to tell my son the truth?

[MuddlePuddle86]

Evening ladies,
Here is my predicament. I know most of you go ott about christmas, however, as born again Christians my dh and I don't want to tell our son about father Christmas, a) because it's lying and b) because we think Christmas is an important celebration in itself.
My mother, also a born again Christian, has said that it isn't fair and I should lead my son down the father Christmas path.
We obviously exchange gifts, but we also sacrifice something to the relevant place (eg a console to the childrens' wing of the hospital etc) and we sacrifice something of use to us that we could do without and someone else can benefit from. My son is only 8 months old but I am seriously considering home schooling, so it's not as if he can "ruin" it for the other children...but I don't feel comfortable with lying about something that is so important to us (this is in no way criticising those of you that do).

'straying into'

We are christians but do not celebrate Xmas as it is a pagan celebration made up of lots of untruths blah blah

We obv dont believe in FC either and both children know that he is not real but they also know not to tell their friends.

However we do fairy stories and pretend the tooth fairy is real (although both boys know it is me!) and we encourage them to use their imagination.

ha ha ha I'm not a Catholic !! I don't believe in praying to Mary either.

and PAGAN person whose name I can't remember (getting the hang of mn sorry) I said they don't search for eggs, they do like a treasure hunt, although the last one my son was 3 weeks old and we didn't go. and the treasure hunt is for my neices and nephews, BECAUSE we don't celebrate Easter in the way most people do.

I didn't say I wouldn't allow him to read HP...I said I didn't know how I felt about that...which is the truth.

exactly what kind of christian are you?

The thing is, believing in Christ and the rising of his body to be born again, that's faith, faith that it really happened. Why can't you allow your child to believe until that faith can no longer be sustained. Isn't it a learning experience, that all is not as it seems?

I simply meant, all the born agains I have met are even more intensively Christian, church going and preachy than christians born into the faith. Am assuming you have converted to the faith from another faith, or as a non believer. Apologies if I am mistaken.

If your ds does hear about fc though,how will you handle it?i believed in monsters when little just because of the little monsters film.Children have wonderful imaginations they will believe.I have nothing against your religion,but fc is not gunna harm him.

Erm, what's all this nonsense about Father Christmas not being real?

Think there might be some misunderstanding of the term 'born again' here. It doesn't mean 'late convert'. It's a branch of evangelical christianity which follows the biblical teaching that requires us to turn from an old way of thinking into being led by the Holy Spirit. Being 'born of the Spirit' is the phrase used in the bible which coined the term.

I am a born again christian, but was raised as a catholic (I would no longer consider myself catholic).

I was raised a Christian-going to church etc and I hated it until I was about 15 I started going to a new church (away from boarding school) and I joined the youth group there and decided that the children there had something I wanted...I dedicated my life to God there and then and haven't looked back. I go to a non-demonational church as I don't really believe in labels as such. i believe Christ died for me and my sins (and everyone elses') rose again and will be coming back. Straight forward really, no robes, no candles, no shrines to Mary, no confession to anyone but God. Nothing weird, I'm a normal person...although I now feel like I'm the only person in the world who prays etc (and my dh of course)...and at the risk in making some of you snigger...the bible says we will be persecuted for our beliefs. so

muddle

:)

I'm not sure you are being persecuted Muddle - you asked if you were being unreasonable, and people have given their opinions.

can you not just let him know that father christmas is a story that people enjoy @ xmas time but is not real? the same way he enjoys other stories in books and stuff, i wouldn't tell mine that father christmas is real either (well we are muslim anyway, but like they come across it in society and i would think nothing of telling them this that its just a story)

I don't see the point in banning Harry Potter-they will just read it in secret.

I think it is very sad if DCs can't enter a world of joy and wonder-childhood is so short.

I don't see why FC and Christianity can't go together. As a DC FC came on Christmas Eve and we went to church on Christmas morning-I can't see the conflict. In the service it was assumed that FC had visited!

You don't want to tell your child a lie over FC but you're going to teach him the Bible is true?? I'm genuinely

As others have said, Christmas was created when Pagans wouldn't give up their Yule celebrations and the Christians tacked the birth of Jesus onto the date as a compromise.

EVERYTHING we do at Xmas, bar saying it's the birthday of Jesus, is pagan or totally non-religious in origin: feasting, greenery in the house, gifts: all pagan, from the original Yule. Xmas trees, cards and having a turkey as the main meal: all from the Victorian era, and all of them cultural things. So if someone wants Christmas to solely be about the birth of Christ, then they need to not do any of the festive stuff we do in this country AND you also need to be honest with children and tell them that no-one knows for sure when Jesus was born.

There's no actual proof he ever actually existed, but there is actual proof that the person we've come to know as Father Christmas did exist. Therefore, telling a child about Saint Nicholas is actually being more truthful than telling them about Jesus (obviously not the bits about a flying sleigh!)! Having faith means being able to believe things that don't stand up to scrutiny and which clash with other ideas and facts and yet you still believe in your faith, so how is talking about Santa at Xmas any different from all the other inconsistencies of what is 'true' which you will have to explain away to a child, as a religious parent? The notion of Santa being able to deliver toys to every child on earth in one night is no less a lie or more illogical than saying a deity is watching everyone at earth all at the same time, all the time! I'm not trying to be provocative, just make logical points.

Oh, and one last point about this breathtaking piece of illogicality: "And as a Christian, and as most of you are intelligent, I'd like to add that "Magic" is something we don't promote". Isn't Christianity basically the belief that an invisible giant lives in the sky and that he created an entire world in just 6 days? Can anyone explain how THAT isn't believing in Magic?! Teaching children to believe stuff like that is far more dangerous and strange then telling them Santa exists when they're little or letting them read fictional stories about wizards! Utter madness!

Ds's friends parents have banned Harry Potter.

The fancy dress/party shop round the corner from me refuses to stock HP stuff, or to get involved in any Halloween stock either.

The fear of the very idea of magic shows great narrow-mindedness.

Scorpette - exactly my thoughts, this is truly bizarre.

I believe he was born at some point in October, for a start. We celebrate Easter on whichever weekend it is designated, but obviously Christ wasn't risen on every one of those dates. Regardless of what else goes on, I celebrate Christ's birthday.

And I'm not going into it too much as I don't want to cause "fights". However, I shan't be telling my son about an "invisible giant who lives in the sky"...because that simply isn't true.

Aside from telling other children (which, like with Judaism and Islam, he will respect) I can't see any huge detrimental effect in telling him he doesn't exist...and pissing off a few other mum's on the internet possibly doesn't count.

shirley - ive told you before that your dp dressing up as hp is not sexy.