Father Christmas

[Janer]

I agree that children don't need to be lied to about things such as santa and fairies. It is such a double standard to say that it's wrong for children to lie, but it's ok for a parent to lie to a child. My 6 year old has always known that these characters are make believe, but still enjoys them. She write letters to santa every year and talks about him coming down the chimney etc, and she knows that it will be me playing the tooth fairy when she loses her first tooth. But this doesn't stop her enjoying the fun and fantasy of it all. Children usually understand that charaters in chidrens tv programmes are not real but it doesn't stop them enjoying them.

I think there is some things we need to believe in in this world. I hope my son will believe in Father Christmas and all the other magical things around him and I hope that a small child doesnt spoil it for him. Its believing in that just maybe and I too still like to disappear into a fairytale land and believe in all these things until someone bursts the bubble. Children are only children and innocent for such a short time surely part of the enjoyment of children is the things they believe in.

Hear, hear Joe 1!

Oh, I can remember looking out of the window on Christmas Eve imagining I could see Santa's sleigh. It was wonderful - and then the penny dropped that it might not be true. I never looked upon my parents as having lied to me.

Anyway, doesn't it encourage children to question what they are told? Not all adults tell the truth.

My daughter age 6 was brutally told by her best friend that FC didn't exist (her father is an atheist and has no imagination), and I said - well in our house he does- and he uses the cat flap cos we have a gas fire. I grew up with FC, and it dawned on me that our parents did the work, but the amount of joy I get when the little ones write to santa (and get a reply from the local newspaper), and see the nibled carrot and the full stockings. Well, that makes up the hard work of mopping up the painting mess, the noah's ark in the bathroom, extracting bodies from fights, the mountains of washing etc etc. FC still lives in our house as long as my kids want to believe. The world is full of horrid adults , let them enjoy their innocence and their parents imagination!!

I'll just tell her about St. Nicolas and leave the Father Christmas stories to the school. I got upset when I was told he didn't exist and don't want her to do the same. So I'll neither confirm it nor deny it, but I'll try to focus on the religious side of Christmas instead.