Anonymous
Post 11/23/2012 09:03     Subject: Will I regret not doing "Santa"?
Anonymous wrote:We are atheists of christian/jewish background who celebrate Christmas, have Santa, christmas trees, christmas music etc. I also had all this growing up. It was my favorite time of year, and it would have been very sad to miss out on all this because my parents were trying to make some kind of point.

This is another example of people here taking themselves too seriously and having no sense of perspective.


+100
Anonymous
Post 11/23/2012 09:02     Subject: Will I regret not doing "Santa"?
I was the youngest of 5 and by the time I rolled around, there was pretty much no chance that I was going to believe in Santa Claus (or the Tooth Fairy for that matter). Older sibs aren't great at keeping secrets. But my parents also weren't big into Santa. (I grew up Catholic, and they emphasized the religious part of the holiday.) I don't feel like I missed out on Santa AT ALL, and now that I have a kid we only do Santa marginally. Yes we have stockings, but no we do not talk about "Santa coming" or "be good for Santa" or anything like that. No cookies for Santa, no reindeer "poop," no pictures with Santa unless we happen to run into a dude in a red suite as we go about or business. If folks want to do the Santa thing, great for them. But I don't think my kid is being neglected for lack of a Santa myth -- and nor will your kid, OP.
Anonymous
Post 11/23/2012 08:45     Subject: Re:Will I regret not doing "Santa"?

Even among Christians, the secular and pagan roots of Christmas have created controversy.

The American Puritans did not celebrate Christmas because they felt it was a secular and pagan holiday. It wasn't until the late 19th century that Christmas became a big holiday in the US. Even today, Jehovah's Witnesses don't celebrate Christmas because of its secular and pagan roots.
Anonymous
Post 11/23/2012 08:40     Subject: Re:Will I regret not doing "Santa"?
The issue of whether Christmas is primarily a religious holiday or whether it is primarily a secular holiday has been repeatedly litigated in the US. If it's primarily a religious holiday, there are constitutional problems with making it a federal and state holiday because it would violate the Establishment Clause. The courts have ruled repeatedly that Christmas is primarily a secular holiday in the US.

Anonymous
Post 11/23/2012 08:15     Subject: Will I regret not doing "Santa"?
Anonymous wrote:
We don't. Then again, this is child-led. Every single time my DS spots a Santa, he says, "I don't like that guy." He's three and the photo we got of him with "that guy" when he was 5 months old is hilarious. Utterly suspicious of "that guy." Stern face. Tense body language. The camera people kept waiting for a smile. The elves danced. The music played. I let them know "take the shot, it's not going to get any better."

OMG, how I love that kid!



Ha! Love this!
Anonymous
Post 11/23/2012 07:33     Subject: Re:Will I regret not doing "Santa"?
Anonymous wrote:
We've taught our DD that Jesus was an amazing profit with ideas far ahead of his time that we think are wonderful. But we don't believe he is the actual son of a man floating in the sky birthed of a virgin mother. But we've also told her that some people do believe that (all of her relatives do) and we want her to learn about all different religions and ideas and make her own conclusions about what she believes. As for the Santa part, we both loved the magic as kids and will let her enjoy it as long as she can. This may be one of the last years (she's 7) =(


Prophet? or do you mean "Jesus was an amazing source of profit"?
Anonymous
Post 11/23/2012 07:31     Subject: Re:Will I regret not doing "Santa"?
Anonymous wrote:

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 experienicing 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?


That is like saying you can't enjoy Saturday if you don't worship Saturn.

Christmas has meant many things to different people over the centuries. To us, it now means an opportunity to gather with family, to feast, and to exchange presents. The birth of the sweet baby jesus is pretty much irrelevant to us. I can assure you that the inconsistency in that is far less than the inconsistencies that litter the bible.
Anonymous
Post 11/23/2012 07:29     Subject: Will I regret not doing "Santa"?
We are atheists of christian/jewish background who celebrate Christmas, have Santa, christmas trees, christmas music etc. I also had all this growing up. It was my favorite time of year, and it would have been very sad to miss out on all this because my parents were trying to make some kind of point.

This is another example of people here taking themselves too seriously and having no sense of perspective.
Anonymous
Post 11/23/2012 02:05     Subject: Re:Will I regret not doing "Santa"?
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.


Do you know that Jesus was probably born in the summer, not the winter? Do you know that most Christian holidays were positioned in the calendar where they are to cover up the pagan holidays of the time? You can definitely celebrate the Christmas Holiday with Santa without believing the religious version of Christ that is part of it. We've taught our DD that Jesus was an amazing profit with ideas far ahead of his time that we think are wonderful. But we don't believe he is the actual son of a man floating in the sky birthed of a virgin mother. But we've also told her that some people do believe that (all of her relatives do) and we want her to learn about all different religions and ideas and make her own conclusions about what she believes. As for the Santa part, we both loved the magic as kids and will let her enjoy it as long as she can. This may be one of the last years (she's 7) =(
Anonymous
Post 11/23/2012 01:51     Subject: Will I regret not doing "Santa"?
Anonymous wrote:Am I the only one that's inital response was eww - who would do Santa???


Yes
Anonymous
Post 11/22/2012 22:38     Subject: Will I regret not doing "Santa"?
Anonymous wrote:Does anyone think all the jewish people regret not doing santa?


I know quit a few that do it. They also have a "Hanukkah bush" ask Xmas tree to Christians.
Anonymous
Post 11/22/2012 22:30     Subject: Will I regret not doing "Santa"?

We don't. Then again, this is child-led. Every single time my DS spots a Santa, he says, "I don't like that guy." He's three and the photo we got of him with "that guy" when he was 5 months old is hilarious. Utterly suspicious of "that guy." Stern face. Tense body language. The camera people kept waiting for a smile. The elves danced. The music played. I let them know "take the shot, it's not going to get any better."

OMG, how I love that kid!

Anonymous
Post 11/22/2012 21:14     Subject: Will I regret not doing "Santa"?
Anonymous wrote:
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.




I keep reading this over and over with parent as noun and parent as verb and it's funny both ways. So, thank you.
Anonymous
Post 11/22/2012 20:34     Subject: Will I regret not doing "Santa"?
We did Santa when DD was younger but didnt put a big emphasis on it. Only one gift was from santa and it was never the " big gift." didnt seem too traumatic when she found out there was no santa... She actually laughed that she hadnt figured it out since his wrapping paper matched ours!
Anonymous
Post 11/22/2012 20:21     Subject: Will I regret not doing "Santa"?
Does anyone think all the jewish people regret not doing santa?