DIS Dads The DIS Dad's Club VI - Man's Room

[Sonnyeclipse]

I'm getting the same thing with my boys and Santa Claus. Kids at school are telling them he isn't real and they are starting to figure it out. I think this is the last year for Santa in our house.

 

[AirGoofy]

I would personally go to school with her tomorrow and slap each and everyone of those kids.

That was my initial reaction. DW did not think it was a good idea.

I'm getting the same thing with my boys and Santa Claus. Kids at school are telling them he isn't real and they are starting to figure it out. I think this is the last year for Santa in our house.

We "handled" it by saying, "if you believe, then you receive". That was what DW parents told her when she was a child. She was mad at the other children in her class, and told them it wasn't true because her parents would not buy her that many gifts.

 

[afwdwfan]

We "handled" it by saying, "if you believe, then you receive".

My parents used that too... I still believe.

 

[prattpak]

That was my initial reaction. DW did not think it was a good idea.



We "handled" it by saying, "if you believe, then you receive". That was what DW parents told her when she was a child. She was mad at the other children in her class, and told them it wasn't true because her parents would not buy her that many gifts.

Let those other kids think what they may...just means there is more presents from Santa for her!! I still like the thought of Santa in our home and the 2 older know. But why would you want to not still have atleast the thought of Santa in your home for the holidays? My wife and I took over his job and we love it!! The youngest isnt hip to it but oh well....Im not telling him thats for sure!!

 

[trennr]

Oldest (8) came home and said that her classmates (3rd grade) were saying there was no Santa. The age of innocence is coming to an end ...

Says who?

Santa is real.

 

[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

I'm getting the same thing with my boys and Santa Claus. Kids at school are telling them he isn't real and they are starting to figure it out. I think this is the last year for Santa in our house.

Like all parents, we dealt with this a while back. When our DS questions us because of the discussions at school, we simply asked him, “Well, what do you think?” He also figured that without St Nick, there was no way that he’d be getting all those presents, and decided that for the time being, he still believed. From then up to now, he doesn’t take much stock in what “all the other kids” have to say about nearly anything. Interestingly, we haven’t discussed this particular topic since then and to this day the Jolly Old Elf still leaves unwrapped presents on Christmas Eve that simple weren’t there when we all went to bed the night before. The same thing was true when I was a kid. There were always extra presents under the tree with tags listing who was to receive them, but never who was giving them. Any time we questioned these, my Ma would look at us like we were nuts and simply say: they’re from Santa Clause you goof!

 

[ClearScreen]

I would personally go to school with her tomorrow and slap each and everyone of those kids.

Twice!!

 

[DisneyFed]

I would personally go to school with her tomorrow and slap each and everyone of those kids.

This.

Says who?

Santa is real.

Yeah, really...


Ok...another note....who's with me???...Rugged Maniac 5 K, February 26, 2011, Greencove Springs, FL

These kind of runs are fuuuuun........I'm already registered....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4Zb8Mv2Z5Y

 

[tutter99]

Ok...another note....who's with me???...Rugged Maniac 5 K, February 26, 2011, Greencove Springs, FL

These kind of runs are fuuuuun........I'm already registered....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4Zb8Mv2Z5Y

Sorry can't make it to FL then, perhaps I'll just arrange for someone to pop out of the bushes during my regular run and punch me in the nads.

 

[AJRitz]

Can I ask a stupid question, as the Jewish guy who doesn't celebrate Christmas and really doesn't understand the whole Santa thing (and please understand, I really am not trying to be perjorative here at all)?

Why is it "better" for kids to believe that they get Christmas presents from a red-costumed home invader who spies on them all year than to believe that they get generous Christmas presents from their parents, family and friends who know them and love them and want to do special things for them?

 

[DisneyFed]

Can I ask a stupid question, as the Jewish guy who doesn't celebrate Christmas and really doesn't understand the whole Santa thing (and please understand, I really am not trying to be perjorative here at all)?

Why is it "better" for kids to believe that they get Christmas presents from a red-costumed home invader who spies on them all year than to believe that they get generous Christmas presents from their parents, family and friends who know them and love them and want to do special things for them?

AJ...it's more or less a tradition (at least in my household)....I don't know really how else to put it.

It follows along the tradition started (or at least popularized) by the Christian Saint Nicholas (hence, Saint Nick) who recreated the giving of gifts by the Kings and Wise Men by giving out gifts to orphans and poor children who otherwise would not have gotten gifts on the traditional gift giving holiday....

Over the years it has, of course, taken on a life of it's own (and has gotten a little out of hand I think), but it's a fun way to get kids excited and for us to celebrate this giving season...

 

[DisneyFed]

Sorry can't make it to FL then, perhaps I'll just arrange for someone to pop out of the bushes during my regular run and punch me in the nads.

 

[that's nice]

Can I ask a stupid question, as the Jewish guy who doesn't celebrate Christmas and really doesn't understand the whole Santa thing (and please understand, I really am not trying to be perjorative here at all)?

Why is it "better" for kids to believe that they get Christmas presents from a red-costumed home invader who spies on them all year than to believe that they get generous Christmas presents from their parents, family and friends who know them and love them and want to do special things for them?

I'm not sure if this will answer your question but I found this article taken from Parade magazine.. Link HERE




Why We Should Believe in Santa Claus
by Alexander McCall Smith

Some of us were born in places that no longer are. In my case, it was a country called Southern Rhodesia. You will not find it on a map today, but you will find Zimbabwe, which is what it became. There it is, in the middle of Africa, a part of the world that, for all its trials, is still one of the most beautiful.

Christmas there was at the hottest time of the year. As a child, I remember being puzzled by many of the images of Christmas that we saw in books and magazines. Christmas was all about winter: fields of snow, holly wreaths, carolers gathered around warming fires. This all seemed very exotic and exciting and added to the magic of what happened on the great day itself.

We went to church and sang those carols with all their wintry imagery, “In the Bleak Midwinter,” and so on, more snow and ice. But before we went to the Christmas service, we’d undergo the ritual of waiting outside the closed door of the living room, all of us children bursting with excitement. At exactly six o’clock, the door would be opened and we would go in to see if Santa—or Father Christmas, as we knew him, a name I still marginally prefer—had stopped by. He always had, and he signified his presence by eating the cookie and drinking the glass of milk that we had left for him by the fireplace. Proof! There it was—crumbs on the floor and an empty glass. How could anyone doubt his existence?

And I was not a doubter. Additional evidence was before my eyes in the shape of a pillowcase full of presents. Quite remarkably, they were often the things I had expressed a desire to have. What a mind reader he was!

I stopped believing in Santa when I was 7, and I vividly recall the precise circumstances those many years ago when my belief came to an end. All of us remember where we were when important things happened. Such memories are curious nuggets amongst the dark furniture of our minds, amongst the vague images and associations that make up our memory of things that happened to us a long time ago.

We were preparing for a holiday party a few days before Christmas itself. I knew that my father was due to appear as Santa, a role that he played well, in spite of being too tall and thin to be entirely convincing. But he sportingly donned the classic red outfit, so hot and inappropriate to African conditions, and stuck the cotton-wool beard to his chin. It was evening, and we were standing under a great night sky almost white with stars, limitless constellations soaring and dipping against a background of dark velvet.

Suddenly my father turned to me and said, “You don’t believe in Father Christmas anymore, do you?” I froze. I stood quite still, looking up at the evening sky. A shooting star flashed across the heavens. It did. I remember it to this day, because it seemed like a portent.

I was in an agony of indecision. If I said, “No, I do not believe,” then what would happen to all the presents I was hoping to get? It might be, you see, that Santa was listening to us and would mark my card accordingly: “No longer believes in me—no presents this year.”

Reason, the rational part of me, won out, and I said, “No, I no longer believe.” The heavens did not fall. No sleigh pulled by wounded reindeer slewed out of control in the sky above. Nothing happened. The world went on, as it always does, after all those small moments when something magical or mysterious is denied or lost.

There is a moment in J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan when the audience is invited to revive the dying fairy Tinkerbell and told, “If you believe in fairies, clap your hands.” And every time, the theater breaks into sustained applause. That is not to suggest there are theaters full of seriously deluded people. What it does tell us is that there are times when we need to pretend to believe in things we know not to be true. We know that the world is a place of suffering and hardship, and we know, too, that justice and kindness and love and such things will not always prevail against these hard realities. Myths help us to get by. The day they all die and we tell our children exactly how things are, the world will be a poorer, less enchanted place. So don’t be ashamed to clap your hands at Peter Pan or act as if Santa exists. He stands for kindness and generosity, and those things are alive and will continue to be alive—as long as we believe in them.

 

[trennr]

Fed lets form a team and take on this guy...

http://science.discovery.com/tv/mantracker/

My new favorite show.

You can be the guy that gets chased and i'll be the stealthy one that slips by in the corn.

 

[afwdwfan]

Can I ask a stupid question, as the Jewish guy who doesn't celebrate Christmas and really doesn't understand the whole Santa thing (and please understand, I really am not trying to be perjorative here at all)?

Why is it "better" for kids to believe that they get Christmas presents from a red-costumed home invader who spies on them all year than to believe that they get generous Christmas presents from their parents, family and friends who know them and love them and want to do special things for them?

Are you really trying to make me think on a Friday????

I guess I've never really thought about Santa in the terms of a home invading spy. Santa has always just been a representative of the Holiday season to me. I'm a Christian, and I'm not trying to get into a religious debate, but for my beliefs, Jesus is the reason for celebrating the Christmas holiday. Santa is just kind of the embodiment and a symbol for giving as Jesus was given to us as the ultimate gift. Santa just represents the qualities of kindness, generosity and goodwill. Very good question though, I really had to put some thought into it.

That and it is a good threat to keep kids in line by telling them Santa will bring them coal if they don't behave/go to bed/etc.

 

[tutter99]

Can I ask a stupid question, as the Jewish guy who doesn't celebrate Christmas and really doesn't understand the whole Santa thing (and please understand, I really am not trying to be perjorative here at all)?

Why is it "better" for kids to believe that they get Christmas presents from a red-costumed home invader who spies on them all year than to believe that they get generous Christmas presents from their parents, family and friends who know them and love them and want to do special things for them?

I was starting to try and figure an answer to this and it just kept getting longer and longer. I've decided to go with this:

It's kind of like Mickey, my son believes Mickey exists as an actual living being, not a person in a costume. At home he can watch cartoons and know that someone just drew them but when we are in the parks he is able to suspend all disbelief and go with it. When we go to Chick fil-A he says it is a person in a costume but at WDW he has never said it. I really think it boils down to wanting your kids to believe there is still magic in the world.

If you were at the mall with me on the weekend you would have gotten a good first hand example. We were walking through one of the stores and this older biker with a chest length beard walks by. DS stops dead in his tracks, watches until the guy is out of sight with his mouth hanging open and tells us "It was Santa, he's wearing a disguise, but I know it's him! He put on regular clothes so he can watch the kids and make sure they are being good."

Also, I was going to go into the whole "Tradition!" song from Fiddler but.......

 

[DisneyFed]

Fed lets form a team and take on this guy...

http://science.discovery.com/tv/mantracker/

My new favorite show.

You can be the guy that gets chased and i'll be the stealthy one that slips by in the corn.

Oh I am so in...

 

[Naively Occur]

Sorry can't make it to FL then, perhaps I'll just arrange for someone to pop out of the bushes during my regular run and punch me in the nads.

Just an awesome visual as well!

http://www.wdwinfo.com/images/smilies/rotfl2.gif

Can I ask a stupid question, as the Jewish guy who doesn't celebrate Christmas and really doesn't understand the whole Santa thing (and please understand, I really am not trying to be perjorative here at all)?

Why is it "better" for kids to believe that they get Christmas presents from a red-costumed home invader who spies on them all year than to believe that they get generous Christmas presents from their parents, family and friends who know them and love them and want to do special things for them?

I think of it as part of keeping things unique at this time of year. It is normally just the parents who play Santa, so our kids get presents from both us and Santa as well as the rest of the family, so they see that aspect as well. I think the Santa idea helps to build a 'holiday magic' that is nice to see.

Just like my 4 year daughter believes it is really Mickey at Chef Mickey's and I love that part of things. Once she figures it out, the characters will be less interesting to her (as I've seen with the 8 year old).

What the characters and Santa represent will hopefully stay with the kids as the grow up, even if they realize that it is just some guy in suit.

 

[BigTex71]

Can I ask a stupid question, as the Jewish guy who doesn't celebrate Christmas and really doesn't understand the whole Santa thing (and please understand, I really am not trying to be perjorative here at all)?

Why is it "better" for kids to believe that they get Christmas presents from a red-costumed home invader who spies on them all year than to believe that they get generous Christmas presents from their parents, family and friends who know them and love them and want to do special things for them?

My son got past the Santa/Easter Bunny/Tooth Fairy thing recently. Then he asks, "If all of those things are not real, what about God?" I hope you are all ready for those type questions from them, as it really caught me off guard.

 

[Sonnyeclipse]

My son got past the Santa/Easter Bunny/Tooth Fairy thing recently. Then he asks, "If all of those things are not real, what about God?" I hope you are all ready for those type questions from them, as it really caught me off guard.

My response to that typically is, "Go ask your mother." My wife loves when I do that.