Will I regret not doing "Santa"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't tell from your post, but do you actually celebrate Christmas? If you don't believe in God, yet celebrate Christmas, I don't see how adding Santa to the mix is so terrible.

These are contradictory positions. You know this, right? Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. It's not a secular holiday. It takes some really serious cognitive dissonance to profess no belief in God and then celebrate Christmas. A belief that Jesus is the son of God is the baseline for all of this, even the sillier secular traditions that go along with it (and which I see no harm in). You really can't cherrypick this stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The parents I know who really push the Santa thing are using it as a discipline technique for their otherwise unruly children. Bribing my kids to behave? Scaring them into thinking their every move is being watched? No thanks!

Between your nasty tone and the people you clearly hang out with, you deserve each other. No one I know does this. Maybe you should reevaluate your friends and consider therapy. What a cynical way to go through life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just please don't let your kid tell my kid.

Don't worry about it. My kids went to school and told their friends that Santa isn't real. They had huge playground discussions and debate about this. The other kids convinced my kids that Santa is real. They came home and told me that I'm crazy and Santa is real.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't tell from your post, but do you actually celebrate Christmas? If you don't believe in God, yet celebrate Christmas, I don't see how adding Santa to the mix is so terrible.

These are contradictory positions. You know this, right? Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. It's not a secular holiday. It takes some really serious cognitive dissonance to profess no belief in God and then celebrate Christmas. A belief that Jesus is the son of God is the baseline for all of this, even the sillier secular traditions that go along with it (and which I see no harm in). You really can't cherrypick this stuff.

I'm an atheist, and we celebrate secular Christmas. We can participate in the cultural aspects (trees, presents, Santa) of Christmas without believing in it. We totally cherry pick it and it works just fine.

As far as the root of the holiday, my kids get an explanation of that, just like they get an explanation of the religious roots of Halloween, Easter, St. Patrick's Day, and Valentine's Day. It's part of their cultural heritage. They also get explanations of Diwali, rosh Hashanah, Imbolc, and other religious holidays from other faiths that are NOT part of their cultural heritage.

BTW, that's why we told our kids that Santa isn't real. We're atheists. Santa is a a gateway drug to believing in religion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nanny here-

MB and DB did this to DC. I've been with the family 7 years and it's extremely sad every year when he wants to go see Santa and his hipster parents are too cool for Santa. It's actually a little obnoxious and iunfair to the kid. Last year we were in the mall and it broke my heart having to pull this little boy away from the line to go see Santa because he wasn't allowed. I think you are kind of pathetic OP and really hope you can put your kid first and be a hipster second.

We don't do Santa (in the sense of teaching the kids he is real) but they still like him like a Christmas mascot...get a picture on his knee, we give gifts from 'Santa' and they guess who it is really from etc... We aren't anti-Santa. By saying we don't do Santa we just don't do the Santa is real.

Nanny again- I totally agree with what you are saying and my Mom was the same way. When I asked if Santa was real she told me the truth that he wasn't because she didn't want to lie to me. But he was like you said, a mascot and I still get presents every year from 'Santa'... Even though I'm 28!! I also get presents from Mrs. Calus, the reindeer & the elves. Just seems incredibly sad when people are anti Santa, like my employers (who are great people but hipsters).

Aren't you a nasty, judgmental little thing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't tell from your post, but do you actually celebrate Christmas? If you don't believe in God, yet celebrate Christmas, I don't see how adding Santa to the mix is so terrible.

These are contradictory positions. You know this, right? Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. It's not a secular holiday. It takes some really serious cognitive dissonance to profess no belief in God and then celebrate Christmas. A belief that Jesus is the son of God is the baseline for all of this, even the sillier secular traditions that go along with it (and which I see no harm in). You really can't cherrypick this stuff.

To the second poster -- apparently plenty of Americans celebrate Xmas (95%), but don't go to church on Xmas eve or Xmas day (62% go to church). So, about 33% of Americans celebrate Xmas in some way without going to church. If you think Xmas is primarily a religious holiday, you are naive. Xmas, in practice, is primarily a commercial season... especially the santa aspect.
The secular has far overtaken the religious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't tell from your post, but do you actually celebrate Christmas? If you don't believe in God, yet celebrate Christmas, I don't see how adding Santa to the mix is so terrible.

These are contradictory positions. You know this, right? Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. It's not a secular holiday. It takes some really serious cognitive dissonance to profess no belief in God and then celebrate Christmas. A belief that Jesus is the son of God is the baseline for all of this, even the sillier secular traditions that go along with it (and which I see no harm in). You really can't cherrypick this stuff.

To the second poster -- apparently plenty of Americans celebrate Xmas (95%), but don't go to church on Xmas eve or Xmas day (62% go to church). So, about 33% of Americans celebrate Xmas in some way without going to church. If you think Xmas is primarily a religious holiday, you are naive. Xmas, in practice, is primarily a commercial season... especially the santa aspect.
The secular has far overtaken the religious.

Especially the "Elf on the Shelf" thing. This is a load of commercial crap created to sell books and dolls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't tell from your post, but do you actually celebrate Christmas? If you don't believe in God, yet celebrate Christmas, I don't see how adding Santa to the mix is so terrible.

These are contradictory positions. You know this, right? Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. It's not a secular holiday. It takes some really serious cognitive dissonance to profess no belief in God and then celebrate Christmas. A belief that Jesus is the son of God is the baseline for all of this, even the sillier secular traditions that go along with it (and which I see no harm in). You really can't cherrypick this stuff.

To the second poster -- apparently plenty of Americans celebrate Xmas (95%), but don't go to church on Xmas eve or Xmas day (62% go to church). So, about 33% of Americans celebrate Xmas in some way without going to church. If you think Xmas is primarily a religious holiday, you are naive. Xmas, in practice, is primarily a commercial season... especially the santa aspect.
The secular has far overtaken the religious.

And it's not just that the secular has recently taken over the religious- many (most?) christmas traditions were not religious to begin with. They are artifacts of winter solstice celebrations and observences that Christians have laid claim to and ignorantly believe were always "theirs."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Weird to me, just being honest. I think you think about things too much. Glad uiu weren't my mom! No offense.

This. Way overthinking it.

[Anonymous]

OP, just don't make the wrong decision. If you screw up with how to present Santa to your kids, you will ruin them for life.

[Anonymous]

We celebrate Christmas. I am neither religious nor sentimental and do not plan to "do Santa" with our (now one year old) child. There are five thousand great things about the holiday season and Santa is merely one that most tend to pick and choose. She'll live. She'll be taught to not blow the secret.

[Anonymous]

Please, religious folks have been cherrypicking and interpreting, catering to their own whims, forever. And then have the audacity to tell others they are wrong and evil. Who do you think is really going to the H place?

[Anonymous]

OP sounds like my self-centered and kind of weird neighbor. How do **I* feel? How will this impact ME?

It's so strange to watch personalities like this parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP sounds like my self-centered and kind of weird neighbor. How do **I* feel? How will this impact ME?

It's so strange to watch personalities like this parent.

Strange watching your personality parent too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't tell from your post, but do you actually celebrate Christmas? If you don't believe in God, yet celebrate Christmas, I don't see how adding Santa to the mix is so terrible.

These are contradictory positions. You know this, right? Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. It's not a secular holiday. It takes some really serious cognitive dissonance to profess no belief in God and then celebrate Christmas. A belief that Jesus is the son of God is the baseline for all of this, even the sillier secular traditions that go along with it (and which I see no harm in). You really can't cherrypick this stuff.

To the second poster -- apparently plenty of Americans celebrate Xmas (95%), but don't go to church on Xmas eve or Xmas day (62% go to church). So, about 33% of Americans celebrate Xmas in some way without going to church. If you think Xmas is primarily a religious holiday, you are naive. Xmas, in practice, is primarily a commercial season... especially the santa aspect.
The secular has far overtaken the religious.

I don't dispute that. It's a festival of consumerism, but what these people celebrate really isn't "Christmas."

Look, I'm not one of these "War on Christmas" or "put Christ back in Christmas" types. Really, I'm not.

I am simply pointing out that it's really weird to celebrate the traditions that are hallmarks of the faith and not share a fundamental belief in what drives the holiday in the first place. Maybe it's just a form of being a lemming who lacks critical thinking skills and going along to get along, but it's tremendously inconsistent. But I find it appalling that a self-professed "atheist" in particular would celebrate. This is not some anthropological thing, where you're in a strange land and experiencing some local custom, a "when in Rome" situation. Have some conviction in your beliefs. If you don't believe in God, why celebrate a holiday that is built around the birth of his Son?