

My minister and his wife always presented Santa as a fairy tale that people very much liked to pretend was true. I wish I'd known/thought of that approach, when Soctt and I were negotiating over how to handle it.

So that they don't have to wrap presents?

Our presents from Santa were always wrapped. My mother even bought different wrapping paper to use for the "Santa" presents instead of the presents from her and my father to help the facade.

ETA:

He has since totally wiped that from his memory. And of my three children, he's the least capable of maintaining a pretense about this sort of thing. He's flat out convinced himself I was teasing, even though I never said, indicated, or acted like I was.

That's interesting. I recall figuring it out and asking my parents about it and believing them, but now I wonder if I'd asked previously and blocked it out. I don't think I did, and considering how found of telling tales of me that I don't remember happening my mother is, I imagine she would have mentioned it.

Why do parent's make their kids believe in Santa Claus (and the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny)? Is it just because their parents made them believe? I mean it's a decision we're going to have to make in regards to our child, and even though my parents had us kids believing, I'm not sure why I would want to intentionally decieve my own.

I agree, except it might interest you to know that, despite my parents not doing the whole Santa thing, when very young I still sort of believed in him--even though my presents were always from Mom, Dad, or other family members. The cultural force of it is that strong.

I will say that getting tons of presents from Mom and Dad instead of a random fat stranger? Just as good, if not better.