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

[BigTex71]

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

After stumbling through a little, that is what my final answer boiled down to.

 

[Cinderella's Fella]

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 56 1/2 years old and I believe in Santa. As others have said, he is the spirit of what Christmas should be. Besides, what kind of peanut butter fool would I be to tell my 4 year old grandson, "You better be good or Grandpa isn't bringing you any presents for Christmas!" In my family, we all believe in Santa. Here is something I found, you may have heard it before.

"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

 

[DisneyFed]

You guys are so much more creative than I am

 

[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

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?

Wow… Good question. I had to stop and actually use all three of my remaining brain cells just to puzzle through the implications of that one.

In our house (like most) St Nick is a teaching tool. Unfortunately, altruism is not innate (certainly not in small kids and sadly not in many adults). Young’ns aren’t surprised that their parents and kin-folk love them or would consider showering them with gifts (that’s expected). But the idea of an outsider rewarding them for no real reason gets them thinking about the possibility that they themselves might just consider doing for others with no certainty that they’ll receive anything in return. It’s simply one of many parables for giving and ultimately for compassion. Not the only one obviously, but one that work well within the culture we’ve built up around ourselves.

 

[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

You guys are so much more creative than I am

I must disagree! I thought your response quickly got down to the heart of the matter and stated it clearly. Nearly all of you posts are spare in words but expansive in effect. You’ve got an enviable knack for cutting straight through the Peanut Butter.

 

[Cinderella's Fella]

Aaron, did we answer your question?

(page ownage)

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

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?

Great question. I still love how we can post all manner of fart jokes and then talk about stuff like this. You guys gave some good, thoughtful answers here.

I guess I'll be the slightly different voice here, but we decided not to do the "Santa" thing with our kids.

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.

And this is one of the big reasons why. My wife and I talked about it, and decided we didn't want to lie to our kids (I know that sounds a little harsh, and it's not meant that way). I didn't want to get to a point where I was saying to my kids, "Well, Santa and the Easter Bunny aren't real, but we still think God is, although you have to take that one on faith." We didn't want to put ourselves in a position to lose some credibility along the way as we teach them about things that are more important. Are we over-thinking this? Maybe. Wouldn't be the first time.

I grew up with Santa and seemed to turn out ok. This, of course, is debatable.

We also felt Christmas and Easter were becoming way too commercialized, and the actual reason for celebrating these holidays was being lost. So, we wanted to de-emphasize the consumerism a bit in order to push the real meaning of the holiday. We told our kids that Santa (St. Nicholas) was once a real person who lived long ago and gave gifts to children. We also told them that we give gifts to each other to symbolize the wise men's gifts to Jesus, as well as God's ultimate gift of his son on our behalf. And we told them that only good kids get gifts (and lo and behold, they always get gifts).

We also told them that they better not say anything at school to kids who believe in Santa, and if they do ruin it for somebody else, they'd be in trouble.

 

[Goofy + 3]

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.

I'm sure I'm in the minority here, but this is precisely why we don't do the Santa thing in our house. I don't ever want to be in the position of having to explain that this "character" (Santa) who you see all over the place doesn't exist but God, who you can't see, does exist. My DD5 knows the Santa story and we let her know that other kids like to believe. She's very mature for her age and knows to not ruin the secret for other kids. DS3 is clueless to everything. I'm sure he'd ruin it for other kids so he doesn't know the truth, but then again he doesn't know the "story" either.

Some of our family thinks that we are totally ruining our kids' childhood by doing it this way, but we want our kids to be more excited about celebrating Jesus' birth than the other stuff. Plus on Christmas morning, we always have a birthday cake for breakfast!

 

[AJRitz]

I'm really appreciating this discussion guys. Thank you all so much for sharing.

I'm having the whole "how can God be real if I can't see him" issue with The Bug right now. She's incredibly hyper-rational, so she's just not particularly interested in "miraculous"-type explanations.

I should remind everyone at this point that I don't really get to hand off such questions to DW, as I'm the one who's still paying off the student loans incurred during the three years I was studying to be a rabbi.

For now, the answer I give her is that it's not really important whether she believes in God or not. What's important is her behavior. (I suspect that this may be an option that's more acceptable among the Jewish community than among some other faith traditions). So far, she's been OK with that answer and participates willingly and even enthusiastically in bedtime prayers and religious services and Sunday School. And she has a very well-defined sense of Jewish identity. But I suspect that it's going to get more challenging as she gets older.

Oh, and we've had to have the Santa discussion, because a bully in Kindergarten hit her with, "You're a bad person. Because Santa brings presents to all the good boys and girls and you don't get presents from Santa." I explained the Santa "myth" to her, and told her that it was not fair to ruin other people's happy stories, so she is not to ruin Santa for children who still believe in him. Since then, on more than one occasion, she has supported a friend who was talking about Santa, while slyly winking at me.

 

[unclescrooge_0707]

Miss a little, miss a lot.

page 24 of the DISDAD's club 6? I'm out of it for a little while, and everyone gets dilusions of grandure...

anyway, glad it's still on page 1 of the disney for familys forum thread. And, more importantly, We're PAID-IN-FULL!!! no turning back now. 46 days until i've got my lunch at Le Cellier using my DxDDP... i really hope that winds up being worth it.

 

[unclescrooge_0707]

Some of our family thinks that we are totally ruining our kids' childhood by doing it this way, but we want our kids to be more excited about celebrating Jesus' birth than the other stuff. Plus on Christmas morning, we always have a birthday cake for breakfast!

Okay, that is the greatest idea ever. Birthday Cake for Breakfast on Christmas. I will suggest this to the missus.

As far as presents from Santa, we have sort of gone with the idea of "Jesus is so busy with people celebrating his birthday, that he has Santa bring the gifts to help celebrate his birthday."
The kids see santa everywhere, and hear from others Santa brings presents, and unlike some of the kids out there, ours AREN'T mature enough to know a secret and not spoil it for others. So we kind of have to keep this illusion going for a little while. (7,5,3, and 8 weeks. It'll be a while before they mature.)

Still, though, I'm a person that finds believing easy. Whether God, the Magic of Disney, in the goodness of people, I believe. So i'm not always the best to ask in matters of Faith, 'cause i usually say yes.

 

[Disney Commando]

Looks like tomorrow I get to do some serious Brainstorming on day to day plans on what I'm doing in the parks in Dec. Wife & Ds are going to Del. to my friends for the night, so my living room should look like a bookies spread table

 

[Disney Commando]

I have a few ?'s about the bouceback program, that someome might know about

- are they currently doing it
- what kind of time frame qalifies
- since DDP is free till Oct are they offering other incentives
- where do you go to do this

 

[dvczerfs]

DID SOMEONE SAY CAKE FOR BREAKFAST? i see the coffee and pastry shop is open at epcot. now all they have to do is put real food for breakfast back in at the comassary in the studios and get rid of the granola beverly and life would be good.

 

[billybobblockhead]

DW and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary last night. One problem, though. DW and DD were 3 hours away at a dance competition. DS was at a sleepover. So, I singled it last night. Went back to school after taking DS to his friends for movie night with the PTO until 9, all the while sneaking off to a TV in the conference room to catch bits and pieces of the Tar Heels basketball game. However, we did go out on Veteran's Day for a date (I almost posted VD as an abbreviation but thought better of it ), which was very nice and relaxing for both of us.

By the way, very interesting discussion on Santa and the like. I guess that I'm most appreciative of the fact that we as a group can ask truly honest but respectful questions and receive the same honest and respectful answers in return. On the other forums that I visit, that wouldn't be the case at all. I think that's pretty cool considering the fact that the majority of us have only met via screen name.

 

[stopher1]

I have a few ?'s about the bouceback program, that someome might know about

- are they currently doing it
- what kind of time frame qalifies
- since DDP is free till Oct are they offering other incentives
- where do you go to do this

When they do offer bounceback offers Ron, (which is most of the time since they do want to hook you into coming back), you'll know pretty much when you walk in the room, or within a couple of days of your arrival the info will show up in your room via mousekeeping.

Typically there will be a flyer or other kind of literature that details out the return offer, and the dates that it applies to. Often it will be a variety of date blocks throughout the next year (i.e. parts of winter, parts of spring, parts of summer and parts of fall), and yes, sometimes that will include the Free Dining period - but not necessarily the FD offer. (Remember, even though they have had great success in "getting the heads in the beds" with that offer for the past 7 years, does not guarantee that it will return the following year).

Typically the bb offer is advertised as a % off deal, not necessarily a FD deal, though I have seen it both ways.

In order to utilize the BB offers, you must make your reservation either from your resort room phone via the number listed on the flyer, or take the flyer to the front desk and make it with them. The $200 deposit (or whatever it currently is at that time) must be paid right then. No matter what though, you need to make the reservation prior to departure as it is no longer valid after you check-out.

 

[stopher1]

DW and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary last night. One problem, though. DW and DD were 3 hours away at a dance competition. DS was at a sleepover. So, I singled it last night.

Happy Anniversary!

 

[AJRitz]

When they do offer bounceback offers Ron, (which is most of the time since they do want to hook you into coming back), you'll know pretty much when you walk in the room, or within a couple of days of your arrival the info will show up in your room via mousekeeping.

Typically there will be a flyer or other kind of literature that details out the return offer, and the dates that it applies to. Often it will be a variety of date blocks throughout the next year (i.e. parts of winter, parts of spring, parts of summer and parts of fall), and yes, sometimes that will include the Free Dining period - but not necessarily the FD offer. (Remember, even though they have had great success in "getting the heads in the beds" with that offer for the past 7 years, does not guarantee that it will return the following year).

Typically the bb offer is advertised as a % off deal, not necessarily a FD deal, though I have seen it both ways.

In order to utilize the BB offers, you must make your reservation either from your resort room phone via the number listed on the flyer, or take the flyer to the front desk and make it with them. The $200 deposit (or whatever it currently is at that time) must be paid right then. No matter what though, you need to make the reservation prior to departure as it is no longer valid after you check-out.

Just as a point of reference, the BB offer in our room at the Poly was a Free Dining offer that was no better than the existing public offer. I've seen elsewhere that this appears to have become the most common BB offer. I had really been hoping for one of the rumored 40% off super codes (good for any resort category), as that was pretty much my only chance for a 2011 trip, but no such luck.

 

[dvczerfs]

I must disagree! I thought your response quickly got down to the heart of the matter and stated it clearly. Nearly all of you posts are spare in words but expansive in effect. You’ve got an enviable knack for cutting straight through the Peanut Butter.

hey rob, i found out the other day this happened.http://nocnews.blogspot.com/2010/11/nazareth-hs-marching-band-national.html i still cant find nothing on youtube.

 

[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

hey rob, i found out the other day this happened.http://nocnews.blogspot.com/2010/11/nazareth-hs-marching-band-national.html i still cant find nothing on youtube.

Impressive!! Congratulations to all the folks up that way. Do let me know if you run across a video for any of their performances. I love to see the show that can pull a score of 97.400 out of any group of judges. Like I said up front: Impressive!!