Do you lie about santa to your kids

[qikcpa]

When my daughter comes up and says the kid down the street says there is no santa, am I lying when I say "of course there is. He was just bad this year and his parents didnt want to tell him santa wasnt bringing him any toys." Does this set a precedent for the use of future white lies?

[Superman]

That's a very interesting subject. for some parents this is hard. You are lying, and you know your lie will be discovered. When it is, the child learns that he has been deceived by the two people on Earth that were considered trustworthy. A house of cards falls.

He or she also learns that lies are okay if the purpose is okay. Like in the case of Santa, the purpose is amusement. Interesting little lesson we make sure all kids learn.

[gaijinda]

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the scepticism of a sceptical age. They do not believe except 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 child-like 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 you 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 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.

[Z-man]

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT SANTA DOESN'T EXSIST?!?!?

I think I need to call my therapist....
-Z.

[71T Targa]

When my kids were about three and four they told their Grandma (my Mom) that they knew there wasn’t a Santa, and it was just Mom and Dad. She said “Then how did Santa come to my house when I was a kid? Your Mom and Dad weren’t even born yet…” That kept them for another couple of years.

[adrian jaye]

i'M WITH z-MAn

santa is a well wicked doode, and he exists

cepting I just been a bad homie, and dont get no pressies

[RickM]

Santa is like god. He's there.....may not really be an old man living "up above" (Heaven vs North Pole), but he's there.

[mattdavis11]

Anyone ever catch Dad eating Santa's cookies? I did, it pissed me off to no end. I was maybe 4-5 at the time, did one of these , and back to bed I went. Santa must have been pissed. That was a ****ty Christmas. Dad didn't do that again.

[Moneyguy1]

My kids are grown and still believe. Father Christmas, St. Nick or whatever you call him was described as a spirit that can enter every person if invited, causing them to feel the joy and reverence associated with the season. It still works for me.

[Z-man]

Sorry for the long post, but I thought this would be appropriate to point out here:

Someone sent me this many years ago
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
thousand 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. Merry Christmas, everybody.

My response:
I believe there is a completely logical explanation of the Santa Dilemma:

Simply put, Santa Clause accepted Einstein's theory of relativity and is
the first person to actually apply the rules! Let me explain by pointing out
several details of relativity and how Santa used them to his benefit.

The first and most obvious point is the weight of Santa, the sled, and the reindeer.
The driving equation of relativity is:
E = MC^2 (Energy = Mass times the speed of light squared)
This equation is derived from the old Newtonian understanding of force:
F = Ma (Force = mass times acceleration)
As one accelerates, one's mass becomes greater. (If you stomp on your accelerator in your car,
your body is pushed back into the seat: you become heavier, so to speak.)
How does this relate to Santa? Simple: to travel the speed of light, one requires infinite mass.
It is stated (above) that Santa needs to travel some 3,000 times the speed of sound. Well, his
setup (sleigh, reindeer, sleigh gear, presents, himself...etc) may not be infinite mass, but
it sure weighs a lot: and according to relativity, he has enough mass to travel at a decent clip.

The second point I wish to make is this: by applying the theory of relativity, Santa's position
on earth can be explained the following way:
The 'classic' wormhole theory: Santa, by applying relativity and travelling at such great
velocities, is able to rip holes into the time and space fabric of reality, thus seemingly being
at more than one place at the same time. One way to visualize this is to picture Santa as a deflated
balloon in a corner of an empty aquarium. As the balloon is inflated, it occupies the whole
tank. Did the balloon move from it's original spot? No. Did the balloon move to another spot in the
tank? Yes. Paradox? NO! Expanding balloons in aquariums happen in real life. Expanding Santas?
Of course: that is why every good child knows to leave Santa a snack: they are just helping
Santa and his application of the theory of relativity.

Finally, I wish to address the 14.3 Quintillion joules of energy that is produced in Santa's
wake. That is simply the left side of the equation:
E = MC^2
Of course Santa will produce that kind of energy at the speeds he is travelling. But we must
not forget that in relativity, everything remains in balance: electrons, protons, neutrons, mesons,
meumesons: all the elements of the building blocks of nature must be balanced. In other words,
if Santa is going to be doing all this relativity-worm-hole-speed-of-light stuff, there's got to be a
payback somewhere! So he fries a couple of flying reindeer every holiday season! (That,
incidentally, explains Rudolf's red nose...) Yes, PETA (The People for the Ethical Treatment
of Animals) and other animal rights activists can be upset, but they are mostly atheists:
if they don't believe in God, how could they possibly believe in Santa?

So I ask you: Is there a Santa Claus? Can he apply relativity where others have just theorized?
Has he unlocked the key to the universe? Most importantly: why can't he remember my shirt size
year after year? I have no conclusion: just that things aren't always as they seem...

Then again, Einstein was Jewish, and Santa surely wouldn't have visited him!

[tabs]

Mother and Daddy assure me that Santa does indeed exist! So how dare you Liberals cast aspersions on Santa..is that part of the Liberal agenda to secularize the world. First it is Nativity scenes and NOW SANTA! Do you want to abolish Christmas alltogether for the advancement of socialistic athesim...I say the RED in the red States stands for Santa....

[tabs]

Well I'll tell you one thing Z man Santa sure has been missing my house for a number of years....I first really noticed it when I joined the Registry and started talking about the R Gruppe...hmmmm do you think that could have anything to do with it.

[Mike(dat's me)]

I'm not sure how many kids actually resent the fact that they were "decieved" in order to be lavished upon with presents and fun toys.

I occasionally get a little jealous of ole Santa. I work, I earn money, I buy presents, he gets the credit. Grrrrrrrrr.

Anyways, when all three of my children reached the age to come to me and say "There's no Santa", I would just reply "Then there's no presents!"

For years to come, and even now, they would all be in bed early Christmas eve waiting for Santa to come...

Who doesn't want to be a part of hope, feeling good and happiness?

[Mike(dat's me)]

And who's this dang Virginia person? Probably sleeping by the end of that speech.... :P

[RickM]

And to think, I tell my daughter that I meet Santa for lunch to discuss how good she's been. You should see the letters she crafts for me to bring along...truly precious.

[gaijinda]

As for lying - the first one who does not do it should stone himself. Mrs. Jones from next door brings over cookies that taste like dog biscuits? Give them to the dog and tell her how good they were..

Aunt Harriet cutting into your play time with the same old boring stories? Laugh anyway and hope that someone listens to you in your dotage..

[Moneyguy1]

I still cherish letters written to the jolly old elf by my kids almost 30 years ago. There is no danger in the belief of a spirit that brings good feelings and charitable thoughts. The original St Nicholas is considered a real individual. Look it up. Does that spirit still exist? Only if you are willing to forget logic and look for the "magic". Those who do not have a right to do so. I, for one, believe there is a lot of "magic" in the universe, based upon the quote:

"Any technology, sufficiently advanced from your own will appear as magic". Arthur C. Clarke and others in slightly different forms.

Clarke also said: "The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them to the impossible".

Then, there is Oppenheimer: "There is no place for dogma in science.The scientist is free to ask any question, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any error. Where science has been used in the past to erect a new dogmatism, that dogmatism has found itself incompatable with the progress of science; and in the end, the dogma has yielded, or science and freedom have perished together".

I cannot count anything as impossible.

[adrian jaye]

go z-man go !

[dhoward]

Quite a few years back, my stepson Josh, decides that there was no Santa, and firmly stood by his decision. No amount of convincing could make him change his mind. Although his argument seemed quite airtight, and realizing that this would be the last year with any hope of keeping the tradition alive, I set about my scheme.
I had recently purchased a Furuno radar for my boat, but since it had turned cold, I decided to wait until spring to install it. I unpacked the unit in the kitchen all the while mumbling about the lack of timely Santa updates from NORAD. I mounted the radome outside on the deck and clamped the LCD on the kitchen counter. Josh continued about his business that day, but checked on my progress frequently. I went to the garage and constructed a reflector out of some sheet tin left over from an A/C duct, Tied it to a 10' piece of conduit and took it about 200 yards behind the house. I positioned the antenna to get a sharp target on the LCD and then called my brother Randy, explaining what I was up to. Always up for a little fun, and not having children of his own to screw with, he arrived with a 12-pack in minutes.
As darkness approached, Josh's curiosity got the better of him and he finally asked what I was doing. "Trying to get a better fix on Santa's position tonight" I said. My brother concurred.
At about 7:30, my brother walked out back and stuck the conduit in the ground, revealing a bright target amid the soft clutter on the LCD. "Holy *****", I exclaimed, "there he is!" Everyone gathered around the kitchen and looked. "That's not Santa ". "Well I have the antenna aimed up, but it's too low to be an airplane, so what else could it be?" The local news station corroborated my story throughout the evening, with Randy running back and forth to reposition "Santa". (It helped my cause to keep the beer in the back, also) Finally, and earlier than normal, Josh yawned a forced yawn, and declared he was tired and went to bed, with one final check on “Santa’s approach.
That was the last year for Josh and Santa, and may seem like a lot of work, but every Christmas Eve, we sit and recount the events of our 'radar' Christmas....

[mattdavis11]

Tabs, that's what you get for cleaning out the buffet line before he gets there time and time again. Santa must figure while you are waiting on his arrival, it's his only chance!