family, cultural-identitySeeing nothing religious in Christmas (except the name) I love to celebrate it with a tree and the story of Santa and his elves just for the pure joy of family togetherness and gifts. I have told my children that Santa is fake and they know the gifts come from their parents but I did stress the idea that it is a fun make-belief story which adds a lot of fun to the holidays and therefore they still “play along”. We do the same thing with the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy.
How do YOU deal with other myths beside religion and do you actually participate in any of them?
My parents gave me all of these myths as a child and I am glad they did. They’re very fun for children and I don’t think cause that much harm when they learn the truth. My daughter also grew up with these myths and I think she would probably pass them on to her children.
I think your approach is perfect. Have all the fun while realizing it’s just make believe. That’s the best of both worlds.
I personally like the myths because I think that they provide a good bit of early training in critical thinking and are a great example of god-done-it style explanations.
Which one is simpler?
Some guy makes it all the way around the world in a night and squeezes down chimneys (wait, what about domiciles without chimneys) bringing gifts that his elf-slaves made. He manages to make it to all the different malls too where all the kids can go and sit on his lap.
Parents bought the presents and put them under the tree themselves.
My son kept asking me to go to the mall to see santa. He was 3-4. I said; you know he’s not real right? I think he figured it out when I was santa the year before for the kids in the daycare at the YMCA. (How’s that for being a hypocrite.) He said yeah, but I will get toys. So we spent the next Saturday santa hunting. As far as other myths, I try to find the moral to the story. Or just stress it’s just a story. I think certain myths spread a feeling of grander. They give a view of the human spirit at it’s best. I think that is a good for kids to experience.
Unicorns exist and I have fun believing in them. Just a manifestation of the truism that the world is a different place than you think it is.
What do you mean Santa Claus is a myth? He was recently awarded Canadian citizenship and has long had his own Canadian postal code - H0H 0H0.
http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2008/12/23/7839591.html
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