“The best part is knowing that when my children are grown, with children of their own, they will be able to share all these wonderful holiday memories with their own families,” said science teacher Paula Phillips.
December 25th is a magical day for all families that celebrate Christmas. The sights, sounds and smells of the holiday bring unique warmth to participating households.
But, is an old, overweight white man frolicking around your home in the wee hours of the morning really a myth that children should believe?
A sense of uneasiness always sat with me while I unraveled the colorful paper and untied the glittery bows on Christmas morning. Was this man real? Or was it just my parents trying to preserve my innocence and keep a family tradition alive?
Belief in Santa Claus sets rules for kids that they don’t even know are in place. When the catchy jingle says, “He’s making a list, checking it twice, going to find out if you’re Naughty or Nice,” it explains that you must be good for Santa Claus to bring you presents. That is a plus to this Santa Claus creature that people choose to tell their children. Many parents don’t think about the heartbreak that their children will have to go through, though, when they find out that St. Nick is a hoax.
Parents will go to any length to keep the magic in their kid’s eyes alive through the season. “My parents even dressed up my grandma like Santa Claus and had her place a present under the tree and took a picture to make me think it was real,” said sophomore Molly Antoon about how her parents kept the spirit of Christmas alive.
Persistent parents convince children to believe in something that is obviously a fairy tale. But what happens when they grow up and can’t believe in the trickery any longer?
“I was seven,” said freshman Josh Marc about when he found out about Santa Claus. Imagine telling a seven or eight year old child that the man in a big red suit who brought them presents and spread Christmas cheer isn’t real. Kids not only feel sad, but betrayed that the people they look up to most in life told them a huge lie just to preserve a characteristic that they haven’t even lost yet.
“Parents usually defend the Santa lie by saying that it’s just a story, like Snow White,” said Business Insider’s Pascal Emmanuel Gobry. “But there’s a difference between fiction and lying. When you tell your kids a story, they know it’s a story. They don’t believe it’s actually real. When kids play cops and robbers, even though they pretend otherwise — and that’s part of the fun! — they know they’re not actual cops and robbers. It’s not the same thing as a telling them a story. Telling stories is awesome. The Santa lie, however, is a lie.”
“It’s just a story.” Those three words are simply the defense system for the continual lie that parents tell to make their children stay innocent. But when does the story go too far? Innocence is something that can only be preserved for so long; lying to your children to preserve the twinkle in their eye should be outlawed.
“I was twelve,” said Antoon after telling just how much her parents wanted her to believe. Many kids these days “wouldn’t want to be deceived,” said junior Toni Cross, meaning that many of them would want to know the myth of Santa, but know that he wasn’t real from the get go.
Even though Santa Claus “is a boss,” said sophomore Jackson Auer, I feel the lie has gone too far and you shouldn’t try to contain your child’s purity with an absurd myth. Parents are using every single way to keep their children believing in something they can’t even see, and when the kids grow up, the magic of Christmas was so instilled in Santa Clause that when it is taken away, Christmas isn’t so fun anymore. “[Christmas] was more fun when I believed,” said sophomore Tori Silberbusch about her childhood experiences of Santa.
I’m not saying Santa shouldn’t be told. I feel strongly that Santa doesn’t just leave presents, but he leaves boat loads of tradition and holiday spirit.
The holiday spirit is spread through a sense of community; it’s the hot cocoa and the warm breeze that blows through your hair as you walk down Park Avenue with your friends. It is the twinkly lights that are hung from houses and the smell of pine that enriches the air. The myth of Santa should still survive and be told, but making children believe that he is real is a stretch.
