childrenWe encourage our children to think carefully and critically about the religious teaching they receive at school (Church of England) while at the some time indulging them (indeed, very carefully keeping the truth from them) with regard to Father Christmas.
This has got to be absurd, hasn’t it? Yet it feels quite natural. Is there some way of rationalising the difference between the two kinds of belief, at least to ourselves, without getting lost in philosophical contradictions?
I think there is a potential rationalization for atheists to indulge in Santa with their kids. It’s the opposite of the Julia Sweeny quote.
Rather than Santa being a “starter Jesus”, Santa can be a “starter skeptic case study”.
Once the kid figures out or discovers that Santa is fake, it demonstrates that they and can, in fact, be fooled into believing something untrue. Not only did the kid believe it, but so did all of their friends. Even the TV, and books, and songs said it was true. Even their own parents told them it was true. But it wasn’t.
“Is it absurd to encourage children to think critically about God and religion, while indulging them in Father Christmas?”
I think it entirely depends on the age of the child.
I see nothing wrong with parents encouraging a belief in Santa in very young children (say 3-6 years old). Very young children don’t have the cognitive development to be critical-thinkers anyway. At that age, I think its more important that children know the world as wondrous, amazing, joyful, complicated and a little scary.
As the child develops cognitively, you’re probably not doing them any favors by trying to teach them critical thinking, on the one hand, and keeping the Santa myth alive in their mind, on the other.
A personal anecdote which has informed my ideas on Santa:
I had a recent discussion with my 6-year-old niece about Santa Claus. After some questioning (out of ear-shot of her parents), she admitted she didn’t really believe in Santa and that she knew it was really her mom and dad. That led her to ask why parents try to trick “little” kids into believing in Santa.
I realized I was on dangerous ground, so I answered carefully: “The idea of Santa Claus - of someone who gives toys to little boys and girls - is such a great idea, that all the parents of the world work together to make it happen - even if Santa Claus, the person, doesn’t really exist.”
She responded with: “That’s amazing!”
I hope she takes that realization with her as she explores with world.
-S
I think it is absurd, and I would never “keep the truth of Father Christmas” from my child. Comedian Julia Sweeney called Santa “a starter Jesus.” Think about it: a magical man with a beard who watches you all the time, and rewards you if you’re good but punishes you if you’re bad?
Magical (or “fantastic”) thinking is inimical to critical thinking. And I don’t see a distinction in being critical of the Judeo-Christian-Muslim deity vs. being critical of the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus, Zeus, Mithra, Sol Invictus, the Invisible Pink Unicorn, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
You can teach kids that Santa is a myth or a cultural construct or a way of talking about Christmas without pretending there is a literal fat man in a red fur-trimmed suit who lives under the North Pole and traverses the planet in a sleigh drawn by flying ruminants.
The difference between fairy stories and religious stories is that we dont send our children off to Tooth Fairy School every Sunday so that they can be indoctrinated on how much money the Tooth Fairy had to give away so that children like them could wake up happy … We dont make our children constantly feel guilty for or make them give thanks to the Tooth Fairy over and over again OR ELSE …
Fairy Stories feed the imagination … Religion feeds insecurity and guilt …
The rationalization is that Santa Clause doesn’t incite people to hate or kill. Santa doesn’t pass down silly rules about how to live or banish people to hell for being gay. Santa doesn’t support slavery (well… okay, I guess he might) or mistreating women. Santa brings presents to good boys and girls. Santa is non-denominational and actually something people have in common at a time of year where everyone’s differences seem to be more obvious.
If you give kids the tools to see through religion, they have to tools to see through Santa as well.
To an atheist, there seems like there is a conflict with critical thought because both are allowing participation in celebrating an imaginary entity. However, for an atheist, there is only a concern about critical thought as it relates to a claim about [God]. On the other hand, the atheist does not by necessity make the same distinction regarding secular entities.
To indulge fantastical thought in a child can be rationalized as an exercise in imagination or any number of diversions without coming into conflict with atheistic thought.
Santa is a tool to help parents with how their child behaves. There is only one Santa, body parts dont need to be cut off in his name. Bla Bla Bla. No child should believe in him after a few years and no one will ever look down on a child as “possessed by a devil” when they finally work out it was all a game.
There is FAR more evidence for the existence of Santa than God. Children get to meet him at malls and see him on TV. Those presents DO show up, you can’t say they don’t.
Why children are able to reconcile that their PARENTS are liars, and not that the televangelist on TV is a liar, is beyond me.
A more interesting experiment, because we are talking about experimenting on our children here, would be to NEVER relent on Santa. See if you can convince them that God is bullshit, but Santa is obviously real.
There is a tension of course between “keeping the secret” about Santa while not doing so in connection with Jesus or some other object of religious veneration. The real question is when and how you speak more directly about the game. We expect our children to eventually “figure it out” about Santa, but religions order people not to do the same with other metaphorical/legendary characters.
So, is there any value in playing the Santa/Father Christmas game with our children? I can think of a few possible justifications. It teaches them that hope is sometimes justified. That really wanting something will sometimes get them what they want (and with age you can explain that there are more constructive ways of “wishing” for things than “asking Santa” for them). It provides a model of giving as an inherently rewarding activity independent of getting something in return. This model of giving becomes a lot more meaningful once the children are expected to practice this themselves.
The religious objects of adoration have similar value – for the young. The embarrassing thing about religion (to me) is that it demands an absurd continuation of these “games” long after one has acquired a much better philosophical understanding of their purpose.
I was able to enjoy my imagination as a child (and hopefully not too much of that has left me in my adult life) without believing that what I imagined was actually real. I think a similar experience with Santa Claus can be taken part in by children.
In short, children don’t need to actually believe that Santa Claus is real to enjoy pretending that he is.
To a certain extent, discussing how to solve all of the logistical problems with Santa’s gift agency might actually be a fun exercise for kids :P
I was brought up Jehovah's Witness, so I was never taught about Santa. And I don't have any kids of my own, so I don't really know what I'm talking about. But I was reading a fascinating conversation about this at Slactivist recently (starting I think somewhere on page 5 of this thread, but mixed in with a lot of other conversation).
Point 1: Kids are generally happy to not have clear boundaries between fantasy and reality.
Point 2: Kids are people. People differ. Your child will have her own personality which you'll need to consider.
Point 3: Going to elaborate lengths to fake evidence to prolong your child's belief in Santa probably is abusive, or at least painfully confusing. You're interfering with your child's developing understanding of reality.
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