Xander ,'Dirty Girls'
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
Oh, I believed and was FURIOUS when I found out the parents had been lying to me and that everyone else already knew. FURIOUS.
mac knows who Santa is, but I am not sure what he know wrt getting gifts. despite whatever it is, he will be told that Santa represents the spirit of giving at Christmas.
Meanwhile, an awful lot of people believe Santa Claus is real and alive, while I believe that's a myth/legend. And having been a Santa Claus true believer at one point, and having met more of them in my lifetime than I can count, I can tell you their utter conviction about him makes a mockery out of the faith of even the most fanatical Christians I've ever met. I think the Santa believers just get to have their symbol because they're cuter than the rest of us. It's not fair.
Cindy,
Are you talking about adults? Seriously?
The Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny never convinced me, and it was those stories that made me doubt there was any truth to Santa. I was 5 or 6 when I found out (read it in the newspaper), but I'd been trying to out the truth for a couple of years. I remember that the year prior, I'd wanted to wait to make a list, until Christmas Eve.
I don't think of Santa Clause as lying so much as mythmaking
Perhaps no one would be surprised to find out that I was very keen on truth, accountability, accuracy, and fairness as a kid. I didn't just not believe in Santa, I was mad that anyone did.
On the flip side, I believed in magic. But that was different. That was cool. That was stuff that if I could crack it I'd get the edge on my parents and help equalise the power dynamic at home and abroad--the same sort of power dynamic that the world was trying to reinforce with Santa and his little friends.
mac knows who Santa is, but I am not sure what he know wrt getting gifts. despite whatever it is, he will be told that Santa represents the spirit of giving at Christmas.
I think that's a good approach. I mean, if he hasn't had Santa bringing him gifts all these years? I think it would be very confusing.
Are you talking about adults? Seriously?Oh, no, which is why I started that paragraph with, "And on a totally silly note," and ended with the thing about Santa believers being cuter than the unbelievers, and it not being fair.
Santa was, and is, for my family mostly tradition. Even at 32, 26, and 25, cookies and carrots and a last minute letter are still left out for Santa and the reindeer. Santa stuffs the stockings, leaves wrapped presents, and leaves one present unwrapped.
The rule in our house was parents didn't get up until 8am on Christmas morning. My siblings and I were usually up around 6. We got to open our stockings and play with the unopened Santa gift. We still do it when we're all home for Christmas.
Once Em is old enough to understand, we'll probably do the same thing with her.
Oh, thank goodness. Your post makes so much more sense now. It does seem silly to me that I think no one (in my social circle) would expect me confirm the existence of Jesus if I didn't believe (although they might really want me to), but they expect me to play along with the whole Santa thing.
So, for people that grew up with Santa... were there presents under the tree before Christmas day? Did parents get presents? Did you get presents for siblings?
The rule in our house was parents didn't get up until 8am on Christmas morning. My siblings and I were usually up around 6. We got to open our stockings and play with the unopened Santa gift. We still do it when we're all home for Christmas.
For us it was 7am, though no one was allowed to open anything until my parents and all the siblings were there. My sister used to wake up at the crack of dawn and bounce around the house until it woke my mother up. My brother usually got up and around 6. At 7am my mother would start trying to get my father and I out of bed. It was a tossup which one of us would be the last one to finally drag our butts into the living room at 7:45, at which point my sister was nearly insane with anticipation.