Comments on: Santa http://barelyenough.org/blog/2005/12/santa/ Wed, 07 Jan 2009 04:04:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: Peter Williams http://barelyenough.org/blog/2005/12/santa/#comment-514 Peter Williams Mon, 19 Dec 2005 17:35:29 +0000 http://pezra.barelyenough.org/blog/?p=190#comment-514 <p>Sam, you are certainly correct that two year olds do not understand reality and fantasy the same way that adults do. In fact, Elliot barely understands Christmas this year.</p> <p>This whole delimma actually has very little to do with my son directly. After all, he is quite unlikely to remember anything before the age of five by the time he is an adult. And I do not think that him believing in Santa, or not, will damage him. It is more a matter of how one should implement one's system of morals. And in this case my moral system is in conflict with itself. (It occurs to me now that the conflict might indicate a bug. :)</p> Sam, you are certainly correct that two year olds do not understand reality and fantasy the same way that adults do. In fact, Elliot barely understands Christmas this year.

This whole delimma actually has very little to do with my son directly. After all, he is quite unlikely to remember anything before the age of five by the time he is an adult. And I do not think that him believing in Santa, or not, will damage him. It is more a matter of how one should implement one’s system of morals. And in this case my moral system is in conflict with itself. (It occurs to me now that the conflict might indicate a bug. :)

]]> By: Sam http://barelyenough.org/blog/2005/12/santa/#comment-513 Sam Mon, 19 Dec 2005 15:23:38 +0000 http://pezra.barelyenough.org/blog/?p=190#comment-513 <p>A two-year old doesn't really distinguish between fantasy and reality the same way adults do. Whether Santa is real or not is a non-issue for a couple years yet. As to Santa's bringing presents... that can be trickier. My son just turned three and I find myself asking the same questions you are.</p> <p>The way I've dealt with Santa so far is not to shy away from telling stories about him or that involve him, but also not to do anything that contributes to the Santa hype. So far Santa and the gifts are just a small part of the whole Christmas experience, and I aim to keep it that way. Stories we read or songs we sing with our son may tell about Santa bringing gifts, but we don't turn around and tell our son that Santa's bringing <em>him</em> presents. We just matter-of-factly move onto the next story or song. If his grandparents sign gifts "From Santa," it should be no stranger to him than if were to get presents from any other characters he reads about. Because again, whether Santa is "real" is a total non-issue for kids this age.</p> <p>Now, as he gets older I don't know how we'll handle it, but I hope that we can just keep doing the same thing with minor variations: yes, Santa's there but is not a big part of the season.</p> A two-year old doesn’t really distinguish between fantasy and reality the same way adults do. Whether Santa is real or not is a non-issue for a couple years yet. As to Santa’s bringing presents… that can be trickier. My son just turned three and I find myself asking the same questions you are.

The way I’ve dealt with Santa so far is not to shy away from telling stories about him or that involve him, but also not to do anything that contributes to the Santa hype. So far Santa and the gifts are just a small part of the whole Christmas experience, and I aim to keep it that way. Stories we read or songs we sing with our son may tell about Santa bringing gifts, but we don’t turn around and tell our son that Santa’s bringing him presents. We just matter-of-factly move onto the next story or song. If his grandparents sign gifts “From Santa,” it should be no stranger to him than if were to get presents from any other characters he reads about. Because again, whether Santa is “real” is a total non-issue for kids this age.

Now, as he gets older I don’t know how we’ll handle it, but I hope that we can just keep doing the same thing with minor variations: yes, Santa’s there but is not a big part of the season.

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