Santa

[Celticflower]

Let's see---was it the BB gun or the Flexible Flyer sled that you didn't get as a child??

 

[RenHoek]

I have a real problem when parents lie to their children, about the fat man in a red suit who goes down chimneys. If, “He knows when you are sleeping. He knows when you’re awake. He knows when you’ve been bad or good...” Wouldn’t that make him all-knowing and omnipresent? If he can get presents to every house in the world in one night wouldn’t that have to make him all-powerful also? Isn’t God the only one who really has those attributes? The first of Ten Commandments, which God wrote with His own finger, says, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). Shouldn’t the focus of Christmas be on Christ, not Santa? Besides why would you want some fat man to get the credit for your hard work anyway? And finally, if parents lie to their kids about Santa, and then later tell them that an all-knowing, all-powerful God loved them so much that He sent His son Jesus to earth to die for their sins, how are they suppose to believe it? Why should they believe any thing their parents say after that?

I would have to agree...

 

[GutterRat]

Gosh lighten up its just make believe

Reps to you. I agree.

 

[NothingButTheBlood]

I have a real problem when parents lie to their children, about the fat man in a red suit who goes down chimneys. If, “He knows when you are sleeping. He knows when you’re awake. He knows when you’ve been bad or good...” Wouldn’t that make him all-knowing and omnipresent? If he can get presents to every house in the world in one night wouldn’t that have to make him all-powerful also? Isn’t God the only one who really has those attributes? The first of Ten Commandments, which God wrote with His own finger, says, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). Shouldn’t the focus of Christmas be on Christ, not Santa? Besides why would you want some fat man to get the credit for your hard work anyway? And finally, if parents lie to their kids about Santa, and then later tell them that an all-knowing, all-powerful God loved them so much that He sent His son Jesus to earth to die for their sins, how are they suppose to believe it? Why should they believe any thing their parents say after that?

Reps.

 

[Chajara]

Meh, I got the best of both worlds. Christmas for me involved spending lots of time practicing for my school's Christmas play, and learning about Jesus's birth in class (Private school.) Then I'd spend a week before Christmas actually came slobbering at the foot of the Christmas tree, imagining what would be there on Christmas morning. Then Christmas morning came, I tore into my presents, and thanked God, my parents, santa, my lucky stars, whatever. I was just a happy kid around Christmas time.

Eventually I sort of just figured it out on my own. I asked my parents and my dad sort of just smirked at me, and I knew it was all a farce. I thought to myself "...Man, you guys are jerks." and walked away. And then... I got over it.

Still love Jesus, still love Christmas. And those nights spend drooling at the Christmas tree were some of the most magical in my life.

My point is, it's really not all bad. Some kids will be mad when they find out, some will laugh, others will figure it out on their own and then go on an ego-trip thinking they're so smart because they were in on the secret. If you're worried about how your kid will react, then teach them that Santa is really the spirit of love and selflessness that comes along with the holiday season, rather than some obese sleigh-driving burglar who stuffs himself down your chimney.

 

[Gwenyfur]

My daughters were never raised with the myth of Santa Claus...
We did teach them about Yeshua, and we have a b'day cake and celebrate Christmas still, but the focus is always on the L-rd and the words of His hands in our lives.

Neither of my children were made fun of for their lack of wisdom when it came to the Santa myth...they were actually respected by their peers....for telling the *truth* of Yeshua

G-d takes care of His children...even in public schools

 

[KingZzub]

It is make-believe if it is presented as make-believe. Many children however are told that Santa is real. Then he is used (and my mother is the worst for this) to discipline children: "if you are naughty, santa won't get you a present".

This must enter the imagination world of a child: behaving good when no-one is watching, because actually santa is. Not good. Imagination is precious. The trust of parents is precious. I have told my children the true story of St. Nicholas, as a historical account, and I have told them that many of their friends believe in Santa. When they are older, they will find out the truth. My children like being in on the secret. It makes them more trusting of myself. Now at the age they are at, when I make pronouncements on morality, evolution, faith, miracles, they are listening because they know I am honest and not trying to manipulate them.

Santa - an icon of our age. We become what we worship. Fat, over-indulgent, and only generous for one day a year. Doesn't form actual relationships with people, but uses presents as substitute for love.

Sounds like Western culture to me.

 

[strikerchris0411]

It is make-believe if it is presented as make-believe. Many children however are told that Santa is real. Then he is used (and my mother is the worst for this) to discipline children: "if you are naughty, santa won't get you a present".

This must enter the imagination world of a child: behaving good when no-one is watching, because actually santa is. Not good. Imagination is precious. The trust of parents is precious. I have told my children the true story of St. Nicholas, as a historical account, and I have told them that many of their friends believe in Santa. When they are older, they will find out the truth. My children like being in on the secret. It makes them more trusting of myself. Now at the age they are at, when I make pronouncements on morality, evolution, faith, miracles, they are listening because they know I am honest and not trying to manipulate them.

Santa - an icon of our age. We become what we worship. Fat, over-indulgent, and only generous for one day a year. Doesn't form actual relationships with people, but uses presents as substitute for love.

Sounds like Western culture to me.

Happy Holidays

 

[StevenL]

Let's see .... did Paul say something about fables in his letters? Maybe I'm mistaken. I'll do a word search.

 

[fuzzymel]

What concerns me is when kids realise Santa is not real after parents telling the kids for years that he is will the kids start thinking the same about Jesus?

I dont understand lying to children either. It doesnt seem fair. If a child ever asked me if Santa is real I wouldnt lie to it. Make believe is one thing but lying to them is just unfair.

 

[Piedpiper123]

Interesting thread.

It's funny but I remember the day when I discovered that Santa Claus was not real. I was shocked as I realised that my parents had lied to me. Up until that day I had thought that they only told me the truth. After that I always had a tiny bit of doubt about the truth of what they told me.

 

[LaceyAnnMarie]

Well I tell my two year old that Jesus knows if she has been good and He will tell santa to bring her gifts... I know some people that tell their children they have to work to give santa the money to buy the toys... so they still take credit...lol

 

[strikerchris0411]

Interesting thread.

It's funny but I remember the day when I discovered that Santa Claus was not real. I was shocked as I realised that my parents had lied to me. Up until that day I had thought that they only told me the truth. After that I always had a tiny bit of doubt about the truth of what they told me.

So would you not do the same with your children??

Not trying to make a point here, just asking

 

[KingZzub]

I wonder who dregged this thread out of the bargain bucket...

Cheers,
|ZZ|

 

[Rhamiel]

"Wouldn’t that make him all-knowing and omnipresent? If he can get presents to every house in the world in one night wouldn’t that have to make him all-powerful also?"

No just faster then anyothr human, there is a big leap from gettin to every house in one niht and being all powerful. Theoreticly an angel could do that right? and angels are created beings of finite power

 

[tulc]

If he can get presents to every house in the world in one night wouldn’t that have to make him all-powerful also?"

Maybe this will help:

There are approximately two billion children (persons under 18) in the
world. However, since Santa does not visit children of Muslim, Hindu, Jewish
or Buddhist (except maybe in Japan) religions, this reduces the workload for
Christmas night to 15% of the total, or 378 million (according to the
population reference bureau). At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children
per household, that comes to 108 million homes, presuming there is at least
one good child in each.

Santa has about 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different
time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming east to west (which seems
logical). This works out to 967.7 visits per second. This is to say that for
each Christian household with a good child, Santa has around 1/1000th of a
second to park the sleigh, hop out, jump down the chimney, fill the
stocking, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever
snacks have been left for him, get back up the chimney, jump into the sleigh
and get onto the next house.

Assuming that each of these 108 million stops is evenly distributed around
the earth (which, of course, we know to be false, but will accept for the
purposes of our calculations), we are now talking about 0.78 miles per
household; a total trip of 75.5 million miles, not counting bathroom stops
or breaks. This means Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second --
3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man
made vehicle, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a pokey 27.4 miles per
second, and a conventional reindeer can run (at best) 15 miles per hour.

The payload of the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that
each child gets nothing more than a medium sized LEGO set (two pounds), the
sleigh is carrying over 500 thousands tons, not counting Santa himself. On
land, a conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even
granting that the "flying" reindeer can pull 10 times the normal amount, the
job can't be done with eight or even nine of them -- Santa would need
360,000 of them. This increases the payload, not counting the weight of the
sleigh, another 54,000 tons, or roughly seven times the weight of the Queen
Elizabeth (the ship, not the monarch).

Six hundred thousand (600,000) tons traveling at 650 miles per second
creates enormous air resistance -- this would heat up the reindeer in the
same fashion as a spacecraft re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead
pair of reindeer would adsorb 14.3 quintillion joules of energy per second
each. In short, they would burst into flames almost instantaneously,
exposing the reindeer behind them and creating deafening sonic booms in
their wake.

The entire reindeer team would be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a
second, or right about the time Santa reached the fifth house on his trip.
Not that it matters, however, since Santa, as a result of accelerating from
a dead stop to 650 m.p.s. in .001 seconds, would be subjected to
acceleration forces of 17,000 g's. A 250-pound Santa (which seems
ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of the sleigh by 4,315,015
pounds of force, instantly crushing his bones and organs and reducing him to
a quivering blob of pink goo. Therefore, if Santa did exist, he's dead now.

tulc(hope that helped)

 

[tulc]

Doesn't there seem a lot of these zombie threads popping up lately?
tulc(who loves zombie movies!)

 

[CShephard53]

Happy Holidays

No. Merry CHRIST-mas. Say it with me now. CHRISTMAS. C'mon. Christmas.

Seriously, people of all ages value the truth above a lie- frosted with song the lies may be.